Getty Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors looks on during warmups prior to facing the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals in May 2023.
New Golden State Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. will face his first monumental personnel decision just days after accepting the job, and it will regard Draymond Green.
One of the franchise’s greatest and most polarizing players, Green has the option to opt out of the final year of his current contract and hit free agency this summer. According to ESPN’s Marc Spears Jr., Dubs team sources believe it is all but a certainty that Green will forego the final season of his four-year, $99.67 million contract (worth nearly $27.6 million in 2023-24) and test the market.
“The Warriors expect Draymond Green to opt out of the final year of his … contract, I’m being told. But [owner] Joe Lacob, Dunleavy, the Warriors are going to do everything in their power, if he does as expected, to bring him back,” Spears said on the Friday, June 16 edition of NBA Today, per Bleacher Report. “Golden State is also getting calls on [Jonathan] Kuminga … [and] Jordan Poole. They have the 19th pick in next week’s draft, so Mike Dunleavy Jr. isn’t getting no training wheels going into this job.”
Los Angeles Lakers Among Potential Free Agent Destinations for Draymond Green
GettyDraymond Green (right) of the Golden State Warriors reacts after being called for a foul against Anthony Davis (left) of the Los Angeles during Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals in May 2023.
Green’s offensive game is not what it once was, but the Warriors forward continues to dominate the other side of the court as one of the best defenders in the NBA.
Green has earned either first-team or second-team All-NBA defensive honors in eight of the last nine seasons, having been named to each squad four times. He also won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year Award for the 2016-17 season and has finished second twice (2014-15, 2015-16) and third once (2020-21).
One notable change over Green’s last handful of years in the league, aside from a dip in his points per game average, has been a growing relationship with Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James — both as a friend and as a business partner. As a result, the Lakers are expected to be one of the teams likely to inquire with Green about his interest in changing franchises this offseason.
James mentioned last year on an episode of his HBO series “The Shop” that if he wasn’t playing with the Lakers, he’d like to play with the Warriors. James shouted out Green by name during his comments.
“It would be Golden State,” James said. “I would love to get into a pissing match with Draymond. I love when someone cussing me out.”
While it will be difficult for Golden State to absorb James’ estimated base salary of approximately $47 million next season, especially considering the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that goes into effect this summer, the growing affinity between the two players has led to widespread speculation that Green might be willing to jump ship in the Bay Area and ride south for Los Angeles.
“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,” an NBA executive told Heavy Sports insider Sean Deveney in February.
Draymond Green Holding to Narrative That He Wants to Remain With Warriors
Getty(R-L) Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors.
Despite the reports and rumors, Green continues to state publicly that his desire is to remain in Golden State with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson for the remainder of his career.
“We’ll see what happens as far as my contract goes. Obviously, I have an opt-out. Everybody knows about that,” Green told reporters following the Warriors’ elimination from the playoffs at the hands of the Lakers in the Western Conference Semifinals in May.
“But as I’ve told you guys for years, I want to be a Warrior for the rest of my life. I wanna ride out with the same dudes I rode in with,” Green continued. “I think we’ve put the work in to make that happen, and here we are with our worst season as a whole since 2014 and yet, we had a chance to make another run. It’s never as bad as it seems, it’s never as good as it seems.”
Green’s fourth-year option carries a deadline of Thursday, June 29.