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Marquese Chriss is returning to the Golden State Warriors, barely a week after being waived by the club. This time around, he’s on a two-way contract.
The news was first reported by The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears, and quickly confirmed by Warriors beat reporters.
Can confirm @MarcJSpearsESPN’s report that Marquese Chriss is coming back to the Warriors on a two-way deal. He plans to sign the contract later today.
— Logan Murdock (@loganmmurdock) January 14, 2020
Chriss opened the season on a non-guaranteed contract with the Warriors. Last week, following a loss to the Sacramento Kings, the team waived him. His contract was set to guarantee, and the team needed to clear space in order to convert Damion Lee’s two-way deal into a guaranteed contract.
Lee will sign his new contract soon, which will open up a free two-way spot for Chriss, just before the January 15 deadline to sign new two-way contracts.
Chriss will not have the full 45 days of NBA eligibility that two-way contracts are given, but instead a prorated amount of days, which should be 23. But here’s the (positive) catch: Those 23 days should take him right about to the point in March where the team could convert his contract into a guaranteed deal without exceeding the hard cap.
With 23 days left on his two-way deal and some select travel/practice days to maneuver around, Warriors could conceivably use Chriss up to early March — when they finally slip under a hard cap restriction, allowing them to sign a 15th man — and add him back to full roster.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 14, 2020
In other words, Chriss should be able to spend most, if not all of the Warriors remaining games with Golden State, rather than in the G League.
With this move, it’s clear that the team wasn’t just posturing when they claimed a desire to reunite with Chriss. They’re clearly happy that he made it through waivers, and it seems likely that they see the 22-year old former lottery pick as a potential piece of their next great team. And, quite importantly, Chriss will be a restricted free agent this summer.
Chriss has appeared in 37 games for the Warriors this year, including 3 starts. He’s averaging 7.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 17.7 minutes per game.