He IS Back: Golden State Warriors are please to announce his arrival due to…

The Warriors won’t be able to sign a star if they let Klay Thompson depart.

Klay Thompson ought to be re-signed by the Golden State Warriors. That’s my stance, and I really do believe it. There are many folks who have totally different feelings than you. This post isn’t meant to persuade you to feel a different way; however, I will most likely write one of those articles tomorrow or later this week.

This is just an article to set the record straight on a bit of misinformation I’ve been seeing floating around Warriors fans as everyone sets about on the six-month mission of trying to figure out how to fix the team and get the Dubs back in contention. I’ve heard from a lot of fans who think the Warriors should move on from Thompson and use the money on a different high-profile player.

They cannot do that. For better (if you want Klay back) or for worse (if you’ve proposed such an idea), the Warriors cannot do that. Not because the free agency market is lacking, though it is. Not because a one-and-done postseason flameout will dissuade free agents from considering them a top tier destination, though that’s possible.

Because they, quite literally, cannot do that.

Let’s do some quick-and-dirty back-of-the-napkin math. Assuming Gary Payton II opts into his $9.13 million contract for 2024-25, the Warriors have eight players under contract for the upcoming season. That means letting the free agents — including Thompson — walk, letting the players with non-guaranteed team options (Gui Santos and Chris Paul) leave, and not picking up Kevon Looney’s partially-guaranteed deal.

The total of those four contracts? About $134 million. The salary cap for the upcoming season? $141 million.

As a CBA refresher, the Warriors are allowed to go over the salary cap — as they have for many years now, and appear prepared to do this year. They aren’t prohibited from going over the cap, they’re just penalized with a whole bunch of tax payments.

But they are prohibited from going over the cap to sign outside free agents, unless they’re on minimum contracts. If they want to spend heavy, it has to come from re-signing their own players — specifically, the ones whose Bird rights they have. If they want to get silly and give Thompson $40 million, they can do that. If they want to restructure Paul’s contract and bring him back for $15 million a year, that’s totally fine. But if they want to sign Pascal Siakam for even $8 million? No can do, pal.