This season's Golden State Warriors are the most surprising team, after all, even the owner Lacob admits that he thinks the team's ceiling is only the Western Conference Finals. After two years of dormancy, the cosmic courage that had terrified the entire alliance in the past had returned.
But the current Warriors, strong and strong, also have their own troubles - luxury taxes and player salaries combined, accounting for $350 million a year. Lacob, who started with venture capital, is the seventh-to-last in the league for his 1.2 billion, not even as good as Joe's 1.6 billion worth, for him, money is not blown by the wind, and it is not easy to bear the historic luxury tax for a long time based on love.
Here it highlights the shortcomings of the warriors' operating ideas that the core of the team, Curry, Thompson and Green, have been dormant in the past two years since they were injured in 2019. Admittedly, because of the framework of the main lineup, griting teeth and not choosing to rebuild, the Warriors achieved the miracle of returning to the Finals after three years; But because three of the previous four years had paid luxury taxes, and this season's salaries were once again fixed above the luxury tax line, they triggered the super luxury tax clause, which would have to pay an additional 40 million super luxury taxes on top of the luxury tax of up to 130 million. Spending on luxury taxes alone is enough for Lacob to raise another NBA team.
To be sure, Looney, who has been working on the team for seven years and who played in the playoffs, will receive a new contract with an average salary of $8 million in the offseason as a reward, which, combined with his performance, is a reasonable price. Meanwhile, Poole, who has been a blockbuster this season, has the opportunity to get an early contract extension in the offseason, his contract can be up to 5 years and 177 million, if the Rose clause is triggered or the rookie clause is specified, then Poole's contract amount will further rise.
It should also be pointed out that the Warriors have only not crossed the luxury tax line in the 2019-20 season in the past four years, that is to say, if they do not consider reasonable tax avoidance, by the 2023-24 season, the big contracts of Curry, Thompson and Dreamcat, plus the 12 million in the last year of Wiseman's rookie contract, plus Poole's big contract, Cumminga, Moody's rookie contract and Looney's contract have basically exceeded the luxury tax line - the Warriors' super luxury tax is called a distant future.
Therefore, from a practical point of view, reducing player salary expenses through transactions is a more practical way to operate. Connor Leturnio, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, pointed out that if the Warriors choose to cut their salaries, then Wiggins will bear the brunt of being traded. On the stage of the Finals, Zuizu played the brightest moment of his career, and he proved to the world how powerful Wiggins, who had reawakened his love for basketball, was.
Considering that Brother Zui's contract still expires one year next season, he is in the contract year and proves himself in the finals, and he is undoubtedly at the highest point of transaction value. This means that his contract is more attractive than that of Teacher Green and Tang Shen, on the other hand, the Warriors management, who has always looked at the concubines and cherished their reputation, is unlikely to trade any member of the Iron Triangle. So from an operational point of view, if you want to escape the super luxury tax that follows, sending your brother to a team with salary space and can provide future draft picks is ideal.
However, Wiggins's performance this season is really too good, if the Warriors really want to seize the tail of Curry's peak and do a big job, the stability of the mouth brother on the offensive end and the role in the defensive end are simply irreplaceable. Trading the mouth brother is the first step to self-destruction of the Great Wall, if you do not move the mouth brother, then it is naturally impossible to reduce the expenditure of luxury taxes. This season has been successful enough, but the Warriors really have to choose between a dilemma. If you were Lacob, would you trade mouth brothers?