| Advertisement |
The Golden State Warriors extended qualifying offers to forward Harrison Barnes and center Festus Ezeli on Wednesday, making them restricted free agents. As a result, Golden State has the right to match any offer sheet Barnes and Ezeli sign with other teams. The Warriors had until Thursday to extend their qualifying offers.
Advertisement
Barnes, 24, is expected to receive a max contract once free agency begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday. The seventh pick in the 2012 draft has career averages of 10.1 points and 4.6 rebounds over his first four seasons.
He averaged a career-high 11.7 points in the 2015-16 season, as well as 12.5 points through the first four games of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, only to score just 15 total points over the final three contests.
Ezeli, 26, has averaged only 4.2 points and 4.3 rebounds in his three seasons with Golden State, but he had career-best marks in each category this past season with 7.0 and 5.6 respectively.
The center was seldom used during the Finals, averaging 2.0 points and 1.9 boards in 8.7 minutes per game.
Cleveland won the series, beating Golden State in seven games to claim its first championship in franchise history.
The Warriors declined to tender qualifying offers to guard Ian Clark and forward James Michael McAdoo, making both of them unrestricted free agents.
