JULY 7: The Warriors have made it official, announcing that the team has re-signed Durant.
JUNE 30: Kevin Durant will inform the Warriors tonight that he prefers a one-year contract with a player option for 2019/20, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times.
Durant intends to sign a contract for those terms sometime after the moratorium ends, according to ESPN’s Chris Haynes (Twitter link). It will provide the maximum that Durant can receive on a one-year deal based on his 2017/18 salary, giving him $30MM next season with a $31.5MM option for 2019/20 (Twitter link).
The move saves some money next season for the Warriors, who will be well into the luxury tax, and it sets Durant up for a possible five-year contract with full Bird Rights next summer, when the cap is projected to rise to $109MM.
Golden State currently holds Early Bird rights on Durant, which would permit him to sign for a salary starting at $35,654,150. However, an Early Bird contract can’t span fewer than two guaranteed years, so the team will have to use his Non-Bird rights to honor Durant’s request. That will mean a 20% increase, taking him from $25MM to $30MM.
That savings of about $5.6MM will be huge for the Warriors, who face a significant tax bill for every dollar they spend. They may now be more inclined to use their taxpayer mid-level exception, which starts at $5.337MM.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I want a supermodel girlfriend and to win the lottery, but we can’t all have what we want Kevin
Is there any doubt that they’ll give it to him? What leverage does GSW have? It’s actually to their benefit as it protects against a long-term injury.
Why do I feel like LBJ will sign a 1 and 1 too and maybe he and KD end up somewhere together the 2nd year?
Why not just team up this year then? But I guess KD could go 3 titles in a row and 3 finals MVPs in a row.
I don’t know? Maybe KD wants to catch up with LBJ and get his 3rd and then go somewhere together on equal footing in terms of # of rings? Maybe his team sees the following season as a better market place in terms of UFA like Kawhi if he’s not traded to LA this year?
KD’s rings don’t mean anything compared to Lebron’s.
LeBron…who won his first two with the help of Bosh, Wade, and Ray Allen – 2 HoFs and a potential one. Yeah…
A ring is a ring, the Yankees build superteams all the time and no one has that same energy for them that they do when they hate on KD and the Warriors.
M.J. won 6 titles in 6 attempts, Bill Russell 11 in 13, LeBron 3 in 9, next year makes 3 in 4 along with 3 mvp’s, and it’ll be 4 in 5 years for Steph, Klay. Draymond, Iggy, and Livingston. Klay wants to spend his career with Steph and KD is giving money back to help the team. I like that! KD really likes this team. He goes nowhere. This team will keep winning as long as they stay together.
That’s 3 in 4 with 3 mvp’s for KD. I doubt he cares about what the media says. He’s focused on his teammates.
There isn’t a basketball player with the initials lbj, so who are you referring to?
He can
And he’ll get it. Discounted 1 year deal with a favorable salary for him and the team. Leave a few sheckels to pursue other assets
How many years is he going to do this routine for
Why does it matter? Seems GS is happy with it.
Dear NBA,
Please put in a hard salary cap this is lame as hell.
Sincerely,
everyone else but Golden State fans
I can’t stand Curry and Durant has been saving his career the past two seasons. Klay and Curry got it easy with Durant out there, he should leave.
The haters crack me up. Jealous? Yep! But if your team was doing the same thing they would be geniuses.
Golden State = Dynasty!
Yeah, can’t argue with that point except that it not being my team gives me a more neutral mindset, because I harbor no hatred toward GSW and I do believe that dynasties can be a good thing for sports. However, they basically only got to this point because the players rejected cap smoothing proposals. If the cap didn’t spike 20 million in one year or whatever it was, this doesn’t happen. They really should have a hard cap. The only argument against a hard cap seems to be promoting continuity, which doesn’t seem to be happening anyways. You could also argue that max salaries play a huge role in this because if KD had to decide between 25% of GSW’s cap or 60% of it from Brooklyn, that might be a more difficult decision.
Except it was years in the making, and tons of other teams planned for it as well, Durant just wanted to join the warriors. And he wanted to join them before they beat him. How do you think half of these teams formed? I’m sorry the warriors gave money to Durant instead of deng…
I mean try thinking before you talk.
What do you mean think before I talk?? I just said that they got Durant because the cap spiked, which is true, and that removing max salaries would increase parity…
Plus Warriors fans had to sit through like 20 years of being the worst team almost every single year, this is a great reward for the long-time fans.
Which is most sports fans in the bay area. Look at the attendance numbers and t.v. ratings before the “dynasty”, it wasn’t anything like the rest of the crappy teams in the league. The bay like sports.
Also, Americans like greatness. It’s a huge part of America.
The bay area itself is a huge part of America. 7 million pop, 3 times more than Sacto. So there should be tickets sold.
KD can have what he wants & more he is a machine playing ball, & I agree he has made Curry look good, I think Curry is an awesome shooter, but the press & fans do overhype him, apart of shooting he doesn’t do much else, average passer & vision, average defence, is a shoot first PG, Golden State is KD’s team.
Made Curry look good? He was an MVP. The only unanimous MVP every. Hes a great passser. The team doesnt run through the point guard because they run an inside out style. Educate yourself.
It’s not KD or Steph’s team. These guys are in it together, along with Steve Kerr. They are comparing them to M.J.’s Bulls now. Steph is an excellent passer and a good defender. I like them personally too because Steph and Klay’s dad were good pro’s. Steph dad was a deadeye long range shooter. And Steph’s wife had had her own show on the Cooking Network.
I love Riley too.
Curry is arguably the best dribbler/ball handler in the league. He s a top passer and inside scorer. If it wasn’t for his defense he might be the best player in the league, and his defense is above average/very good. Try not to kid yourself. There isn’t a better point guard in the league.
Average passer? Just cancel your cable subscription, it’s obvious you aren’t watching.
I have nothing but love and respect for the Warriors. The fans showed up in Oakland for decades to watch abysmal teams. The post RUN TMC teams had the longest playoff drought in North American sports. Now, they play team ball with beautiful passing and great unselfishness. I love watching Durant’s midrange fade always and his ball handling.
I watched a lot of games with my hand slapping my forehead. Glad they are fun to watch now.
Only because the cubs finally won one.
I think the Knicks are going to try to get Kyrie and Butler next year and if they can’t they’ll try for Kyrie and Durant. Wouldn’t be surprised one but if they make it happen.
Durant has never once mentioned wanting to be anywhere near near new york.
Danny Ainge says Kyrie isn’t going anywhere.