Recruiting James failed! $27.7 million for one year! Draymond Green returns to the Warriors at original price

The 36-year-old Warriors veteran Draymond Green will accept aa one-year, $27.7 millioncontract to return to Golden State.

At the end of June, he decisively chose to opt out of his contract, voluntarily giving up a $20 million annual salary to become a fully unrestricted free agent.

The biggest purpose, without a doubt, was to help the team clear cap space to bring in LeBron, even with the ambition of forming a four-star lineup of Curry, James, Davis, and Green.

During this process, Draymond also did a lot of recruiting work.

However, after much consideration, James ultimately chose to join the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Warriors' all-out superstar recruitment plan was completely declared a failure, with the grand reinforcement plan coming to an abrupt halt.

So, what now?

Including in Monday's chat room, many guys asked, why is there no movement from the Warriors?

From a realistic perspective, it's likely that things will remain as they are.

I know that when Green's extension contract came out, some fans would think it's expensive, even comparing it to the cost of several Jameses.

But in reality, there's no comparison.

If Draymond hadn't chosen to opt out of his contract, he could still earn this money.

Now the Warriors are offering the original price, so it's fair to say both sides are being generous.

In this era of the NBA, players with annual salaries over $20 million are nothing new.

Green's decline at this age is quite noticeable.

But if you look at high-level games, his defensive positioning, pick-and-roll coordination, and team morale boosting are still top-tier among system players in the league. He is the soul hub of the Warriors' pass-and-cut system.

After all these years, he can still play well with Curry, and it's really hard to find a replacement.

Therefore, Draymond Green's stay also preserves the Warriors' team culture.

Taking this opportunity, let's briefly talk about the Warriors next season.

After failing to pursue James, the team only relies on internal extensions and rookie reinforcements to complete the roster. The salary cap is locked by the core players' max contracts, with no extra room to add quality role players.

The current contracts of the Warriors' three core players—Curry, Butler, and Draymond—will all expire next summer. Their combined salaries for the new season are close to $147 million.

Curry, Podziemski, Butler (after recovery), Draymond, and Porzingis could be the starting lineup.

Then on the bench, there are Horford, Bassey, Moody, Lendborg, Melton, and Bessie.

If we were to praise it, this lineup's offensive and defensive system is mature and highly compatible. In simple terms, it's "familiar" and can play well together.

However, the hidden concerns are also obvious.

When will Jimmy come back? What will his condition be after returning? Nobody knows.

Besides that, the Warriors and Lakers share a similar problem: lack of athleticism.

A few days ago, some guys asked Brother Di (my opinion is that for the Lakers to make the playoffs directly would be a success), why I'm not optimistic about the Purple and Gold.

The reason is that today's NBA has long left behind the era of traditional half-court slugfests.

The pace of offense and defense has greatly accelerated. Teams are extremely dependent on lateral quickness, individual explosiveness, switchability, and fast transition defense. They are good at using continuous attacks, mismatch targeting, and transition offense to break down static, aging lineups...

The strong teams in the league, from the Knicks to the Spurs and Thunder, are they not all built on players' outstanding athleticism?

The Lakers, they've assembled a bunch of white athletes.

The Warriors, not only old but also short.

So... in critical games like the play-in tournament, or in high-intensity, high-tempo playoff battles, the problems of slow switching, slow transition defense, and lack of driving ability will be fully exposed.

My words will definitely be criticized by the two major fan bases, but I'm just stating my opinion.

If I only said things to please them, that would be pointless...