Kawakami: Inside the Warriors’ failed bid for Paul George, and Klay Thompson’s inevitable departure

You don’t have to wait for documentaries and years of context to understand this: Saturday night’s events will go down as the defining moment of a season at the threshold of a rather important part of Golden State Warriors history.

Initial analysis: Not good so far! (But check back in a week or so for a final verdict.)

Klay Thompson is ready to join a free agent, and barring any dramatic changes in mood, the Warriors and Thompson are fully prepared for his imminent departure from the San Francisco Bay Area. An NBA source indicated this week that Clay and high-ranking members of the Warriors organization were fully prepared for his departure.

Also, Paul George, the Warriors’ main acquisition target this offseason, has served out the final year of his contract with the Los Angeles Clippers and become an unrestricted free agent, cutting off any realistic path for the Warriors because they don’t have the salary cap space to sign him as a free agent.

This came after very serious negotiations between the Warriors, George and the Clippers throughout the Saturday afternoon deadline to decide on George’s contract and after the Warriors believed — multiple times — that they were close to signing the 34-year-old small forward, team sources said.

The Warriors had agreed to a four-year, maximum contract extension for George when he arrived. They believed they had proposed several forms of trade that the Clippers would accept. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green were 100 percent on board. George had given strong indications that he wanted to join the Warriors. But the Clippers never agreed to any form of trade, and George is now a free agent and out of the Warriors’ reach.

That’s a lot to mention, all before the start of the free transfer window on Sunday. Current statistics indicate that the Warriors are on the verge of losing one of their three leading players and one of the most popular athletes in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the team has not acquired the great winger it was seeking, as Andrew Wiggins has been stuck among other players in trade talks, and the team should He now has to decide whether to guarantee Chris Paul’s $30 million contract for next season, and see if he can move him in a trade.

There are no net gains. One basic loss. There is a lot to do. And all that’s at stake is the final stretch of Carrie’s heyday.

Let’s take a look at what’s happened over the past few days point by point and how it sets up what the Warriors will try to do next:

• Any potential PG13 deal between the Warriors and Clippers is always going to be complicated, but Warriors executives thought they had solved the puzzle. From what I’ve heard, a combination (but certainly not all) of Wiggins, CP3, Jonathan Kuminga or Moses Moody plus a future first-round pick are in discussions with the Clippers.

There have been releases that would limit the Clippers’ long-term financial liability. There have been versions that will increase future benefits. I’m told the Warriors probably wouldn’t have put Wiggins and Kuminga together on any offer, but it also never came to that point anyway. If this is what might seal the deal… who knows.

I think the financial concerns were weighing heavily on the Clippers. If PG13 leaves as a free agent, they won’t get anything in return… but they’ll also be out of the second line and have more roster maneuverability.

• If the Warriors had put Kuminga in a package for George, that would have been a risk in itself. The Warriors would have traded their most valuable young player for an older player with injury issues who would have been owed more than $260 million over the next five years, which would have essentially tied the Warriors up in the luxury tax.

But PG13 would have been an instant, elite scoring option at first base next to Curry, far better than anyone the Warriors have had in that role in years, and could have pulled off most of the tougher perimeter defensive assignments. Who will replace this shoe for the Warriors now? Maybe Kuminga will get some of that. Maybe Modi. Maybe Brandin Podzemski too. This is all a work in progress. The Boston Celtics have proven once again that playoff series are won by strong two-way wings, and the Warriors are still in dire need of that class. That’s why they tried so hard to get George.

• There will be time later to fully reflect on Thompson’s incredible legacy with the Warriors, and he deserves every one of them. Game 6 in Oklahoma City itself is probably worth about 100 of them. Get back to shooting free throws and disrupting the defense! – After he blew out his ACL in the 2019 Finals, he should have a thousand more memorials.

I’ll just point out, in retrospect, that a lot of his actions and emotions in the final few months of last season may have been signs that he was getting ready to move on, from his frequent press conference moments to his struggles to adjust to his game. His importance on the field was diminished that last night after the last regular-season game at Chase Center, when he wandered into the locker room and asked teammates to ride in his boat with him.

CP3 and Moody took it seriouslypartly because it was obviously an honor to get into that boat with Thompson, but also, I thought, because they knew it was important to him that night that they did it.

• Thompson didn’t like his experience last season, and he said so multiple times. He didn’t like being benched for so many games behind Podziemski. He didn’t like the questions we asked him about his future. He didn’t like the national attention he received for his occasional struggles, including, of course, his 0-of-10 shooting night in the Finals loss to the Sacramento Kings. truly I didn’t like that the Warriors put a higher priority on figuring out how to upgrade the roster than bringing him back this season.

By and large, I think Thompson didn’t like being compared to himself in another era, before his two major leg injuries, when he could guard anyone and turn any game into a personal piece of NBA shooting history. He wanted a fresh start. He’ll get one. He’s also coming to Chase Center with his new team and wants to beat the Warriors; Maybe not bitterly, maybe a little bitterly, but it will be fun to watch.

• Thompson likely wouldn’t be a starter if he stayed with the Warriors this season. It was supposed to be Podziemski. Or Moody. Or someone else. I’m not sure Thompson wanted to go through that again, and I suspect the Warriors wouldn’t like it either. It seems like a cold end to this incredible period, but it was inevitable.

The Warriors won’t be better without Thompson. They’ll miss his shooting, his personality, his sarcastic humor, everything. He’ll have a statue outside the arena. He’ll always be greeted warmly wherever there are Warriors fans. Yes, the Warriors will miss him. But they’ll get something in a sign-and-trade deal, with Thompson’s permission, when he leaves, and they probably won’t be much worse for it. They’ll be younger and maybe more athletic.

We’ll see what they can add in the next week or so.

• The Warriors could use CP3’s contract as a version of a trade exception — they could negotiate with Paul to put up the guarantee at any amount acceptable to both sides and use that to offset the trade, if there’s a good deal there.

If the Warriors can’t find a trade, they could release CP3, taking less than the salary cap (depending on what kind of money they would get back in a potential deal to sign Thompson). They can see what they can get for Wiggins. Right now, they would have a mid-level non-taxpayer exception of $5.2 million and could reach the non-taxpayer mid-level exception of $12.9 million if they moved Wiggins and got much less money in return.

• I’ll use another quote from Thompson from his end-of-season press conference to conclude this piece. Thompson was asked to give his reaction to Curry, Draymond and Steve Kerr’s statements in which they all expressed how much they wanted him back. Again, Thompson said those words in April, but they seem especially appropriate now.

“It means a lot,” Thompson said. “I mean, we’ve been through the highs and lows. Whether it’s losing a championship, winning a championship, not making the playoffs, we’ve been through it all together, so it means a lot. It makes me feel grateful for the times I got to spend with them. They were really historic moments.”

Yes it was. Past tense now.

(Top photo of Klay Thompson: Rocky Widener/NBAE via Getty Images)