Myers will worry about Dubs' looming tax bill ‘next season'

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Bob Myers wouldn't take the bait.

Shortly after announcing that the Warriors had signed Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins to four-year contract extensions, Myers was asked about the looming luxury-tax bill the team could face when those deals kick in next season.

"I see the comments on our future," Myers told reporters Sunday at Chase Center. "I'm well aware of what the numbers are but what I would say to everyone is that's next season and this is this season and we can't play next season now."

With Poole and Wiggins locked up through the 2026-27 season, the Warriors are facing a good problem to have, in a sense: They have too many good players who will command top dollar.

The issue for the Warriors next summer is Draymond Green's $27.6 million player option for the 2023-24 season. If he exercises that and stays with the only NBA teams he has ever known, Golden State's salary and luxury-tax bill will be an estimated $483 million, per ESPN's Bobby Marks. Any additional roster moves would push the price tag toward $500 million.

That's a number Warriors CEO Joe Lacob has said simply isn't possible, but it's a reality the Warriors are facing after re-signing Poole and Wiggins.

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"If you would have asked me a year ago today if we would be paying Poole and Wiggins this, I probably would not have believed you," Myers said. "So we have to take it year to year. I can't evaluate what we're going to do next offseason until we see what happens this season, and whatever it is, it is. I just know this. There's a huge commitment to winning. There always has been. I imagine there always will be and I'm lucky to be in a group that believes that. Their actions prove it, so we'll see what happens this season and go from there."

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The Warriors' roster for the 2022-23 season will cost Lacob and the ownership group roughly $372 million, per Spotrac. Next year's total could blow that out of the water if Green decides to stay. And after a turbulent two weeks in which he was fined for punching Poole during practice, opting in might be the best scenario for the four-time NBA All-Star.

Green will cross that bridge when he gets to it next summer, and Myers and the Warriors will have to sort through everything once dust settles. Will Lacob approve a $500 million payroll? Time will tell.

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