Draymond Green Reveals 2 Contract Routes He's Choosing from This Offseason

It's been a trying year for Draymond Green.

The 36-year-old is posting the worst plus/minus of his career, and the Warriors could finish under .500 for just the second time in his 14-year tenure.

Green is under contract for one more season—a player option worth $27.7 million. But he's not planning on 2026-27 being his last season.

Green told ESPN's Anthony Slater that he and his agent, Rich Paul, "had a very quick one minute talk" about what they should do with his contract this summer.

"Maybe you opt out and do a longer deal. Maybe you opt in and extend," Green said. "I earned it the right to be in this position. I won't misuse it. I won't abuse it. I never have. You don't get 14 years out of place if you were abusing it. All of that s--t matters."

Another option for Green is to opt out and see what his market would be in unrestricted free agency.

Slater had that covered in his reporting.

"The opt out to test unrestricted free agency isn't a route team or league sources are predicting," Slater wrote. "The expectation is that Green will either opt in—keeping him as a bulky $27.6 million expiring deal that the Warriors could either hold or move—or work out a multiyear extension starting at a lower number, signaling a greater likelihood he finishes his career with the Warriors."

Note that there is a difference between Green's quote and Slater's reporting. Green said one of his options is to opt in and extend, whereas Slater reported that Green could opt in and be on an expiring deal.

I suspect the latter (opt in with no extension) is far more likely than the former (opt in and then get extended).

What the Warriors Should Do with Green

Green earned this $27.7 million player option by agreeing to a discounted four-year deal prior to the 2023-24 season. This is the first season in more than a decade in which it's clear he's not worth that much, but if he opts in, he should apologize to no one.

With that said, the Warriors have to try to get that number down, and the best way to do that is to offer him a multiyear deal that has a lower 2026-27 salary but guarantees that Green makes more money overall.

For example, a two-year, $36 million deal would lower Green's 2026-27 salary to $18 million, but he would be guaranteed to make $36 million through 2027-28.

The alternative for Green is to opt in at $27.7 million and test unrestricted free agency in 2027 with the hope he can make at least $8.3 million for the 2027-28 season. Otherwise, he'd be losing money by not accepting my hypothetical two-year, $36 million offer this offseason.

The main sell to Green taking less in 2026-27 is that the Warriors would have more cap flexibility to improve the roster.

For example, Greeen would almost assuredly have to take a pay cut for the Warriors to have access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception (worth $15.1 million), which they could use to try to sign LeBron James.

Most players don't worry much about taking pay cuts to help their teams' front offices make moves, but Green is the type of player who could do that.

In 2018, Green said he took less money so that the Warriors could afford Kevin Durant in the summer of 2016.

It must be said that Steve Kerr having a contract that expires this offseason and Stephen Curry having a contract that expires after the 2026-27 season could factor into Green's contract decision.

There are so many moving parts that it's difficult to make a prediction on how this goes down.