It is not only players who are leaving the Golden State Warriors this offseason. After already losing some key players of their 2022 championship squad, the Dubs were hit with another bad news after Leandro Barbosa decided to join the Sacramento Kings.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Warriors' player development coach is taking Mike Brown's offer to be one of his assistant coaches in Sacramento.
It is a no-brainer move for Leandro Barbosa. While the Warriors have stability and figure to have a ton of success in the years to come, the opportunity to move up in the coaching ladder is just too hard to pass up. Not to mention that being with the Kings should provide him an opportunity to really show what he can do.
Barbosa played for the Warriors from 2014 to 2016, winning one title in 2015. He became a player development coach for the Dubs in 2020 and won the title with the team this past 2021-22 campaign.
As mentioned, it is just the latest in the current Warriors exodus. Golden State has already seen several players and fan-favorites leave the team in the past couple of days since free agency started, with Gary Payton II and Otto Porter Jr. among their biggest losses. The team was also not able to retain Damion Lee and Juan Toscano-Anderson due to salary cap reasons.
The Warriors are doing their best to replace those players. Now, they will have to add a new player development coach to that list.