Warriors To Re-Sign De’Anthony Melton

Melton winds up with a modest raise for the 2026/27 season after declining his $3,451,779 player option on Monday. A report last week indicated that he was likely to leave the Warriors in free agency, with Phoenix being considered as a potential destination. Instead, he’ll return as a valuable component for a team that hopes to get back into title contention.

Melton was still recovering from ACL surgery when the season began, which limited his effectiveness during the first couple of months. He wound up averaging a career-high 12.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals in 23 minutes per game across 49 appearances, including 24 starts.

While Melton shot a career-best 50.5% on two-pointers last season and a solid 82.6% on free throws, he struggled from beyond the arc, converting just 29.4% of his three-point tries. He had made 38.3% of his threes in the five seasons leading up to ’25/26.

Melton is expected to be absorbed into the team’s bi-annual exception, according to Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Twitter link). He’ll be able to decline the player option a year from now and increase the value of his next deal by building up Early Bird rights.

Using the bi-annual exception will hard cap the Warriors at the first apron, Gozlan adds (Twitter link). They have about $26.6MM left to spend and five open roster spots.

Gozlan also points out that Golden State was able to retain Melton without dipping into its non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which is being saved in hopes of signing LeBron James.