As has been rumored for months, the Golden State Warriors expect one of the franchise’s greatest players to opt out before the start of NBA free agency on July 1.
Despite having all of the key pieces from their 2022 championship team, the Golden State Warriors had a very difficult season in 2022-2023. It started with a fistfight between teammates in camp. It included a weird run of terrible play on the road and featured injuries and porous defense.
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While they seemed to have gotten their act together just in time for the playoff, the Golden State Warriors’ journey to repeat ended in the semifinals against rivals the Los Angeles Lakers. Clearly, this team is not championship-level anymore, and head coach Steve Kerr admitted as much following their postseason elimination.
However, while changes to the roster were expected but the biggest might be completely out of the organization’s control. Team great Draymond Green only has one year left in his current contract. But the four-time All-Star has the option to opt out of the deal and there have been rumblings since well before the season ended that he plans to exercise that clause. On Friday, there seemed to be confirmation that he will use it.
Golden State Warriors record (’22-’23): 44-38
On Friday, ESPN NBA insider Marc J. Spears reported on what the Golden State Warriors expect Green to do this month.
“The Warriors expect Draymond Green to opt out of the final year of his $26 million contract, I’m being told. But [owner] Joe Lacob, [General manager Mike] Dunleavy, the Warriors are going to do everything in their power, if he does as expected, to bring him back.”
– Marc J. Spears
- Draymond Green stats (’22-’23): 8.5 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 6.8 APG, 1.0 SPG, 31% 3PT
The future Hall-of-Famer is sure to get a good amount of interest from contending teams looking to get that final piece for a title run before the CBA makes having multiple stars difficult.