The Warriors have won three of the last four NBA championships, including back-to-back titles after sweeping the Cavaliers. With Steph Curry under contract for four more years and Kevin Durant expected to be locked up on a multi-year deal of “whatever he wants,” odds are they will continue to be the favorites to win the title for the foreseeable future.
The question marks for the Warriors’ dynasty moving forward are Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. Both are eligible for extensions this summer, but neither should take one, given they’d be sacrificing a tremendous amount of future earning potential. Thompson’s deal will run up in 2019 and Green will be a free agent in 2020, with both likely seeking their biggest pay days of their careers. At that point it will come down to whether the Warriors will offer them enough to keep them around.
Thompson has already hinted that he wants to stay with the Warriors and may take a minor cut to stick it out and see how many rings he can rack up. Green, however, already took his pay cut back in 2015 when he signed his 5-year, $82 million extension with the Warriors.
Green has long been thought of as the catalyst for landing Durant because of the infamous phone call after Game 7 of the 2016 Finals, but apparently the plan was put in motion long before that by Green with his contract negotiation in 2015. Green could have made $94 million over five years, but instead took $12 million less over the course of the deal to ensure the Warriors could more easily create max space the next summer to chase Durant, as he explained to ESPN’s Chris Haynes.
“That money is not changing my neighborhood,” Green said. “It’s probably $6 million after taxes and fees. It’s not changing my neighborhood, but championships can. Championships can change my life.
“So it’s about what’s important to you. And I knew how important it was to me and the opportunity we could have if I did what I did. And I didn’t need [Warriors general manager] Bob [Myers] to explain that to me. Bob never once explained that to me. I knew it going in. So that’s where I based my negotiations at. The number I asked for, I got.”
The difference in an extension this offseason is enough to change his neighborhood, which is why it’s being widely reported he will not accept an extension offer this summer. We’ll see what Green’s demands are when he does hit free agency in 2020, but no matter what, he’ll always be a legend in The Bay for what he’s done with the Warriors both on and off the court in helping create this dynasty.
Golden State’s run will eventually end, but whether that’s in 2020 or beyond, the way the players have helped to manipulate cap space, from Green’s extension in 2015 to Durant’s 1+1 deal at a major discount in 2017, it’s clear that they’ve all been on board with helping keep this group together.
