Draymond Green is one of the best defensive players in the league, and there’s no doubt that he has been crucial for the Golden State Warriors throughout his tenure with the team.
Despite that, many believe that Draymond Green could potentially leave the Golden State Warriors, especially due to his recent altercation with Jordan Poole. In fact, Stephen A. Smith has claimed that Draymond Green wants to join the Lakers in the future.
“I can tell you right now, [Andrew] Wiggins and Poole are a priority,” Smith said. “I can tell you right now that Draymond Green is expecting this to be his last year in Golden State. Now, he wanna be a Laker. He ain’t gonna tell anybody that, but don’t think I don’t know. He’d prefer to be a Laker if he gotta leave Golden State. But he looking for a payday. He gonna get $25 million this year. He got a player option for $24 million next year. The Warriors are probably hoping he don’t opt in because they’d have to pay him on top of the cats that they know that they gotta pay in Poole and Wiggins.”
Warriors insider Tim Kawakami of The Athletic shared his thoughts on Draymond Green in a recent article, and Kawakami suggested that Green’s future with the Warriors is “in serious doubt”, noting that he did not get the “max contract extension he wanted”, adding that “he may never get it”.
Draymond’s future with this team beyond this season is in serious doubt. He’s not getting the max contract extension he wanted this summer and he may never get it. He has a player option next season; he’s obviously hurt his value throughout the league with this incident, but he can re-establish a lot of it with another great season. Maybe he can re-establish it with the Warriors, too.
But there’s a luxury-tax crunch hitting the Warriors in July. Team executives were already not sure they wanted to make a full recommitment to Draymond before he hit Poole. Even if they were hoping the punch would be just another blip they got past, once video went public there was no way it would ever be forgotten. It’s indelible. And it’s obvious that there’s even less allegiance to Draymond within the Warriors’ leadership now. And when and if Draymond understands that, he might start planning his exit, too.
It would be tough for Warriors fans to see Draymond Green leave. He has been a great leader for the franchise, and he will forever be viewed as a team legend. However, there comes a time when business decisions have to be made by the franchise, and Draymond Green also has to make the right decisions for himself.
The Warriors Could Still Win It All
Even though there has been a lot of drama around the Warriors this preseason, the team could still end up winning a championship based on the talent on the roster. They have largely retained the same squad as their 2022 championship team, and some young players such as Moses Moody, James Wiseman, and Jonathan Kuminga look ready to make a leap.
Hopefully, the Golden State Warriors end up moving past all the noise and coming together to win a championship. They are definitely a very good defensive team, and with Stephen Curry, another title is definitely not out of the question.
