Everyone knew that Kevin Durant was going to return to the Golden State Warriors this offseason, but no one expected that he would leave so much on the table. Multiple reports indicated that Durant re-signed with the team on Monday evening, agreeing to a two-year deal with a player option worth about $53 million.
Considering that Steph Curry agreed to the richest deal in league history, it wouldn’t have been a shock if the Warriors wanted to give Durant as much money as they could. But Durant decided to leave a ton of cash on the table so Golden State would be able to re-sign Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston.
That’s a pretty selfless move by Durant, who will certainly make his money elsewhere. The craziest part is that he was willing to go even further in the event that Iguodala left Golden State so the Warriors could sign another free agent wing: Rudy Gay.
Side story about Durant: If Andre Iguodala had left, I'm told Durant was going to give even more than this back to make room for Rudy Gay.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 3, 2017
There was no guarantee that Iguodala would return to the Warriors, as it looked like the team had to fend off a serious challenge from Houston. Gay would have brought a much different skill set to the Warriors than the one Iguodala possesses, but he still would have been a really good fit in Golden State.
Regardless of what ended up happening, this was a pretty cool gesture from Durant, who pretty obviously wants to win as many championships as possible with this core and isn’t opposed to taking less money to do it. And seeing as how the Warriors are facing a pretty serious luxury tax bill, their front office probably appreciates Durant’s commitment to the cause.
