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The NBA champion Golden State Warriors have a part of their nucleus locked up in Klay Thompson and now Draymond Green but the hard part comes next with Harrison Barnes the next player that is eligible to sign an extension of his rookie contract with the team between now and Halloween.
With Klay Thompson and Draymond Green locked in to multi-year deals they’ll obviously have to worry about signing Stephen Curry to an extension once his contract is up after the 2016-2017 season then the choice to retain Andrew Bogut and Andre Igoudala who should come at a lower cost thanks to age.
If the Warriors want to have the cap space and ability to make improvements they’ll have to figure out a price that Harrison Barnes feels is fair while keeping the teams salary cap in mind as well.
“I mean, we just won a championship,” Barnes said. “Of course I’d love to keep this group together for many years to come, you know what I’m saying? So that’s obvious….
“(Warriors co-owner) Joe Lacob has been obviously very vocal about keeping the team together, so therefore I’m not really too concerned about how it’s going to shake out.”
In Harrison Barnes’ 3 seasons he has played in 241 games proving he has the durability, and has improved his three point percentage shooting 40% last season and his field goal percentage shooting 48%.
Harrison Barnes is not asked to carry a heavy scoring load, but if Andre Iguodala were to take a smaller role once he does eventually leave I can see Barnes taking on a bigger role and flourishing.
Iguodala is the perfect mentor for Harrison Barnes and having head coach Steve Kerr also helps. If the team cannot extend Barnes they may be forced to trade the small forward, but the Warriors more than likely will hang onto Barnes to keep the young core intact.
