Warriors Sign Forward, Uphill Battle To Make Roster: Report

The Golden State Warriors have signed former No. 8 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft Marquese Chriss ahead of training camp. The power forward spent last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets playing a combined 43 games.

Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes first reported his move to the Warriors and it was initially believed to be on a one-year deal. However, Warriors reporter Anthony Slater of The Athletic subsequently claimed it was a non-guaranteed training camp invite for Chriss.

“I hear it's a non-guaranteed camp invite for Chriss. Warriors don't really have room for 15th man (hard cap), but McKinnie (very likely to remain on the roster) has a non-guaranteed deal and other pieces could be shed if Chriss impresses,” Slater wrote.

The 22-year-old, who is still uncertain of being part of an NBA roster for the regular season, was picked by the Sacramento Kings during the 2016 Draft but was immediately traded to the Phoenix Suns. He went on to average 9.2 points in his first season while also making the second All-Rookie Team.

In the 2017-18 season, his average dropped to 7.7 points per game before joining the Rockets in 2018. He played 16 games for Mike d’Antoni’s team before being shipped to the Cavaliers where he played 27 games with a combined average of just 4.2 points in 11.6 minutes per game.

Meanwhile, Warriors coach Steve Kerr admitted to Slater recently that he will have to tweak the offense going into the new season after losing a number of key players, who have been part of the team’s recent dominance of the league. The team made five straight NBA Finals between 2015 and 2019 but this summer said goodbye to a number of key players of the last few seasons.

Kevin Durant was the biggest departure of the offseason while they also traded Andre Iguodala and Quinn Cook. Shaun Livingston announced his retirement after 15-years in the NBA, which now sees a raft of new faces in the Warriors lineup.

"I don't think it's going to look drastically different," Kerr told The Athletic’s Slater ahead of training camp. "But all you have to do is look at the roster and you see the continuity we've lost."

"When you lose continuity, it's more important to have sets and calls that you can rely on. Random stuff gets more difficult if you don't know each other well."