Warriors forward Kevin Durant expected to opt out of contract at season’s end

Kevin Durant is set to opt out of his contract this summer and become an unrestricted free agent. But there is no reason to even think about him suiting up for any team but the Warriors next season.

No matter what happens during the Warriors quest for a fourth-consecutive trip to the NBA Finals, Kevin Durant will opt out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, according to ESPN. Don’t expect him in a new uniform next season, though. He plans on re-signing with the Warriors in a deal that will undoubtedly make up for the pay cut he took this past summer.

Durant has a $26.2 million player option that he is expected to decline to set himself up for a much larger contract for the 2018-19 season and beyond.

Last summer Durant signed a two-year, $51 million deal, which was about $10 million less than what his max contract would have been. The discount allowed the team to re-sign Shaun Livingston and Andre Iguodala, something general manager Bob Myers appreciated.

"“[Durant’s] gesture of taking less gave us the ability to be very aggressive in pursuing Shaun and Andre. I can pretty much unequivocally say, without it, we’re not looking at the team we have right now.”"

The same ESPN story laid out three potential deals that Durant could potentially sign this summer ranging from another two-year deal to set him up nicely when the salary cap jumps by $8 million in the summer of 2020 to a four-year max deal worth $158 million during the length of the contract.

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In the former scenario, Durant can opt out after the first year and sign a five-year max deal that would see his salary peak at $49.9 million in his fifth year.

No matter what happens, Durant and teammate Steph Curry should be the faces of the franchise for quite some time with Curry signing a 5-year, $201 million deal last summer — the first $200 million contract in NBA history.