Warriors, 12-time All-Star agree to push guarantee date back two days
Golden State Warriors guard Chris Paul.
The Warriors and Chris Paul have agreed to push back his salary guarantee deadline from Friday to Sunday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Paul’s $30M salary for 2024-25 will now become fully guaranteed if he remains under contract through June 30 rather than June 28. The move will give Golden State a couple more days to continue exploring trades involving Paul’s expiring contract.
Paul, who turned 39 in May, remained productive in 2023-24, averaging 9.2 points, 6.8 assists and 3.9 rebounds in 26.4 minutes per game in 58 appearances (18 starts) for the Warriors. He posted a shooting line of .441/.371/.827.
While those are solid numbers for a backup point guard, they don’t warrant a $30M investment. Still, rather than simply waiving the 12-time All-Star, the Warriors have been scouring the trade market to see if they can use his expiring salary to accommodate a trade.
The NBA’s salary-matching rules only count the guaranteed portion of a player’s cap hit for outgoing purposes in a trade (his incoming value for a trade partner would be his full $30M), so in order to use CP3 as a trade chip, Golden State will have to partially or fully guaranteed the contract. That scenario would benefit Paul, who wouldn’t make any of that $30M otherwise if he’s waived, so he has some incentive to lend the Warriors a hand by giving them more time to find a deal.
Paul George is one possible trade candidate who has been linked to the Warriors this week, with Marc Stein reporting on Substack that Golden State has been “prioritizing the pursuit of George above all other business.” The Clippers forward would have to pick up his 2024-25 player option and request a trade for that to be a feasible possibility.
What happens with Paul could have an impact on the Warriors’ negotiations with Klay Thompson. The team will be hard-capped at the second tax apron in 2024-25 after agreeing to send out cash in a trade on Thursday, so there may not be room under that apron to acquire another player with a significant salary and then re-sign Thompson.
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