Essentially, the Warriors’ three-year veteran just became a $16-million-a-year value, in a flash of other people’s contract agreements.
How nice for Thompson, right? He spends the first part of summer as the player Minnesota most wants—and the Warriors to this point will not surrender–in trade talks for Kevin Love.
And this week Thompson sees two other guys re-set the price for multi-dimensional young wing players in a boom-boom market.
If Thompson and his agent were contemplating a $12 million average (still pricey!) before the Parsons and Hayward deals, that’s outdated now.
Hayward got a “mini-max” $15.75-million average salary in his new deal while Parsons got a $15-million average, with Utah and Houston deciding whether to match those deals.
Thompson’s next deal has to start at his maximum level, which is estimated to be slightly more than $15 million next year for a player of Thompson’s experience level.
Has to start there, and has to average about $16-17 million overall, unless Thompson’s career collapses, which it probably won’t.
Does Thompson’s ballooning long-term price make it more likely that the Warriors would be willing to put him into a Love deal?
You’d initially think so.
How can they fit Love’s expected massive deal in with Thompson and all the rest, even if Lee deal goes to Minnesota in the projected trade?
Wouldn’t Thompson have to go, too?
But again, I’ve heard that the Warriors believe they don’t get into title contention with Love unless they keep Thompson, too.
I’m told the Warriors have done the spreadsheet work and believe Thompson can still be squeezed in.
Now this doesn’t mean that Thompson is untouchable… and if the details can be worked out, I believe the Warriors would consider putting Thompson into a Love offer… if that’s what it would take, ultimately. They wont like it, but they’d think about it.
Still, the Warriors front office is generally planning for many years with Thompson, that’s the word for now, and it includes Thompson at $16 million a year.
I think the Warriors can fit Thompson’s long-term money into this… only if they can move either Lee’s or Iguodala’s contract before then.
And if Love comes on board, it’d take the off-loading of both Lee (in the trade) and Iguodala (at some point) to fit Thompson’s new market rate, I believe.
That’s a lot of pieces all put in motion without Klay Thompson doing much of anything, except watch his stock price go through the roof.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2014/07/09/klay-thompsons-excellent-summer-continues/
