Rookie center creating two-way contract crunch

The Warriors traded for the No. 52 pick in June’s draft to add Dutch seven-footer Quinten Post. That means one of their existing two-way players is losing out.

The Golden State Warriors spent good money to buy the No. 52 pick in June’s NBA draft to select Boston College center Quinten Post. But thanks to a money crunch and a roster crunch, actually putting Post on the roster will require some adjustments, and saying goodbye to a player they like.

The Warriors ended up with Post through a series of complicated transactions, which started with the team trading Cory Joseph, cash and a 2025 second-round pick for the No. 52 pick in 2024. They traded that pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder to get wing shooter Lindy Waters III, and after OKC traded that pick to the Portland Trail Blazers, the Warriors paid the Blazers to get that pick back.

But Post is still unsigned nearly three months later. Anthony Slater reports that it’s a function of the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement. By buying the No. 52 pick, the Warriors were hard-capped at the second luxury tax apron. Then, when they executed sign-and-trade deals for Buddy Hield and Kyle Anderson, they were hard-capped at the first tax apron, at $178.1M.

With 14 players under contract and less than $1 million remaining under the apron, the Dubs can’t add a player, even on a rookie or minimum deal. If they want Post on the roster next year, and all their actions indicate that they do, the only way they can do so is by giving him a two-way contract. Presumably the Warriors already agreed to this before they drafted Post.

But the team already has three players under two-way deals. There’s Pat Spencer, the college lacrosse superstar who’s spent the last two seasons with the Santa Cruz Warriors and earned a two-way deal last February. There’s defensive-minded point guard Reece Beekman, a tough defender and excellent athlete, whose weaknesses are his lack of height and shooting ability. Finally, there’s Daquan Plowden, a Summer League standout who plays shooting guard and small forward.

The presence of Post is going to mean that one of those players loses their two-way deal. Golden State has plenty of time to evaluate players in training camp before finalizing the decision before the season. The choice might come down to who plays best in the preseason, or which of the regular roster players gets hurt.

Right now, Plowden looks most likely to be the odd man out. He was the last two-way player to sign, while Beekman signed his deal just after he went undrafted, and Spencer has been in the Warriors system for years. However, there’s no guarantee that any of them ends up with a two-way deal. Back in 2022, Golden State released both of their two-way players, Lester Quinones and Quinndary Weatherspoon, and gave their two-way deals to Ty Jerome and Anthony Lamb.

But unless his training camp is a disaster, it’s probably safe to pencil in Post for one of the team’s three two-way deals. It’s also important to realize that, no matter which NBA players end up working out for the Warriors, there’s only room for two-way players, who have to have less than four years of NBA experience. A trade that shed money could change that, but right now, Spencer, Beekman, and Plowden are fighting for two spots. And maybe only one.