The Warriors were a fun and exciting team last season, as well as one that exceeded expectations. If they’re going to continue that improvement next year, they’ll be doing it without two key reserves, both of whom were lost in free agency.
Jarrett Jack played big point guard minutes for the Warriors off the bench, and was often featured in crunch time lineups. But he has agreed to join the Cavaliers, reports Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group. The deal is for four years and $25 million.
Carl Landry had a player option to return to the Warriors next season for $4 million, but opted out to pursue a bigger, long-term deal. It turned out to be the smart choice, as he has agreed to a four-year deal worth $26 million to play for the Sacramento Kings.
Landry turned down a deal to join the Clippers in favor of returning to Sacramento, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
The Kings have cleaned house internally, and have a new ownership group that installed both a new general manager and a new head coach. Along with the good-sized contract, those had to be no small factors in Landry’s decision to return to the team where he had his best statistical (partial) season in 28 games there to finish out 2010.
There’s no question that with Jack and Landry gone, the Warriors lost some important depth that helped them to such a successful campaign. But they also dumped some bad contracts and went out and signed Andre Iguodala in free agency themselves, so we’ll have to see if the totality of the team’s moves result in a net positive when all is said and done next season.
