The Warriors are making moves as free agency gets underway.
With free agency starting today at 3pm PT, the Golden State Warriors begin to make their tough decisions for next year’s roster. The process has already started as The Athletic’s Anthony Slater reports Golden State will not extend the qualifying offer to Juan Toscano-Anderson or Chris Chiozza making them unrestricted free agents.
The Warriors are not extending qualifying offers to Juan Toscano-Anderson ($2.1 million) or Chris Chiozza ($1.9 million) before the deadline today, per source. Both JTA and Chiozza are now unrestricted free agents, free to sign elsewhere and unlikely to return to the Warriors.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) June 29, 2022
With the Warriors utilizing all three picks in last week’s NBA Draft, changes to the end of the roster seemed to be inevitable. Rookie contracts are cheaper as the team looks to fill in empty roster spots while navigating what is expected to be a historically high luxury tax bill. Unfortunately for Dub Nation, that likely means the departure of several players from the team’s championship run.
Among these departures is Oakland native Toscano-Anderson who became an instant fan favorite with his toughness and hustle during his three seasons with Golden State.
JTA hustle mind was one of the best. I’ll never forget this moment pic.twitter.com/McLOSqAEFg
— UG(SCDG) (@SCDG2330) June 29, 2022
Despite a smaller role with the team this past season, Toscano-Anderson was a versatile, high IQ player that the Warriors could plug in wherever they needed him. He had a few highlight dunks during his Warriors tenure while also proudly representing the Bay and the entire country of Mexico during last season’s NBA dunk contest.
JUAN T
ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/2lnKbB9KjT— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) December 4, 2021
JTA is headed to the Slam Dunk contest finals!!!
(via @warriors)pic.twitter.com/EkkgnhTr7a
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) February 20, 2022
Meanwhile, in his first season with the Warriors, it’s fair to say Chiozza gave the team everything they would expect from a two-way player. Although he didn’t play many minutes, the times he did play were amazing since it usually meant the team went on a crazy third quarter run to put the game out of reach by the fourth quarter. He also had this amazing shirt during the championship parade.
Chris Chiozza’s wearing a shirt that has Steve Kerr as Stone Cold Steve Austin
Kerr 3:16 pic.twitter.com/HYvfIF69JB
— Dalton Johnson (@DaltonJ_Johnson) June 20, 2022
Stay tuned as the Warriors are expected to make more moves with the offseason officially in full swing.