Windhorst predicts how Draymond will approach player option originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
The Warriors are geared up to make another championship run in the upcoming 2022-23 NBA season. What comes next summer, though, remains a great mystery.
Among those looming question marks is Draymond Green’s contract. Green will be paid $25.8 million this season and has a player option for the 2023-24 NBA campaign worth $27.6 million. If Green opts out of that final year, he will become an unrestricted free agent when free agency opens next July.
On the latest episode of “The Hoop Collective,” NBA insider Brian Windhorst predicted how the Warriors’ forward will approach the final year of his contract.
“Do we think Draymond is opting out of that money, though?” Windhorst asked his co-hosts Tim MacMahon and Tim Bontemps of the player option.
“I wouldn’t rule it out,” MacMahon responded, with Bontemps agreeing.
“He’s certainly going to posture that he’s going to do that,” Windhorst said.
In late July, Anthony Slater and Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic reported, citing sources, that Green believes he deserves a maximum contract extension of four years. But the Warriors reportedly don’t plan on offering that deal — valued at $164.2 million over five years if he were to sign before the 2022-23 season — to Green.
For leverage in search of a new contract, Green could opt out of his player option, or threaten that he will. In that report by The Athletic, Green already has said he is “willing to explore his outside options to get the kind of contract he wants.”
The Warriors also have big decisions to make surrounding Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins, both entering the final seasons of their contracts. If Golden State doesn’t offer a rookie-scale extension to Poole by Oct. 17, the young guard will be a restricted free agent after the season. A critical piece of the Warriors’ championship run, Wiggins is set to be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
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But for now, Golden State can pocket the contract stress and focus on the present: Chasing another championship with the core of Green, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson intact.
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