That didn’t actually end up being the case, as Harrell signed a two-year, veteran’s minimum with the 76ers. I wanted the Warriors to sign Harrell last offseason, but figured that even with his drug-related legal issues someone would give him considerably more than the Dubs could offer. The reclamation project: Montrezl Harrell I completely missed that Love had already re-signed with the Heat. Love would be a really good and fun fit, but the way he played for the Miami Heat last year almost surely played him out of Golden State’s price point. So there’s really no possible way for the Warriors to sign him. He falls into this category because he’s a restricted free agent for a team (the Philadelphia 76ers) that wants to keep him. Reed is not nearly as good or as proven as Wood, but he’s a really good defensive player. Honorable mentions: Paul Reed, Kevin Love It’s also why someone will offer Wood significantly more money and/or minutes than the Warriors can. And that’s exactly what you get with a hyper-efficient 27-year old rim-runner with a silky smooth three-point shot. He’s a bad defensive player, but as Steve Kerr has pointed out, the Warriors need improvements on the offensive side of things, not the defensive side. He shot 37.6% from three-point range, which is actually below his career average. But he was still pretty darn good, averaging 16.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game, despite playing just 25.9 minutes a night. Wood didn’t have his best season last year for the Dallas Mavericks, as he finished off his three-year, $41 million contract. Here are a handful of free agent big men for the Dubs to take a look at as they seek to fill out their roster in the pursuit of a fifth championship in 10 years. Šarić would be a fantastic addition to the Warriors, but there are directions for them to pivot if he ends up choosing a different team. They were reportedly close to signing sharpshooting big Dario Šarić, but his free agency is now on hold while the fate of Damian Lillard gets determined. Still, the Warriors will look to compound Green and Looney’s existence by adding a big in free agency. like Looney and Draymond Green, for instance. The only ways to solve a size issue are to hope you nab a few of them, hope you nab one of the best of them, or find players who can play above their size. The reality is that, in any given year, there are fewer than two players per team that are 6’10” or taller and good enough to deserve frequent playing time. That number expands to 106 if we include people 6’10” and above, but only 38 of those players had more minutes last year than Jonathan Kuminga. Only 20 of them played in at least half of their team’s games, and only 10 of them started in at least half of their team’s games. 34 of them were 7-footers, which equates to about one per team. To wit: 679 players stepped on an NBA court last year. That’s a very small group to be pulling players from, before we consider that many of those are not at an NBA age. We can clamor for 7-footers all we want, but the reality is that the CDC estimates that there are fewer than 3,000 7-footers in the world. Basketball may be a tall person’s sport, but existence is not a really tall person’s sport. Turns out that’s not the easiest thing to do. So if the Warriors do want to address their lack of size, it will have to come through free agency or a trade. The Warriors haven’t really addressed that issue yet this offseason, though they took a step in that direction when they drafted Trayce Jackson-Davis, a player who might technically be shorter than the player he was traded for (Patrick Baldwin Jr.), but who, thanks to his muscle, size, and basketball skills, plays like a big man compared to Baldwin’s perimeter-oriented game.īut we know that we can’t count on a rookie to contribute, even a 23-year old four-year college player. won a title a year ago with Kevon Looney as their only honest-to-goodness big - but it’s easy to understand why people have those concerns. We can question just how valid the concerns are - I’m always quick to point out that they, you know. For the last few years, there’s been a call from fans for the Golden State Warriors to sign a big man in free agency.
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