A big contract extension was handed out by Golden State to Draymond Green and it could have implications stemming to the Chicago Bulls.
The Chicago Bulls didn’t make any big moves during the summer to extend players that were currently under contract. John Paxson and Gar Forman did bring back point guard Ryan Arcidiacono and combo guard Shaquille Harrison this summer, but neither was the result of a contract extension. Both were free agents if the Bulls were not to sign them to new contracts during the offseason.
However, the Golden State Warriors made a move to break the silence that was the news cycle in early August in the NBA. The Warriors got star forward Draymond Green for a good contract that will never take him over (or even close to touching) $30 million through five years. The contract extension for Green now is worth $100 million over the course of four years.
This point of the NBA offseason doesn’t have all that much going on until the FIBA World Cup tips off. In effect, there will be a lot of pundits in the local media for the Warriors and the national media for the NBA in general intensely breaking down the extension Green received.
What makes this good for the Warriors is the fact that it looks to be a great move. Green might’ve been a candidate for max contract level money next summer since it was such a weak free agent class. But now Green and Portland Trail Blazers star shooting guard CJ McCollum are both extended and off the market.
On ESPN’s ‘Get Up’, former Bulls guard Jalen Rose stated that he thought the Warriors made a “brilliant decision” to get Green to this amount of money.
And Warriors head coach Steve Kerr reportedly is “thrilled” about the move to keep Green around for an even longer period of time after this extension.
If the Warriors continue to remain relevant, even after the loss of superstar Kevin Durant to the Brooklyn Nets, this is a move to help them keep in contention for two or three more seasons. The Warriors will get Klay Thompson back later on next season, so we’ll see what this team will look like in the post-KD era.
However, how does this contract extension impact a team like the Bulls?
With Draymond and McCollum off the free agent market for next summer, GarPax should put even less of an emphasis on keeping the books clean for 2020. The summer of 2021 will be the prime time for the Bulls to go after premier free agents.
This could also impact how free agents and contract extensions are treated with a class as weak as it will be next year. That could be an indication for GarPax to hand out future extensions to a player like small forward Otto Porter Jr. or power forward Lauri Markkanen when the time is right.
This contract extension for Draymond will take him into his mid-30’s. He’ll be a key piece on the cap sheet for the Warriors for a long time, whether he is still a contributor on a regular basis or not. Up front, this looks like a good move for the Warriors and could have an impact that stems all the way to the Chicago Bulls.