The Warriors are staring at a roster puzzle that still has a few loose pieces, and the biggest one might not even be one of their own free agents. Golden State has 10 players on standard contracts for the 2026-27 season, so four more spots still need to be filled. Two questions sit at the center of everything: whether the Warriors can pull off the LeBron James chase, and whether they’ll match the Grizzlies’ offer sheet for restricted free agent Quinten Post.
On James, the Cavaliers are viewed as the current favorite, and the Warriors don’t sound like a real destination. The longer he goes without deciding, the less it feels like money is driving the process. If he wanted the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception, he could have taken it from a contender like the Spurs, but that window has largely closed with the contenders who had the easiest path to it already using it.
That leaves Golden State with one real selling point: the Bay Area’s proximity to Los Angeles. But that edge doesn’t seem strong enough against the other factors that matter here - roster quality, how the move would be received, and the storyline if James were to win with a new team.
The Warriors don’t stack up well on those fronts. Their roster quality isn’t great, the reaction would be rougher if he chose the Bay than if he went elsewhere, and the “win it all somewhere else” angle would carry more weight with other contenders.
So the read here is that Cleveland gets him, even if the decision still feels unresolved. If that’s true, the Nuggets, 76ers and Timberwolves may have a better shot than most people think.
Post’s situation is more immediate. He signed a three-year, $30 million offer sheet on Monday, and Golden State has until 11:59 p.m.
ET on Tuesday to decide whether to match it. The number is a little richer than expected, but it isn’t outrageous for a 26-year-old with clean three-point mechanics and passable defense.
Still, matching it would come with real consequences. It would basically shut the door on offering James anything above a veteran minimum. Maybe that doesn’t matter if most contenders are only trying to get James on a minimum deal anyway, but then the question becomes why Golden State didn’t go higher for Anfernee Simons.
There’s also the fit issue. Post would be the team’s third-string center, and if the Warriors are going to spend above the veteran minimum, the better use of that money would be a wing defender or a playmaking guard.
Keeping Post at that price would also make the roster feel frozen in place. Even if James doesn’t come, it would be a hard sell to present that as meaningful change.
The Warriors do have some flexibility elsewhere. They don’t have a target worth anything close to the $15 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception, other than James, but they could use a slice of that exception to hand a free agent a one-year deal in the $4 million to $4.5 million range.
That’s where Williams comes in. At 24, he may still be looking at minimum offers, and a bump of roughly $1.5 million over the minimum could be enough to get him. He’s become a plus defender, and that’s exactly the kind of wing help Golden State needs.
Gary Payton II is expected to return on another one-year veteran minimum deal. The Warriors want to get younger, but at that price he’s too useful to let walk.
Draymond Green is another priority, and the Warriors will try to pay him as much as they can while staying under the $209 million first apron. A two-year, $34 million deal with a player option in the second season would fit.
LJ Cryer is already on a two-way contract, and Golden State could leave him there until he exhausts his NBA roster eligibility before converting him to a standard deal. But if the Warriors get too close to the first apron with Green’s contract, that kind of midseason conversion gets tricky. They might need to dump salary just to make room, and that’s not always easy even if it was when they traded Trayce Jackson-Davis to the Raptors.
One way around that is to give Cryer a standard contract from the start.
If the rest of the free-agent picture breaks the way it’s projected here, the Warriors would still need a third-string center, and that spot would have to be filled on a two-way deal. Graham Ike gets the nod there. He doesn’t stretch the floor, but he does bring power and touch around the rim.
Malevy Leons is already on a two-way contract for this season, and while his spot isn’t completely locked in, it feels likely he’ll be back.
The final two-way spot goes to Laje Jones, the 54th pick in the draft, as a developmental wing project.
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