How many Utah Jazz fans remember that they brought Georges Niang back last summer? How many of the fans that do remember that he was part of the blockbuster package for Jaren Jackson Jr. back in February? Props to anyone who remembers.
Anyway, it's remained kind of an unsolved mystery what happened with Niang last season. After suffering a stress injury in his foot last year, it didn't sound serious, but it clearly was, as he was never cleared and then never played. There hasn't been much clarification on what happened, which made his NBA future rather ambiguous.
But luckily, it's not anymore, as Niang will get his next chance in Golden State, per ESPN's Shams Charania.
Free agent forward Georges Niang has agreed to a one-year, $3.9 million deal with the Golden State Warriors, Mark Bartelstein and Andy Shiffman of @PrioritySports tell ESPN. Niang -- a career 40% 3-point shooter -- enters his 11th NBA season after missing 2025-26 due to injury. pic.twitter.com/XFD2t1XKNm
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 25, 2026
This was rumored earlier this month, and now Niang gets a chance to prove himself again after a season in which he didn't even get to show anything. For a team like Golden State, who is pretty much out of options with the Stephen Curry era winding down, Niang is about as good as they can do at this point in the offseason.
How does Golden State compare to Utah?
It's funny to see how the Warriors and the Jazz are pretty much in the same ballpark as one is on the rise and the other is in decline. Making the situation even funkier is that everyone knew Utah was in for a bad season, but it worked out for them because they got a lottery pick out of it on top of adding Jaren Jackson Jr. For Golden State, they expected better of themselves and didn't make the playoffs.
And now, both teams are more or less in the same tier despite where their individual directions are trending. The Warriors are grasping at straws to stay relevant while the Jazz are about to kick off a new era.
Everyone should be pulling for Niang to return to form before his injury kept him out for the entire season. Hopefully, he will give Golden State exactly what he paid for, but even so, it's hard to see how much he changes. He probably gets them a few extra wins, but there's only so much he can do on the NBA's oldest team.
The Warriors just have so many problems that adding Niang won't change. If the Jazz turn out better than them, and there's a good chance that they will be, it's indicative of how hard they've fallen since winning their last title in 2022.
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