Harrison Barnes: Report Says Warriors Offer $64 Million Extension
Harrison Barnes is set to become a wealthy individual. According to reports of Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, the Golden State Warriors have offered Barnes a four year sixty-four million dollar extension. Wojnarowski also reports that Barnes did not immediately accept the offer.
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The reason the Warriors can pay Barnes $16 million a year is the same reason that Barnes is hesitant to sign the extension. Both are based on calculations that the Summer of Love is just about to hit when the salary cap jumps in 2016. For the Warriors, they can afford to pay Barnes while they pay Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and now Draymond Green big money. For Barnes, it is a guessing game of trying to figure out what his open market value would be with teams willing to take risks with more cap space. Perhaps a team might throw a better deal at him forcing the Warriors to raise their offer.
The story of what is best for Barnes is a little more complex. The extension would allow him to play out his prime for the Warriors while they have a championship nucleus intact. Barnes is also not completely injury free in his past, and this would offer a heck of an insurance policy for that.
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Yet there are downsides too. One is capping his earning power during his prime seasons. This fact is relevant because Barnes changed agents when this deal was originally negotiated, suggesting he was unhappy with it. Two, Barnes would be stuck as third or fourth banana for much of his career. That would likely mean no All-Star appearances or adulation for individual performance if those things mean anything to Barnes. They might not.
Personally, I think this a money decision. It is so easy to imagine Barnes on the Houston Rockets, or the Los Angeles Clippers, or the Chicago Bulls. Even the post-Kobe Lakers might be willing to throw some money at him to drive up his price.
If I was Barnes, I would do everything I could to stay with Curry for as long as possible. Maybe Barnes is trying to do that, just at a higher rate than $16 million and more than any Charlotte Hornet is set to make this year.