The Warriors continued to build a case in 2017/18 to be considered the most impressive NBA dynasty of the 21st century, taking home their third title in four years. Golden State now has a staggering 265-63 (.808) regular-season record since the start of the 2014/15 campaign, and if it weren’t for a collapse in the 2016 NBA Finals, the club would enter the 2018/19 season in search of its fifth straight championship.
No dynasty lasts forever, but three of the Warriors’ four stars remain under contract for 2018/19, and Kevin Durant is a virtual lock to re-sign once the new league year begins. As long as those four players remain on the roster, the organization’s championship window isn’t closing anytime soon.
Here are five key questions facing the franchise this summer:
1. What will Durant’s new contract look like?
An April report indicated that Durant would turn down his 2018/19 player option and sign a new deal with the Warriors, and the two-time Finals MVP essentially confirmed as much this month. Meanwhile, general manager Bob Myers has stated publicly that Golden State is willing to give Durant “whatever he wants” on his new contract after the star forward took a team-friendly discount a year ago.
Durant is in a somewhat unusual situation though, so there’s no obvious answer as to what he’ll want. Having agreed to 1+1 contracts in each of the last two summers, he’s ineligible to sign such a deal this year unless he once again settles for less than the maximum. The Early Bird exception prohibits players from signing one-year deals or two-year deals with a second-year option. In order to sign a contract with that structure, the club would have to use the Non-Bird exception, which would limit Durant’s salary to $30MM, well below his projected $35.35MM max.
As such, it might be time for Durant to sign a long-term max contract. However, without full Bird rights, he’s limited to four years rather than five. Of course, a four-year, maximum-salary deal would still result in a massive payday (approximately $158MM based on current cap projections), but if Durant is willing to wait one more year for long-term security, it might make sense for him to accept that one-year, $30MM contract for 2018/19.
In that scenario, Durant would be eligible for a five-year max contract a year from now, when the cap is expected to make a larger jump. If the cap increases to $108MM – the current projection – for 2019/20, a five-year deal could be worth up to approximately $219MM, which would make up for taking less than the max again in ’18/19.
2. Will the Warriors extend Klay Thompson and/or Draymond Green this offseason?
With Stephen Curry locked up for the next four seasons and Durant a candidate to sign a long-term contract this offseason, the Warriors’ focus could shift to their other two All-Stars. Green has two years and $36MM left on his current contract, while Thompson will earn $19MM in the final year of his deal in 2018/19. Both will be extension-eligible this summer.
In the wake of the Warriors’ NBA Finals win, owner Joe Lacob suggested that the team will make an effort to extend both Thompson and Green in the coming months, but one is a more realistic possibility than the other. Green, who says he took a modest discount on his last deal to help accommodate the Dubs’ pursuit of Durant, will reportedly turn down any extension offer he receives from the club this year. That’s not a surprise — he’s still two years away from the open market, and his earning potential would be higher as a free agent.
Thompson, however, is a more interesting case. The low-maintenance star appears to be perfectly happy in Golden State, so even though he could maximize his earning potential by waiting until free agency to sign a new contract, he may be open to getting something done early. In fact, the two sides have already had discussions about a new deal.
The NBA’s rules related to veteran extensions limit Thompson’s maximum extension to four years for about $102MM, which is well below the max, but it’s still a significant sum. If he were to tack that onto the end of his current contract, it would total approximately $121MM over the next five years. Those numbers might strike a perfect balance between how high the Warriors are willing to go to keep their core intact and how far below the max Thompson is willing to go to remain in a perfect situation.