Golden State Warriors: 5 Reasons Keeping Klay Thompson Makes Sense

5. Kevin Martin‘s Contract:

One thing that doesn’t seem to be mentioned enough (and is constantly brought up by those combative Warriors fans) is that this deal wasn’t a straight up Thompson-for-Love swap, or even a Thompson and David Lee-for-Love deal. The Minnesota Timberwolves also tried to include Kevin Martin’s atrocious contract, as first reported by Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News.

K-Mart is still due $22.2 million over the next three years and the Wolves were adamant about unloading his deal in the process of giving Golden State a three-time All-Star. Though Martin’s three-point shooting and scoring punch would have been great for the Warriors off the bench, his defense is almost as ugly as his oversized contract.

The Wolves believed Martin’s contract was the price that needed to be paid for a superstar like Love, not to mention the fact they’d be taking David Lee’s remaining two years and $30 million, an amount they believed was overpriced as well. The Dubs believed Lee would be a tremendous replacement for Love despite his defensive flaws and wanted to replace Thompson with Harrison Barnes — despite his sophomore slump — without including Martin at all.

Long story short, both sides were slightly overvaluing the pieces they were trying to send out while ignoring how overpaid some of those players were. By not agreeing to take on Kevin Martin’s inflated contract, the Dubs will now overpay Thompson when he’s due for an extension next summer, but at least that overpay will go to a promising young shooting guard who will be an integral part of the Dubs moving forward. Martin wouldn’t have fit that same category.