Report: Pat Spencer Signs Contract with Warriors' Division Rival

Spencer spent parts of the last three seasons with Golden State

Pat Spencer | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Pat Spencer's Golden State Warriors tenure has come to an end.

Spencer and the Phoenix Suns have agreed to a two-way contract, per ESPN's Shams Charania.

Spencer first appeared with the Santa Cruz Warriors in 2022. He made his Golden State debut late in the 2023-24 season before playing 39 games in 2024-25.

The 29-year-old had his best season last year, playing 66 games and averaging 7.2 points and 3.5 assists per game.

It's impressive that Spencer has made the NBA at all after playing just one season of college basketball as a graduate at Northwestern. Before that, Spencer had a dominant four-year career at Loyola playing Lacrosse.

Cryer Has More Potential Than Spencer

Spencer worked his way into an NBA role and should be praised for it, but the bottom line is LJ Cryer has more potential than him.

At 24 years old, Cryer is five years younger than Spencer. In 18 NBA appearances last season, Cryer shot 39.4 percent from three on huge volume. He's a legitimate three-point shooter.

The Warriors have Cryer on a two-way contract for this season. They will likely keep him there, and if he excels, he can get promoted to a standard contract at some point in the second half of the season—just as Spencer did this past season.

Warriors Could Still Use a Backup PG

Cryer is more of a combo guard, as are Brandin Podziemski and De'Anthony Melton. At the moment, the Warriors don't have a true backup point guard for Stephen Curry.

They've been linked to Brandon Williams, who averaged 13.0 points with the Mavericks last season.

Frankly, the free-agent point guard options aren't inspiring. But it's not essential that they fill this void, as they can get by with Podz and Melton playing PG when Curry is off the court.

What would essentially fix their lack of playmaking problem is landing LeBron James.

At the moment, it's anyone's guess where James will land, and waiting on his decision has resulted in Golden State's top two free-agent PG targets, Collin Sexton and Anfernee Simons, getting scooped up.

If they miss on James, my guess is they will sign a veteran PG to a minimum contract. The options include Russell Westbrook, Aaron Holiday, Gabe Vincent, Jordan McLaughlin and Jalen Pickett.