Kings extend Barnes on 3-year, $54M contract

Sacramento Kings veteran forward Harrison Barnes has agreed to a three-year, $54-million contract extension, his agent told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Barnes’ new deal has a 10% trade kicker, sources told The Athletic’s Sam Amick.

The 31-year-old averaged 15 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists last season for the Kings. He was one of three players to appear in all 82 regular-season contests, joining Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges and Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic.

The Kings acquired Barnes in 2018 from the Dallas Mavericks. Prior to playing for both franchises, Barnes was drafted by the Golden State Warriors with the No. 7 pick in the 2012 draft. He made All-Rookie first team and won a championship with the Warriors in 2015.

Sacramento still has a few options to gain more cap space, including restructuring the contract of All-Star forward Domantas Sabonis, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. The franchise cleared cap space on draft night, sending Richaun Holmes and the No. 24 pick Olivier-Maxence Prosper to the Dallas Mavericks.

The Kings made the postseason for the first time since 2006, losing to the Warriors in the first round.

Warriors will play Durant at PF, ‘expect a lot’ from him defensively

Though four-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant is best known for his offensive prowess, the Golden State Warriors are excited about what he can do at the other end of the court.

Warriors assistant coach Ron Adams, who focuses on the team’s defense, spent two seasons in Oklahoma City where he worked with Durant early in his career with the Thunder.

He’s itching to integrate the 6-foot-9 forward into Golden State’s defensive unit, which allowed the third-lowest field-goal percentage in 2015-16 en route to winning 73 regular-season contests. He raved about the former MVP’s ability to effectively guard every position.

“(Durant’s) versatility is outstanding,” Adams told Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area. “He’s a terrific defender, who played with great defensive consistency in our playoff series. We will expect a lot out of him in that regard.”

Golden State experienced Durant’s defensive proficiency firsthand against his former team during the Western Conference finals.

“He’s a really good rim protector, in a non-traditional way,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “When he played the four against us in the playoffs, he was brilliant. He blocked some shots and he scored a bunch of times. So he’ll play a lot of ‘four’ for us, for sure.”

In addition to his 28.2 points and five assists, Durant pitched in defensively with 8.2 boards, 1.2 blocks, and a steal per game last season.

He represents a huge upgrade over Harrison Barnes – who signed with the Dallas Mavericks this offseason – and will help the Warriors improve upon their switch-heavy defense.

Kerr: Warriors ‘not really pushing’ for 73 wins

The Golden State Warriors have sent some mixed signals when it comes to how aggressively they plan to pursue an NBA-record 73 wins this season.

Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Harrison Barnes have all publicly said that they want the record, though Curry made sure to qualify that by saying he wouldn’t want it at the expense of a championship. Head coach Steve Kerr, meanwhile, has already seemed to contradict himself on the subject a couple of times.

Kerr said in early March that resting players down the stretch would take precedence over breaking the record, set 20 years ago by the Chicago Bulls team on which he played. Later in the month, though, he called the chase for 73 “enticing,” and said his players had earned a say in whether they would play or rest going forward.

On Monday, with the Warriors needing a modest 4-1 finish to secure the best regular-season record in history, he tried to clarify where, exactly, he and his team stand.

“We’re not really pushing for this,” Kerr told USA Today’s Sam Amick. “All we’ve said is, ‘Yeah, it’d be nice to get. We’d like to get it.’

“But if I were pushing for it, I probably wouldn’t be resting Shaun Livingston and (Andrew) Bogut, and I’d be playing our starters more. We’re just playing it out. I don’t understand if people are going to say that we’re pushing for this. I don’t think that’s the right word to use. We’d like to get it, but we’re still resting people and trying to get us set up for the playoffs.”

That may not be the most convincing argument, given that Bogut is nursing a rib injury, Livingston has rested for just one game in the past 42, and three of the Warriors’ five starters played more than 42 minutes last Wednesday on the second night of a back-to-back, but that’s Kerr’s story and he’s sticking to it.

For now, anyway.