The Golden State Warriors just keep winning this year. They get another championship after signing Kevin Durant last summer and now Durant is doing them a favor by opting out of his current contract and reworking another one. He could have made max money, but took a bit of a discount so the Warriors could keep guys like Shaun Livingston and Andre Iguodala.
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ESPN Sources: Kevin Durant will agree to re-sign with Golden State on a two-year, approximately $53 million deal, league sources tell ESPN.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 3, 2017
Typo on option, obviously. Durant will sign a one-plus-one, with a player option for 2018-19. $25 million 1st yr (Max would've been 34.5)
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 3, 2017
And the $31.8M salary for this coming season was a give-back itself, the 20% raise with non-Bird Rights, which is less than actual max.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) July 3, 2017
RELATED: Warriors re-sign Andre Iguodala
And it would appear that he was willing to give even more back if the Warriors had been unable to bring back Iguodala.
Side story about Durant: If Andre Iguodala had left, I'm told Durant was going to give even more than this back to make room for Rudy Gay.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 3, 2017
Durant clearly is interested in winning more rings and that means being able to bring role guys back to compete and do the dirty work he doesn't necessarily want to do. This kind of deal is the way to do it and he's given himself the chance to opt out again next year and do something similar if he likes the situation the Warriors are in after another season together.
