Woj: Warriors' Draymond Green Will 'Almost Assuredly' Exercise $27.6M Contract Option

There are major questions surrounding Draymond Green's future, especially because he can become a free agent next offseason if he declines his $27.6 million contract option for the 2023-24 campaign and the Warriors signed Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins to lucrative extensions already.

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, however, Green declining his option is unlikely:

"For Draymond Green, with that $27-and-a-half million option next season, almost assuredly he's going to exercise that. Not sure that that money is going to be in a long-term deal—he's in his mid-30s—available in the marketplace. Listen, two years left on his deal, and there can be room for an extension at the end of those two years or a new deal that probably is south of that $27-and-a-half, $28 million—perhaps isn't a raise off of that. But if the Warriors are winning and Draymond is still a highly productive player and wants to be there, I don't think it means that his days are necessarily numbered in Golden State." "

For Green, the calculus is simple—he's going to seek the most amount of money the market will bear in a place he wants to play. If he's still happy in Golden State, there's a chance the 32-year-old will decide that picking up his option next year is the best move.

The situation is much more complicated for the Warriors.

Because Poole was signed to a four-year extension worth up to $140 million and Wiggins inked a four-year, $109 million extension, the Dubs would be on the books for about $214 million on the active roster cap if Green and Donte DiVincenzo ($4.7 million) picked up their player options next season and the Warriors exercised the rookie-deal options on James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, per Spotrac.

That would put them an estimated $52 million over the luxury tax threshold, meaning their tax bill alone would raise to above $260 million, alongside their payroll obligations.

Those are breathtaking figures, to say the least, and surely ones that even a Warriors franchise that has not shied away from splashing the cash wants to pay. That means someone is going to be the odd man out, either via trade or a natural divorce in free agency, though for now general manager Bob Myers is taking a wait-and-see approach.

"If you would have asked me a year ago today if we would be paying Poole and Wiggins this, I probably would not have believed you," he told reporters over the weekend. "So we have to take it year to year. I can't evaluate what we're going to do next offseason until we see what happens this season, and whatever it is, it is. I just know this. There's a huge commitment to winning. There always has been. I imagine there always will be and I'm lucky to be in a group that believes that. Their actions prove it, so we'll see what happens this season and go from there."

In the past, Green—a crucial part of the team's four championships in the past eight years—would have likely been considered an untouchable figure as the keystone of the team's defense, an important offensive playmaker and a key vocal leader.

But Green punching Poole in the face certainly complicated his relationship with both his teammates and the organization. And it's hard to ignore that while the Warriors worked out lucrative extensions with Poole and Wiggins, Green's situation remains far murkier.

The natural conclusion is that Green's days in Golden State are numbered, one way or another. Even a trade, at some point this season, doesn't seem implausible. If the Dubs don't go that route, however, it's possible that the divorce won't happen for another two years given Green's player option.