Draymond Green’s chest stomp has put the Warriors in a huge hole and may have been the final straw for the Warriors. Who could benefit if he leaves?
The writing has been on the wall for the Warriors and Draymond Green for a while. Last summer, the Warriors committed roughly $249 million to Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole over the next four years but didn’t reach an extension agreement with Draymond Green. There was the fight (sucker-punch) with Poole, and candid comments that he wasn’t going to think about next season until it was time. All year, the Warriors’ chemistry has seemed off and rumors about the Lakers’ interest in Green have been persistent.
Green has a roughly $28 million player option for next season and the decision about staying or leaving is, ostensibly up to him. But if the Warriors make clear that they won’t offer him a lucrative-enough extension (or an extension of any kind), he may decide now is the time to opt out and try and sign one more longish-term deal before he turns 34.
Now technically, teams can’t actually begin the recruiting process until the free agency negotiation period opens this summer but we all know those rules are mostly for show. Teams and players have a way to handle these conversations behind the scenes. Even if the Warriors are able to turn things around against the Kings these teams should be planning some quiet contact the second the Warriors are officially eliminated.
These teams should be back-channeling to Draymond Green as soon as the Warriors are eliminated:
3. Dallas Mavericks
The Kyrie Irving gamble was a disaster (or, a rapid unscheduled disassembly in rocket scientist parlance). Even if the Mavericks want him back there’s no guarantee that Kyrie would return and it seems likely they’ll have a decent amount of cap space between his deal coming off the books, the expiring of Christian Wood and Dwight Powell and the non-guaranteed deal for Reggie Bullock.
The stakes for the Mavs are incredibly high, not just getting this team back on track but demonstrating to Luka Doncic that they’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish that. Draymond is another strong personality but he’s problematic in different ways from Kyrie and his defense, physicality, intensity and competitiveness should all appeal highly to Doncic (and, sigh, Jason Kidd).
Luka hasn’t demonstrated a dramatic willingness to work off the ball but Draymond has almost no interest in scoring and the way his facilitating has helped Steph Curry could sell Doncic on giving up the ball a bit more. The Mavs also should have the room to make a decent offer to Draymond and still add some other useful pieces to really try and reset before Doncic has had enough.