Financially “capped”
No pun intended, but the task of improving this roster will still face another hurdle as the Warriors are quite literally “capped” financially. Many assumed that should Durant choose to leave Golden State, for some reason the Warriors would have an extra amount of cap space to take a shot at some of the other free agents of the summer.
But that is not the case, as Golden State is still over the salary cap for the impending season, and thus would only be able to sign free agents to the mid-level exception and the veteran minimums. Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic makes note of this in his tweet:
The Warriors are still way over the cap of $109M. So they still only have MLE and vet minimums https://t.co/Ibo6iCSnXq
— Marcus Thompson II (@ThompsonScribe) June 30, 2019
So not only does Durant’s departure create a void on the court, but his exit does not make things any easier off of it. Without the big money to throw at potential impact rotations players, Golden State really needs to hit their mark and hope some of the under-the-radar free agents come to Golden State and make a big impact.