Longtime veteran Shaun Livingston will be another player of the Golden State Warriors approaching uncertainty coming into the summer 2019, as the 6-foot-7 point guard will make $8.3 million of the $23.7 million contract over the span of three years, which he signed in 2017.
Livingston is in the roster now, but the Warriors will have to make fragile decisions as they toe the luxury tax with every contract signed, putting him in danger of being a potential expendable piece come next summer. The 33-year-old isn't fretting about what's to come, but rather living in the present, enjoying this successful run and the possibility of being part of a threepeat dynasty.
“Just staying in the moment, trying to enjoy this year, whether I have another year with the team and I come back, or whether this is the last year, I’m trying to enjoy it,” Shaun Livingston said on The Warriors Insider Podcast this week. “Enjoy the everyday process of it, knowing that the team’s job is to do what’s in their best interest.”
“If it is the end, it’s been a hell of a run. I feel like they’ve done right by me.”
Livingston only has $2 million of the $7.7 million of his third year (2019-20) fully guaranteed if he's not waived by the Warriors before the start of the free agency period.
The impending signing of Klay Thompson to a long-term deal and possible qualifying offer to Jordan Bell and Quinn Cook could play a part in Golden State taking calculated risks, which could include waiving their veteran point man to make the necessary cap room.
Livingston was coming off his first consistent season, playing 76 games for the Brooklyn Nets after spending five years bouncing around the league after sustaining a devastating fractured leg during his third season, one of the gnarliest freak injuries in pro basketball history. Since he signed with the Warriors in 2014, Livingston has played 71 or more games in each, also shooting better than 50 percent in each of the four.
“Honestly, it couldn’t have worked out any better for me, in terms of my career and the trajectory of everything and how it came about,” Livingston said. “Being on seven or eight different teams in a matter of six to eight years, it was a lot. A lot of movement. A lot of travel. But it also was a growing experience.
“Catching on (with the Warriors) toward the tail-end of my career, it was a blessing.”
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