As things currently stand, Klay Thompson is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in 2019, while Draymond Green’s deal is set to expire in 2020. But Warriors owner Joe Lacob is planning to offer contract extensions to both players this summer.
“All good things cost a lot,” Lacob told ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne. “We’re going to try to sign Klay and Draymond to extensions this summer. They’ve earned the right to do whatever they want; maybe they want to wait until free agency. I can’t control that. But we’ll do whatever we can to keep them.”
In May, The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson reported that Klay and the Warriors had already begun discussing a team-friendly extension that would keep the four-time All-Star in the Bay Area for up to another five years.
Though Klay signing an extension this summer would be in the Warriors’ best interest (they enter the offseason $2 million over the salary cap), and provide Thompson financial security, he could earn significantly more money by letting his current deal run out, and signing a max-contract, worth $187.9 million in the summer of 2019.
Rumors are that Thompson, who seems to be extremely content with both his role, and his life in the Bay Area, would be willing to take such a pay cut, especially as it would give the organization more financial flexibility to re-sign both Kevin Durant and Green.
For what it’s worth, Klay’s father, Mychal Thompson, has indicated that a new deal for Klay isn’t likely to get hammered out until next offseason.
Green, who is slated to make around $36 million over the next two seasons, is essentially in the same boat as Thompson, and would undoubtedly be leaving money on the table if he were to agree to an extension before the 2020 offseason. His willingness to do so remains to be seen, as Green’s current deal (five-years, $82 million) was below max when he signed it in 2015.
“We’ve proven that if we think we’re competing for a championship, we’ll be in the luxury tax,” Lacob said. “No one wants to be, but we expect to be. All I can tell you is we’re going to sit down and do our planning on how we’re going to improve the team for the future and setting ourselves up in the future. And it could go a number of different ways.”