Draymond Green has headlined the Warriors' offseason after declining his player option for the 2023-24 NBA season, but another piece of Golden State's core was thrown into a recent trade proposal.
The Ringer's Bill Simmons suggested a peculiar trade that would send Klay Thompson, who's eligible for a contract extension this summer, to Golden State's Northern California neighbor.
"What would happen if the Kings called the Warriors and said, 'We'll give you [Kevin] Huerter for Klay?' You'd save $27.3 million this year plus all the tax stuff," Simmons said on his podcast. "And we have the cap room that we could actually do that trade because we're so far under, we could trade Huerter and we'll take back Klay. We'll take back the last Klay year and then we'll figure out some extension with him.
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"And now we have one of the three Warriors, take us seriously. Klay Thompson is now on the Sacramento Kings."
The four-time champion enters the final year of his five-year, $190 million Warriors contract. But if Golden State wants to bring Green back and make him an offer in free agency, both would need to take a pay cut to remain in the Bay.
Plus, Simmons believes Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé's former Warriors ties could help make it happen.
Last week, the Kings traded their first-round draft pick to clear salary cap space. They now have about $35 million in cap space to make a big splash in free agency.
Golden State Warriors
Huerter, who is entering the second year of his four-year contract, $65 million contract, is owed $15.6 million in 2023-24.
Both Thompson and Huerter are known for their sharpshooting. They most recently came face-to-face in the first round of the playoffs when the Warriors defeated the Kings in an intense NorCal showdown that went all the way to Game 7.
In his first season with the Kings, Hurter averaged 12.2 points on 44.4 percent shooting from the field and 38.5 percent from 3-point range while Thompson, in his 12th season with the Warriors, averaged 19.8 points on 45.4 percent shooting from the field and 41.6 percent from downtown.
Thompson has said he'd love to retire a Warrior, but at the end of the day, it's the NBA. And like Simmons' trade proposal, things can get bizarre once free agency begins.