So much for the Warriors’ culture being broken by Draymond Green’s punch.
I’d say it’s still pretty damn strong, considering that Jordan Poole signed a four-year extension worth up to $140 million on Saturday morning, and then, Saturday afternoon, Andrew Wiggins agreed to a new four-year, $109 million extension.
The two deals bolster the Warriors’ title chances for both this upcoming season and years to come.
Poole’s deal was market value. The Warriors and Poole struck a fair balance between past performance and future potential. If Poole becomes the heir apparent to Steph Curry, he will do it in a Warriors uniform.
Poole was sucker-punched by his veteran teammate earlier this month, but there is nothing but good vibes coming off that deal.
But it’s Wiggins’ new contract that shows this Warriors team operates at an entirely different level.
Wiggins isn’t much of a talker, but the value of his new deal speaks volumes about what Steph Curry, general manager Bob Myers and coach Steve Kerr have built over the last four years.
What the Warriors have is rare. So when Wiggins took as much as a 30% pay cut to stick with Golden State until his age-31 season, it’s anything but insignificant. It might even be unprecedented.
It’s one thing for Curry not to demand a renegotiation of his four-year, $44 million contract amid the Warriors’ early title hunts — despite his ascension to becoming the two-time league MVP.
It’s a whole other thing for Wiggins to turn his moment of peak leverage into less money.
This is the ultimate winning move. Tom Brady — who has famously taken less money in New England and Tampa Bay to improve the team around him (and win Super Bowls) — would approve.
Wiggins is in his prime. He’s coming off an incredible postseason where he was the second-most-valuable player on a championship team. And with all that working for him, he’s forgoing unrestricted free agency and passing up big money on what is likely his last big-money contract.
While it no doubt helps that Wiggins will have made nearly $200 million by the time his new deal kicks in next season, this deal means that no one can ever question this man’s desire to win again. He’s now above reproach.
Not once in any of the four years on Wiggins’ new contract will he make as much as he will this season ($33.6 million).
He won’t make as much as he did last season ($31.6 million).
He’ll make less than what he did as a 23-year-old. He’ll make less than Poole — a player who has achieved less than him as a professional — moving forward.
And he signed this deal with full knowledge of those facts and a smile on his face.
Why? Because after roaming for years, Wiggins has found a basketball home. The Warriors took a chance on him — it paid off handsomely for all parties. Yet it’s Wiggins giving money back.
Once considered the most overpaid player in the league, he’ll likely be the league’s most underpaid player under his new deal.
But in taking a pay cut, the chances that the Warriors will be able to keep all their top players — Klay Thompson and Draymond Green were on the chopping block because of luxury tax concerns — significantly increased.
Before Wiggins’ extension, the Warriors were guaranteed to lose a ‘max contract’ spot at the end of this season — the luxury tax on all those deals was simply too punitive to manage.
So Wiggins decided that he no longer needed to be a max player.
The luxury-tax problem isn’t solved, but it can be managed, and that’s a huge win for the Dubs.
With Wiggins’ signature, he saved the Warriors roughly $50 million in luxury tax for the 2023-24 season — the first of Poole and Wiggins’ new deals. The Warriors will still be paying roughly $480 million if everyone sticks around, but with this team’s revenue, that might be doable.
And if the Warriors can find a way to keep the gang together for another season after that, the NBA will likely see a massive spike in the salary cap, thanks to new media deals. That spike might alleviate significant luxury tax concerns.
Forget “Two-Way” Wiggs. This man is elite at offense, defense and accounting. That’s “Three-Way” Wiggs, to me.
Ultimately, it comes down to a simple truth: it’s all about championships. That’s something Curry, Kerr and Myers believe to their cores.
Wiggins showed Saturday that he does, too.
And with him and Poole locked up for years to come, the Warriors are in a position to repeat as champions this season and for many years to come.
