Draymond Green remains on the market. While reports suggest the Warriors are confident that they can re-sign him, there will certainly be other suitors.
One of the obvious teams has been the Portland Trail Blazers. They have a veteran star in Damian Lillard who wants to compete.
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, Lillard, the Oakland native, is extremely interested in Green, even if the logistics of that move are a bit odd. In order for the Blazers to keep him around and invested in the organization, they need to make a win-now move. Green would be that:
So, what would it take to convince Lillard that Portland is still the place to be for the rest of his NBA days? Here’s one solution that is known to be a dream scenario from Lillard’s vantage point: Re-sign forward Jerami Grant and add four-time All-Star/four-time champion Draymond Green in free agency.
To execute that move, the Blazers would have to get a bit creative, and also likely convince the Warriors to execute a sign-and-trade.
That seems a tall order for an organization, that, by all accounts, wants to keep Green around.
While the Blazers have [Jerami] Grant’s Bird rights and can thus re-sign him despite being over the salary cap, they currently have no room to sign someone of Green’s ilk. Especially considering he’s likely looking for a deal in the mid-$20 million range annually. There are sign-and-trade pathways to be explored, and likely with a third team needing to be involved, but it’s an implausible prospect to say the least.
And again, all signs point to Green wanting to stay put [with Golden State].
That last part is the obvious part of the equation. If the Warriors give Green the offer he’s looking for, likely a three-year deal that takes him to the 15-year mark in his career (the point at which he said he’d like to retire), it’s hard to imagine him heading elsewhere.
