After the Draymond Green-Kevin Durant feud, for which Green was suspended without pay for one game, an anonymous teammate told Marcus Thompson of The Athletic that there is “no way” Durant re-signs with the team after this season:
“With what was said, there is already no way Durant is coming back,” one player said. “The only hope is that they can say this summer, ‘See, KD. We’ve got your back. We protected you from Draymond.’ ”
Ethan Sherwood Strauss, who covers Golden State for The Athletic, however, says that there is “an expectation” that the Durant and Green can play together:
Strauss on Kevin Durant and Draymond Green:
"From what people are telling me, I don't think that there's an expectation that these two guys can play with each other down the line"https://t.co/9IC0Zb9HET
— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) November 14, 2018
Strauss added more insight on the situation:
Strauss:
"All I'll say is this has been building for a while. That, Draymond didn't just starting treating KD like this one game in… and got this reaction. This is something that has been going for an extended period of time…. More than a few weeks"
— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) November 14, 2018
Strauss says Draymond Green told Steve Kerr to "Suck my d*ck" during their halftime locker room issue in OKC back in February of 2016.
— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) November 14, 2018
So many tidbits from @SherwoodStrauss in this pod. He also speculates the Warriors could be looking to not pay Draymond Green
"They want to choose KD over Draymond… And they want to choose not Draymond over Draymond, if Draymond wants over $200 mil"https://t.co/9IC0Zb9HET
— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) November 14, 2018
Strauss:
"I think the Warriors have questions about how much they wana pay Draymond. He's gonna be on the other side of 30 when that contract starts. Do they wana pay him $200 mil?"https://t.co/9IC0Zb9HET
— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) November 14, 2018
Thompson also expressed a duality between the Warriors’ players and management:
Durant’s teammates have made it clear privately they aren’t on board for another Please-Stay-KD tour. And Durant has said he doesn’t want to be recruited. But the decision to suspend Green publicly seems to be a signal from management that they do care about recruiting Durant.
Durant has won two championships since signing with the Warriors. He was named Finals MVP both times. He has an player option in his contract after this season, meaning he can opt out and become an unrestricted free agent.
