Warriors will sign, waive, and re-sign Seth Curry

It’s long been speculated that the Golden State Warriors would sign Seth Curry this offseason to shore up their guard depth, and put him on the same team as Steph Curry for the first time since the brothers from the First Family of Jumpers were in high school. But avid readers of NBA news and followers of cap minutiae may have found themselves a little bit confused on Tuesday, as loads of Warriors news flooded in.

When ESPN’s Shams Charania announced that the Warriors had re-signed Jonathan Kuminga, he noted that the deal would keep Golden State from being able to sign a 15th player (which Charania noted would presumably be Curry) until November 15, while citing colleague and cap expert Bobby Marks. And then, just a few hours later, Charania reported that the team had signed the younger Curry brother, and that he would be at Warriors practice on Wednesday.

It was fair to wonder how the Dubs would square those circles, but the most obvious workaround appears to be the truth here. Marc Stein and Keith Smith tweeted some clarity on the issue, stating that the Warriors are signing Curry to an Exhibit 9 deal. Such a deal has no guaranteed money, so the Warriors can keep the 35-year old Duke product on the roster through training camp, where he can get up to speed with the offensive and defensive sets, and get familiar playing with his teammates. He’ll then be waived before the season begins, and the team can sign him to a fully-guaranteed, veteran’s minimum contract come mid-November, rounding out their roster.

An Exhibit 9 deal is a contract clause that protects the team in the event of an injury. Without an Exhibit 9 clause, a non-guaranteed deal has an interesting stipulation: should the player get injured, the team is required to pay him his prorated salary until he’s healthy enough to play again, even if they waive him. With an Exhibit 9 contract — which is very common across training camps — a player can be waived if they suffer an injury, with the team shelling out a one-time payment of just $15,000.

And so with that, the Curry brothers will be reunited during training camp, and Seth can presumably hit the ground running come November.