Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut spoke to Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle, and discussed the Warriors’ upcoming free agents — namely Marreese Speights and Harrison Barnes. Bogut believes both of the two will demand big money this summer, especially Barnes. From Simmons:
The Warriors’ center said “somebody’s going to pay (Marreese Speights) a lot of money, and hopefully, it’s us,” and offered an extended pitch for fourth-year forward Harrison Barnes.
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“Someone is probably going to give [Harrison Barnes] the max. Let’s be honest. Someone is going to give him close to the max. There’s always a small-market team that would love someone like Harrison as their No. 1 or No. 2 option. I don’t think it’s going to having any bearing on his financial future. I think people know that everyone on this team is more valuable than their contract says – just on the basis of what they’ve given up.”
Bogut is right, to a certain degree. Of course a team with chemistry as good as the Warriors has players doing less than they are capable of to fill roles. However, the downside of this is that Barnes has never been a number 1 option in the NBA before. Giving him a max contract(or close to it) will be considered risky since teams can’t be 100% sure that he can handle a star role.
