If he thinks he’s worn out his welcome with the Warriors, other scenarios could become tempting. On the other hand, it could mean that he’s still willing to take less money for the right situation. It would be a shocker if Thompson didn’t re-sign. He didn’t leave out of spite of Russell Westbrook, like Shaq did with Kobe, but there was ce. League sources, to no surprise, expect the Warriors to offer full, five-year max contracts to both Klay and KD this summer. He wants to get paid now after sacrificing earlier, and staying with Golden State is the best way to do it. Now you might say, but he was third seed with OKC and went to the Western Conference Finals, how was he not winning He wasn’t winning championships and Finals MVPs. On the surface, that could be a good thing for the Warriors. In order to facilitate a max-contract offer for Stephen Curry, he accepted less than the max ahead of the 2017-18 campaign. There’s one other significant piece to consider here: Durant has already given the Warriors a discount once.
You can’t blame the NBA for not incentivizing stars to stay put.
So not only is the figure smaller, but so is the length of the contract. Any deal he inks with a team other than the Warriors would cap out at $164 million over the next four years.
Meanwhile, if he were to sign elsewhere during 2019 NBA free agency, he wouldn’t get nearly as much money. That would be plenty of dough for Durant to stack. The former NBA MVP qualifies for the super-max extension, which would guarantee him an estimated $221 million over the next five years. Well, as you all probably know, the way for Durant to get as much money as he can on his next contract would be to re-sign with the Warriors.