Podziemski Signs $110 Million Warriors Extension

The Golden State Warriors and their starting guard Brandin Podziemski have agreed to a five-year contract extension worth $110 million, fully guaranteed, ESPN reported, citing his agent, Bill Duffy (ESPN). Fully guaranteed means he is owed the whole amount even if the team lets him go. The Warriors announced on Saturday, 10 October, that he had signed an extension but, as is their policy, did not release the terms (Golden State Warriors).

An extension is a new contract agreed before the current one runs out. Podziemski, 23, is in the last season of the deal he signed as a rookie and will earn $5.6 million this season (ESPN). The new contract starts next season at $18.9 million and rises each year to $20.4 million, $22 million, $23.5 million and $25 million in the final season, 2031⁠–⁠32 (ESPN).

That last season is a mutual option, a year that both sides have a say over. ESPN described this one as unusual: it "allows either side to opt in, but not opt out, of the final season of the deal", which lets both sides reopen talks about a further extension that summer (ESPN). The deal also includes a trade kicker, a bonus paid to him if he is traded; ESPN did not give its size (ESPN).

Without the extension, he could have become a restricted free agent next summer, which allows a player to negotiate with other teams while his own team keeps the right to match any offer (ESPN). "We're thrilled to get an extension done with Brandin prior to the deadline," said Mike Dunleavy, the Warriors' general manager, the executive who builds the team (Golden State Warriors).

Golden State chose Podziemski 19th in the 2023 draft, the yearly process in which teams pick new players. He was the first player Dunleavy drafted in the job, and ESPN said the front office had made keeping him a priority (ESPN). "For me it shows a sign of faith and trust on their end, wanting me here," Podziemski said (ESPN). He added: "I think for me I just owe it right back to them" (ESPN).

Last season he was one of 18 players in the league, and the only Warrior, to play all 82 games (ESPN; Golden State Warriors). He set career highs with 13.8 points a game, as well as in three-pointers made, assists and steals (ESPN). He has averaged more than five rebounds a game in each of his three seasons, a high number for a guard, and has ranked in the league's top three for charges drawn, when a defender holds his spot and the attacking player runs into him for a foul (ESPN).

"Brandin is a huge part of our team," said the Warriors coach, Steve Kerr. "He makes people better. He understands the game" (ESPN). Kerr also called the deal "a win-win" before Saturday's preseason game against the Sacramento Kings (AP via NBA.com).

ESPN said Podziemski struggled at times last season when Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler III missed long stretches and he was given a bigger role in the attack, raising some doubts about how far he can develop, before he settled late in the season (ESPN). He starts this season as the shooting guard alongside Curry (ESPN).

Expectations for the Warriors are low this season, according to ESPN. Butler and Moses Moody are both recovering from serious knee injuries, and Kristaps Porziņģis is out indefinitely with a health issue, which leaves the team without three of its top six players (ESPN).

The money matters for next summer. The NBA has a salary cap, a limit on what a team can spend on player salaries, and teams under it can use the room to sign free agents, players whose contracts have run out. Team sources told ESPN that keeping his first-year salary manageable was important to the Warriors, who are protecting the room they have kept under that limit for next season, 2027⁠–⁠28 (ESPN). ESPN said his first-year salary is about $1.9 million more than the roughly $17 million the team would have had to set aside for him under the cap had he reached restricted free agency (ESPN). ESPN's Bobby Marks estimated the Warriors could still have between $55 million and $60 million to spend, since they could release Porziņģis, only $3 million of whose $20 million salary for next season is guaranteed (ESPN).