By rescinding their qualifying offer to fourth-string center Ognjen Kuzmic, the Warriors this week made a simple statement: The project is over.
The Warriors, who last month extended an offer to “Kuz,” clearly have reconsidered his potential and concluded he will not be a valuable contributor for them in the future.
Which stands to reason insofar as Kuzmic played not one minute in the postseason, as the Warriors rolled to an NBA Championship.
[RELATED: Reports: Warriors rescind qualifying offer to Kuzmic]
The free-agent status of the 7-foot Serbian, hampered by injuries and limited to two games in the Las Vegas Summer League, changes from restricted to unrestricted.
Kuzmic was the latter (52nd overall) of two second-round picks made by the Warriors in the 2012 draft and is the only member of that four-man class -– Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green are the others -– yet to make an impact.
Kuzmic last season played a total only 71 minutes for the Warriors and did not play at all in the postseason. Kuzmic for the second consecutive season spent considerably more time with the D-League Santa Cruz Warriors.
The move relieves a modicum of stress on the team’s salary cap, removing his projected $1.147 million payout for 2015-16, and gives the Warriors a small amount of wiggle room should they seek to sign a new player.
The Warriors still own the Early Bird Rights to Kuzmic and are allowed to exceed the salary cap to re-sign him. There is almost zero chance of that happening, and it’s highly unlikely they would re-sign him to a minimum-salary deal at about $950,000.
