Thanks to Stephen Curry’s scoring brilliance this week, the Warriors are hovering around .500 once again, but executives around the NBA have been keeping an eye on Golden State early this season, particularly as it applies to the availability of Draymond Green.
A recent report from Sam Amick on his podcast on The Athletic NBA Show indicated that not only have the Portland Trail Blazers circled the water on Green in the past, but franchise cornerstone Damian Lillard has specifically lobbied for such a deal.
“If we were handicapping Draymond trade destinations if the Warriors decided to blow it up…that’s the one. Damian and his group have for the last couple years been campaigning for that,” Amick said.
After an extension during the 2019 offseason, Green is under contract through 2023-24, when he has a player option for $27.6 million. That means there’s no realistic reason to believe the Warriors would be looking to dump him anytime soon, even if he is perhaps the most likely of Golden State’s big three to move on.
That was confirmed by a separate recent report, this time from Chris Haynes on his Yahoo! Sports podcast, when Haynes speculated that Green might be put onto the trade market before long if the Warriors’ fortunes worsened. For now, the Warriors will likely sit tight and see how high Curry can take them, as him, Green, and Klay Thompson are all under long-term contracts.
