The Golden State Warriors are trying to find different avenues to improve their team next season, and that might mean moving players currently on contract. Draymond Green, who has a $27.6 million contract option, is one of the players who could be used as a trade chip, according to ESPN’s Anthony Slater.
“Team sources have indicated for months that the Warriors’ interest in a decline-and-extend with Green for multiple years would be contingent on the first-year salary savings (from $27.6 million down into somewhere in the $20 million range) giving them a direct path to upgrade the roster elsewhere,” Slater wrote.
There is an expectation that Green will pick up his player option.
“That would immediately make Green one of the most flexible salary-matching pieces if Golden State dips into the trade market in the coming months, which would generate a level of unease,” Slater wrote. “But team sources praise Green for the way he handled trade rumors last season and maintain a mutual desire for him to finish his career with the franchise, if everything lines up.”
At the same time, Green knows that if the team needs to improve, he would be open to taking a pay cut, according to Brett Siegel’s reporting early in May.
“Green would have no problem with opting out and taking less money if it ensured that the Warriors could land LeBron James or another immediate championship-like piece to their roster at the start of free agency. But this is hard to predict, and there is no guarantee that taking less money results in the Warriors even making a roster upgrade,” Siegel wrote.
It’s uncertain at this point what Green could do, and it will have huge implications on what the Warriors do during the offseason. Everyone knows that Green wants to retire with the franchise, but when it comes to the league being a business, nothing is guaranteed.
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