Getty Klay Thompson and Draymond Green
One of the best players in NBA history is expected to join the Los Angeles Lakers this summer.
A Western Conference executive told Heavy Sports senior insider Sean Deveney that “everyone assumes” Draymond Green will leave the Golden State Warriors and sign with the Lakers this offseason.
“Hard to say what you could get for Draymond at this point because he can be a free agent, and everyone assumes he’s going to the Lakers next summer,” the executive told Deveney. “You’d probably have to take back a bad contract to move him, and they’re not going to see that as being worth it, so he’s not going anywhere. But it is a big shadow over that team. They’ve had injuries and some bad personnel decisions, but the Draymond thing is still there.”
Green has a player option worth $27.6 million for next season. The four-time champion is widely expected to decline it and enter unrestricted free agency. Green signed a four-year, $99.7 million extension with the Warriors in August 2019. He has the same agent (Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group) as Lakers superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Green will have made more than $155 million in his career if he becomes a free agent in July.
“Pretty strong,” another Western Conference executive told Deveney about Green’s chances of leaving the Warriors. “If they win a championship again this year, there will be pressure to keep things together, but the stuff with the punch [on Jordan Poole] in the preseason, that probably put the nail in it. There was already a good chance he would go just because his production is not what it was and he is getting older [32]. It would be hard to justify paying him $20-something-million a year.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith: Draymond Green Wants to Play for the Lakers
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said on the October 10 episode of “First Take” that Green wants to play for the Lakers. The former Defensive Player of the Year is very close friends with James. Green also grew up in the same city as Los Angeles head coach Darvin Ham.
“I can tell you right now that Draymond Green is expecting this to be his last year in Golden State,” Smith said. “Now he wanna be a Laker. He ain’t gonna tell anybody that, but don’t think I don’t know. He’d prefer to be a Laker if he gotta leave Golden State.”
Green punched Jordan Poole in the face before the season started. The Michigan State product crossed the line and many people around the NBA believe Green and the Warriors will part ways this summer.
Draymond Green Seems to Know That His Time With the Warriors Is Ending
Green seems to know that his time with the Warriors could be coming to an end soon. During an interview with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report in January, the Golden State legend talked about his NBA future.
“If you don’t get to know the business, then you can be blindsided and be like, ‘Oh man, everything I’ve done, I’d thought I’d be there forever.’ I would love to be [with the Warriors forever]. [But] I understand the luxury tax. I understand you’ve got these young guys and contracts up, and they have to be paid. I understand all of those things,” Green said. “And so, just for me, that’s what I mean by the writing’s on the wall.”
The Lakers will be interested in signing Green if he becomes a free agent this summer, league sources told Heavy Sports. Green has career averages of 8.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists.