When it was reported that Andre Iguodala agreed to sign with the Golden State Warriors last Friday, most assumed that the move was made by the front office with a bigger picture in mind: to lure super free agent Dwight Howard into joining the team.
That didn’t quite pan out, obviously, which left plenty wondering if the Warriors really just gave up the rights to Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry, as well as future draft picks all for the service of one Iguodala. Some may question if the end result was worth it all, but as you’ll learn from the all-knowing Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, all may not be lost if they can acquire Iguodala via sign-and-trade rather than sign him straight up as a free agent:
The Golden State Warriors are in advanced discussions on a three-way, sign-and-trade scenario centered on delivering a trade exception and Utah Jazz free agent Randy Foye to the Denver Nuggets, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
In the deal, which could be finalized on Monday, Denver would sign-and-trade forward Andre Iguodala to Golden State for the four-year, $48 million contract he had agreed to sign with the Warriors. This would create a $12 million trade exception that the Nuggets would have a full year to use before it expires.
Utah would sign-and-trade Foye to Denver on a three-year, $9 million deal, with a team option on the third season, sources said.
The sign-and-trade would give the Warriors the salary cap flexibility to sign their 2013 first-round pick, Serbian Nemanja Nedovic, and preserve the Warriors’ midlevel salary exception. Golden State would send Utah a future second-round pick for its role in facilitating the deal.
It’s a rather complex deal, but one that looks to benefit all parties involved in their respective future planning. If you want further details, Marcus Thompson of Bay Area News Group can explain it much better than I can:
The trade with the Jazz drops the Warriors salary cap number down to about $48 million including the non-guaranteed contracts of Murphy, Kent Bazemore, Scott Machado and Dwayne Jones. But with the cap holds of guard Jarrett Jack ($8.1 million), Carl Landry ($4.8 million) and draft pick Nemamja Nedovic, the Warriors are still considered over the cap.
Previously, the plan was to renounce Jack and Landry — and possibly cut the non-guaranteed contracts of Murphy, Machado and Jones — to get the Warriors under the cap enough to sign Iguodala to a four-year, $48 million. But doing that would leave the Warriors with ZERO cap space. What’s more, they would have had to give up their mid-level exception, rookie exception and the trade exceptions they received from Utah. Golden State would only have minimum contracts and a $2.6 million “room exception” to fill out its roster.
To prevent that, the Warriors instead will sign-and-trade for Iguodala. This prevents renouncing Jack and Landry and their exceptions. (Though both have already agreed to sign elsewhere. Though not official, don’t expect either to come back to GSW) The Nuggets will also get Foye from Utah in a sign-and-trade (for three years, $9 million, per the Deseret News). The Warriors will send another second-round pick (2018) to Utah.
Onto other news from around the league:
The Warriors will also sign Marreese Speights to a multi-year deal, from Thompson: “The Warriors have agreed to a deal with free agent big man Marreese Speights. Sources confirm reports that the 6-foot-10, 245-pound big man will get a multi-year deal from Golden State, which he will officially be able to sign when the moratorium ends on July 10. ESPN’s Marc Stein was first to report agreement. Yahoo! Sports’ Marc Spears reported it is a three-year deal. Speights, 25, a five-year vet spent last season with Cleveland. He averaged a career-high 10.2 points on 45.7 percent shooting with 5.1 rebounds. While playing for Memphis, Speights gave the Warriors fits off the bench with his physicality. He is known for a having a midrange jumper and a mean streak.”
