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The Golden State Warriors have extended the qualifying offer to shooting guard Damion Lee, making him a restricted free agent. Yahoo Sports’ Keith Smith reported the news shortly before the deadline to hand out qualifying offers.
Per league sources, the Golden State Warriors tendered a qualifying offer to Two-Way player Damion Lee. He will now be a restricted free agent.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) June 30, 2019
The Warriors did not tender a qualifying offer to Two-Way player Marcus Derrickson. He will now be an unrestricted free agent.
The qualifying offer means that the Warriors can now have the final say in Lee’s future. The offer itself is a modest one-year deal, but if Lee rejects it, he becomes a restricted free agent. He can sign an offer sheet with any other team, as long as it is a minimum of two years, but the Warriors have the rights to match it.
All signs point towards the Warriors and Lee having mutual interest in a reunion. He played well last year, and his shooting provided spacing that the team is in desperate need of, especially with Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant out for the foreseeable future.
Furthermore, Lee is Steph Curry’s brother-in-law, and the family members seemed to enjoy being teammates.
Lee played last year on a two-way contract. In 32 games with the Warriors, he averaged 4.9 points and 2.0 rebounds per game, while shooting 39.7% from three-point range. In 24 G League games with the Sant Cruz Warriors, Lee averaged 20.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.4 steals per game, and shot 39.8% from deep.
In all, the Warriors gave the qualifying offer to three of their four candidates: Lee, Quinn Cook, and Jordan Bell. The only player not receiving the offer was Marcus Derrickson, who was the team’s other two-way player last year.
It appears that Derrickson will be playing for a different team next year, and he has already joined the Sacramento Kings Summer League roster.