The Golden State Warriors just won a championship, and are going to be looking to win another this season. They will want to keep their winning squad together as best they can, and took a step towards that goal today with the signing of 32-year old guard Leandro Barbosa.
Veteran guard Leandro Barbosa has agreed to a one-year, $2.5 million contract to stay with the NBA champion Golden State Warriors, league sources told ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne.
Barbosa, once so fast that he earned the nickname “Brazilian Blur,” has slowed down significantly with age. However, he’s still fairly quick, and was a valuable contributor for the Warriors off the bench last season, averaging 7.1 points on 47.4% shooting from the field and 38.4% from 3-point range.
Barbosa has always been a contributor off the bench; he won the Sixth Man of the Year award in 2007 for the Phoenix Suns. Barbosa isn’t the most crucial member of the Warriors by any means, but the team found a huge amount of success this season, so why change anything about the roster?
The Warriors’ competition in the West got a lot fiercer this week, due to the rapid improvement of the San Antonio Spurs. First, they signed LaMarcus Aldridge, and then today they signed David West. Quite an upgrade from Aron Baynes and Tiago Splitter.
Given the improvement of the Spurs and the excellence of the Warriors last season, it’s very difficult to say who should be considered the favorites in the West, but it should definitely be one of those two teams.
