Juan Toscano-Anderson’s new deal will earn him more money this year and will be fully guaranteed for the 2021-22 season at the minimum salary of $1.7 million.
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Oakland is home to Juan Toscano-Anderson. It has been his entire life, as he grew up on 95th Avenue in East Oakland. It wouldn’t matter if he was living there or pursuing his basketball dreams elsewhere, Oakland was always home.
Similarly, Toscano-Anderson has always been a Warrior, since he was part of the organization’s youth program in the third grade. It wouldn’t matter if he was or wasn’t a member of the team, he would always consider himself a Warrior. But as of Thursday morning, Toscano-Anderson is an official member of the Warriors and still an Oakland resident. He signed a standard, multi-year contract with Golden State.
DIMES@juanonjuan10 tallied a career-high nine assists in tonight’s win ? pic.twitter.com/ep3OHyvSOa
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) May 15, 2021
“I’m super excited, obviously for myself to be on the team and continue to play basketball, but this is a life-changing contract. A life-changing signature,” Toscano-Anderson said in a Zoom press conference Thursday evening.
The 28-year-old has become a key rotation player for the Warriors, averaging 8.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.2 steals over the last 13 games, while shooting 63 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from deep in 29 minutes per game. But what he brings to this team extends far beyond what the stat sheet shows.
Toscano-Anderson contains a similar fire to that of Draymond Green, who’s considered the heartbeat of the team. He tries to impact the game the same way Green does — by doing a bit of everything. And Toscano-Anderson has a similar tenacity, grit and hustle. Take the instance where Toscano-Anderson cracked his head open on a dive to save a possession in the April 15th game against the Boston Celtics.
Juan Toscano-Anderson grew up attending Warriors’ games at Oracle Arena. Every time he walked into that building; he got a taste of what he wanted his future to be.
Toscano-Anderson didn’t receive interest from any NBA teams coming out of college. He played overseas, joining the Mexican national basketball team in 2016 at the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, and then in Mexico and Venezuela from 2016 to 2018.
Ahead of the 2018-19 season, he decided to go to the open tryouts being hosted by the G League Santa Cruz Warriors. A few lucky ones would be invited to training camp with a chance to join the roster.
There were times people told Toscano-Anderson he made the wrong decision by going to the G League. There were others who said he shouldn’t have gone to training camp with the Warriors last year because they didn’t have an open roster spot.
Doing these things for his family, and simply the time he gets to spend with them, are the biggest things Toscano-Anderson had to sacrifice when he went and played overseas. Now, just knowing that he can provide for his family and stay close to them is just the icing on the cake to signing his contract.
