Warriors Rumors: Team isn’t in severe financial trouble quite yet

The Golden State Warriors, despite rumors of the drastic cap reduction, don’t appear to be in a severe financial crisis. Well, they aren’t yet at least.

While many of the players may not want a return in Orlando in just about six weeks, the NBA may need it to keep from drastic salary cap reductions. For the Golden State Warriors, reducing that cap could, in turn, limit many of their potential offseason moves.

The Warriors have a mid-level exception valued at around $6 million and then a $17.2 million trade exception as well. It’s also important to note they have four players currently on max-value deals.

While the financial ramifications that’ll come from the coronavirus shutdown aren’t known fully, it’s expected that a drop in cap could hurt the Warriors as many of their players are already on long-term deals.

The luxury tax level likely won’t drop as steeply as the cap though, at least that seems like the assumption for now. If it does, that will brutally put some teams in a financial pickle as many will have little money heading into the offseason much like Golden State.

That said, according to The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami (subscription required), the team isn’t looking at too rough of a financial future with massive sponsorships and other revenue streams already set in place.

Having already put quite a bit into the new Chase Center Arena, Golden State’s resurgence as a franchise should help load Joe Lacob’s pockets, but in the meantime, he may have to stretch them once again if he feels those exceptions could help the team compete.

From a financial standpoint, those exceptions could bring back in the revenue that they were seeing while the team was one of the best in the league if that player makes enough of an impact. Along with a top draft pick, the buzz should return regarding the Warriors.

Overall, this team will be fine financially, but it will be a topic to consider moreso now than in the past.