Source: Green has option, Steph and Klay don't

ByNick Friedell ESPN logo
Monday, August 5, 2019

Like fellow Golden State Warriors cornerstones Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, Draymond Green now has a long-term deal with the team. Unlike the star guards, however, Green has a player option, a league source told ESPN.

The fourth-year option in Green's new $100 million extension would allow Green to go after even more guaranteed dollars in the future if he can continue producing at a high level and stay in the kind of shape that garnered praise throughout the organization during the end of the regular season and playoffs. The Athletic earlier reported news of the option language in Green's contract.

Green's extension also includes a trade kicker similar to that of Curry and Thompson. If Green were to get traded next summer, his 15 percent kicker would equate to an extra $11 million.

Green is just the 22nd player in the league with this kind of kicker in his contract.

Much like Curry and Thompson before him, Green has been open about how much being part of the Warriors organization means to him. He never doubted that he would stay long term.

Thompson signed a five-year, $190 million dollar extension last month, and Curry is entering into the third year of $201 million dollar, five-year max deal.

"I'm confident that I'll be here for a very long time," Green said during media day at the opening of last season. "So it's not something I'm going into the season thinking about. Like all that stuff will be taken care of when it's best for me, when it's best for the team. I'm not looking at this one-sided like, 'Oh man, I've, gotta do what's right for Draymond.' It's a partnership. And it's a family. And doing the right thing for everyone involved is important.

"And when the time is right, you know, all that stuff will be taken care of. But I'm not going into the season thinking about it."

Green's deal is likely the last major move in an eventful monthlong stretch of wheeling and dealing for the Warriors.

After the departure of Kevin Durant to the Brooklyn Nets on the first night of free agency, the Warriors rebounded by executing a sign-and-trade deal with the Nets for All-Star guard D'Angelo Russell. The Warriors gave Russell a four-year, $117 million max contract of his own, with Warriors general manager Bob Myers publicly pushing back on leaguewide speculation that Russell was only acquired to be moved as part of a different deal in the future.

The Warriors move into Chase Center in San Francisco next month feeling comfortable that their core group of players is locked in for years to come.

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