One Veteran Free Agent the Warriors Must Sign Immediately After NBA Draft

The Golden State Warriors addressed their biggest need in the NBA draft, taking Yaxel Lendeborg to add wing depth.

They could still use a backup point guard, another wing and center depth.

The Warriors are reportedly in talks to re-sign Kristaps Porzingis, but we're not counting that for this article. In fact, none of the Warriors' free agents will appear here.

And of course LeBron James would be the best possible free-agent addition, but I'm not counting that either because the Lakers have so many advantages to get him that it's totally out of the Warriors' control.

Instead, we're focuing on a player who the Warriors can realistically get by offering at least the full taxpayer mid-level exception total of $6.1 million.

Warriors Should Sign Collin Sexton

The Warriors need a guard who can score, handle the ball, shoot and hold his own defensively.

Sexton can undoubtedly do the first of those three things.

He has a career scoring average of 18.3 points per game, taking advantage of his lightning-quick speed with the ball to score in the paint.

Sexton has never been a super-high-volume three-point shooter, but he actually should let it fly more than he does. He's at 38.9 percent from three for his career, and he improved his three-point percentage (41.0 percent) on career-high volume (5.2 3PA per game) with the Bulls this past season.

The reason Sexton might be attainable for about $6 million is the perception that his defense lags below his offense.

There's no doubt that perception was reality for the first six seasons of his career.

But over the last two campaigns, he's been better on that end.

For the 2024-25 season, the Jazz were 1.4 points per 100 possessions better on defense with Sexton on the court, per Cleaning the Glass.

In 2025-26, the Hornets were slightly worse defensively with Sexton on the court, but after his trade to the Bulls, he was an impactful defender. The Bulls were 3.6 points per 100 possessions better with him on defense.

In comparison, Anfernee Simons has had a pretty bad defensive net rating the last three seasons, which supports the eye test. Sexton provides much more resistance on the less glamorous end than Simons.

The other attribute the Warriors need from their free-agent additions is availability. Over the last three seasons, Sexton has played 209 of a possible 246 games.

And he's just 27 years old, so there's no reason to believe he'll have injury issues over the next few years.

Other Possible Targets

You might see other writers suggest that the Warriors go after Andrew Wiggins, but he'll be out of their price range even if they get access to the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($15 million).

At the moment, I'm guessing they won't have full access to it, and they may even have to go with the taxpayer MLE ($6.1 million).

Simons seems like he'll get more than the TMLE. The Warriors should target him (and apparently are) because he's the best scorer they can get, but his defensive issues make me think Sexton is a better target if the price is about even.

Quentin Grimes and De'Anthony Melton are two other possible MLE targets. Grimes' scoring would be beneficial, but he's more of a secondary ball-handler than a point guard. Melton is a superior on-ball defender to Sexton, but he doesn't have his offensive pop.

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