Warriors Guard Addresses Future With Franchise on Tuesday

The Golden State Warriors are 33-35 this season, fighting to try and grab the No. 8 seed so that they get a more favorable route through the NBA Play-In Tournament. They're 5.5 games behind the No. 6 seed, so an automatic playoff spot is unlikely after an injury-riddled season that has seen huge absences from both Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler.

One of the players who has emerged as a surprisingly productive contributor is De'Anthony Melton, who tore his ACL in November 2024 while on the Warriors but was re-signed last summer to get a chance at redemption.

The Warriors' injury crisis has provided a rotational opportunity that Melton is maximizing. He's averaged 13.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists on the season, but he's averaging 18.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists in March. This is great production for a player who has a $3.4 million player option in his contract for next season.

Melton addressed his plans for free agency and his stance on a future with the Warriors while speaking to Willard and Dibs on 95.7 The Game.

“The future is only what the future can hold, you know what I mean? I try to take it day by day at this point, cause you never know what could happen, and you never know what tomorrow holds, especially given my career and what’s happened. I just try to wake up the next day and just see what’s going on, and see how my life is feeling and moving around."

"I feel like I’ve expressed countless times how much I love Golden State, the medical staff, to the actual staff, to the front office, to the players that’ve been here, to the players here, so I think that expression of love is definitely out there. But at the end of the day, I just take it day by day to see how it goes.”

Melton seemed pretty non-committal on his NBA future at the point. Given the guard has made $56.3 million in eight years, he'll be looking to maximize what he can get with his next contract. He's also coming off an ACL injury, which might hurt his value due to potential risks of missing more time or suffering more injuries.

He's grateful to the Warriors for how they treated him during his injury, and he has had an impressive stint with the franchise. However, his current form definitely shows he deserves more than a player option on a vet minimum contract.

He can decline his player option, but it likely means his Warriors tenure would end, given the Warriors have no cap space in free agency to make him an attractive offer. Melton has never signed a contract that's given him $10+ million a season, so that might set a baseline for what he might expect as a best-case scenario in free agency.