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The Lakers emerged from the NBA trade deadline with an overhauled roster and a new slant on the team’s future, going from a team that could make a splash in free agency in 2023 to a team looking to corral salaries and keep its current group together.
For some players around the league, that fact has removed a significant piece of offseason leverage. And no player needed it more than Draymond Green of the Warriors, who could be headed into a tumultuous free agency—or could pass on free agency 2023 altogether.
It was widely rumored around the NBA that the Lakers would create cap space and pursue Green this summer, joining him with fellow Klutch Sports clients LeBron James and Anthony Davis. But there was some question about how much of that chatter was coming from the Lakers and how much was coming from Green’s camp, in an effort to put some pressure on the Warriors to give Green a long-term deal. Green has certainly had a publicly amiable relationship with James, his NBA Finals rival four teams when James was in Cleveland.
“I mean, Draymond has been on LeBron’s (private regions) all year, so that tells you something about what he wanted to have happen,” said one otherwise politely-spoken league source. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Green was seeking a max deal from Golden State, which is already carrying a record-breaking luxury tax bill and a projected player payout of nearly $450 million. Green was expected to opt out of the final year of his contract, slated to pay him $27.5 million, and sign a long-term deal in the offseason, with the Lakers the frontrunner.
No longer.
“They could still make that happen if they wanted to but I never got the idea that (Lakers owner) Jeanie Buss and them really wanted to, that it was more just LeBron and (agent) Rich Paul who wanted Draymond in L.A.,” one Western Conference executive told Heavy Sports. “The Lakers have been focused on getting younger and Draymond is 32. That never made much sense. Look at the guys they got, they’re all young. But the problem for him is that everyone is looking to get younger. No one who has cap space wants a 32-year-old Draymond Green right now. It could be a cold, cold summer for Draymond.”
Pistons, Opt-In Among Draymond Green’s Next Moves
So where does that leave Green in his search for leverage on a new contract? In the wilderness.
One potential destination is the Pistons, and that remains a plausible option. Green is a Flint, Michigan, native who went to Michigan State and could be the kind of veteran addition to give the young Pistons a much-needed edge. Owner Tom Gores, a Michigan State guy, too, is known to be a Green fan. But again, Green is 32 and it would not make a whole lot of sense for the Pistons to spend the $25-30 million they will have in cap space to sign Green.
“He would love to play for the Pistons, there has never been any doubt about that,” one source with knowledge of the situation told Heavy Sports. “And they would love to have him, Gores has always wanted them to go after him. But that boat has sailed, you know? Unless Draymond wants to take something way below market value, why would the Pistons want to give him $30 million a year? They’re going to look to do something in free agency but they’re not making plans until they see how the draft lottery pans out.”
Green will have scant options outside the Pistons, and what seemed to be a highly unlikely option for Green a few months ago, before his reputation took a major hit with his preseason practice-court punch of teammate Jordan Poole, is now in play, too. If Green can’t drum up a major offer, he could simply opt into the final year of his contract, and either play out the deal with the Warriors in 2023-24 or work with the team to trade him to a new destination, where he could be re-signed using Bird Rights.
That could potentially bring the Lakers back into the mix on a Green deal.
“That is the thing that makes the most sense from the outside,” one Eastern Conference executive said. “He opts in, they send him somewhere else where the Warriors can get some assets back and he can still sign a contract next summer depending on how he plays. They (Green and Klutch) are not putting that out there yet, but that is something the Warriors would be OK with. That allows everyone to win.”
A Darkhorse for Draymond? Sacramento Kings
Ah, but there is a darkhorse in the Draymond situation—the Sacramento Kings.
If Green and his agents want to keep up some pressure on the Warriors for a new contract, Sacramento is the best bet. The Kings tried to find a taker for backup center Richaun Holmes at the deadline, and according to sources around the league, creating enough space to add Green in the summer was one of the end goals. Holmes is still on board, but the Kings are expected to look to dump his contract again in the offseason, giving the team space to add a major free agent to what is (finally) an up-and-coming team.
Sacramento has a trove of second-round picks it could attach to Holmes to get his two years and $24 million off the books. That would give the Kings plenty of room to add Green, and reunite him with head coach Mike Brown, a former Warriors assistant.
“That is the team to watch for me,” the West exec said. “They’re gonna make the playoffs and they’re gonna start thinking about bigger things, about guys who can add some toughness and make that part of the culture. You have Vivek (Ranadive, the Kings owner and former Warriors investory) there and he’s a Warriors guy. Mike Brown, Draymond is his kind of guy. He would make (De’Aaron) Fox and (Domantas) Sabonis that much better. If you want to go from a playoff team to being a team that, OK, we’re going to get to the second round, to the conference finals, Draymond is a fit there for them.”
The exec then laughed. “I mean, he had better hope that is how the Kings see it because he’s not gonna have a lot of other choices,” he said.
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