National Basketball Association
57 mins ago
Jordan Poole‘s name has been dominating NBA headlines as of late after being on the receiving end of a punch from teammate Draymond Green.
On Saturday, Poole’s name rose to the top of the NBA news cycle again, this time, for a different reason.
According to an ESPN report, Poole and the Golden State Warriors are finalizing a four-year, $140 million contract extension. A formal agreement is expected to come later in the day, per CAA Sports, the agency that represents Poole.
Extending Poole wasn’t the only deal that Golden State made on Saturday.
Later in the day, the Warriors and Andrew Wiggins came to terms on a four-year, $109 million extension, ESPN reported. The deal is on top of the $34 million Wiggins is set to make in the final year of his current deal.
The extensions of Poole and Wiggins come as Green’s future with the Warriors has been in question following his altercation with Poole. Like Poole and Wiggins, Green is also entering the final year of his current deal.
Poole was selected by the Warriors with the 28th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. He is coming off an exceptional season where he averaged a career-high 18.5 points, 4.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game while playing a pivotal role in Golden State’s run to an NBA title.
Poole enjoyed an outstanding 2022 postseason, which included scoring 20-or-more points seven times in 22 games.
Poole’s extension comes ahead of Monday’s deadline for members of the 2019 NBA Draft class.
As for Wiggins, he ended up making a big impact on the Warriors’ run to the title this past season. After averaging 16.5 points per game in the regular season, Wiggins scored 18.3 points and grabbed 8.8 boards per game while playing stout defense in Golden State’s six-game NBA Finals win over the Celtics.
The Warriors acquired Wiggins ahead of the trade deadline in 2020 in a deal with the Timberwolves that also saw them acquire the first-round pick that landed them Jonathan Kuminga.
Although the Warriors are keeping two of their star players, the financial commitments in the Bay Area are reaching new levels.
Following Saturday’s deals, the Warriors are projected to spend $483 million in salaries and the luxury tax in the 2023-24 season alone. They are the only NBA franchise with commitments currently topping $200 million, and they will be first in the league in payroll this season ($202.1M), next season ($234.2M) and the following season ($275.1M). Denver will be No. 1 in the 2025-26 season ($214.9M).
Steph Curry has the highest projected cap hit in the NBA for 2022-23 at $53.84 million, while Klay Thompson’s cap hit will land at $37.98 million (ninth among guards).
Golden State will be one of just two teams in the 2023-24 season to have two players among the top 12 cap hits in the league, in Curry ($51.92M, first) and Thompson ($43.22M, 12th), and once Poole’s deal kicks in, the Warriors will be one of just five teams to have three players making at least $30M AAV (average annual value) for the 2023-24 season, along with Milwaukee (Antetokounmpo, Middleton and Holiday), Philadelphia (Embiid, Harden and Harris), Phoenix (Booker, Ayton and Paul) and New Orleans (McCollum, Ingram and Williamson).
Read more:
Should the Warriors have suspended Draymond Green?
Draymond Green stepping away from Warriors after punching Jordan Poole
Warriors once again grappling with the duality of Draymond Green
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