If the Golden State Warriors want Giannis Antetokounmpo, a trade cannot happen without Draymond Green.
This isn’t just a player value thing. This is about salary cap matching that’s required by NBA rules.
The Milwaukee Bucks may move Giannis this summer, and if he’s on the block, the Warriors seem likely to be interested.
And unless they want to trade Steph Curry or Jimmy Butler instead, it looks like Draymond will have to go.
How Draymond Green makes a Giannis trade possible
The NBA’s salary cap matching rules mean that Antetokounmpo’s big salary can’t go to the Warriors in a trade unless close-to-equal money moves the other way.
In this case, the Warriors’ three contracts big enough to help that cause are Curry, Butler and Green.
Getting Giannis would be done to have him play with Steph and Jimmy, so Draymond looks like the odd man out.
“Because of the lack of sizable contracts beyond Curry and Jimmy Butler III, Draymond Green and his $27.7 million salary would be required to make any Giannis deal work,” ESPN’s Bobby Marks wrote in a new article on Thursday. “Curry, Butler and Green constitute 79% of the Warriors’ payroll next season, leaving six players (Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos, Al Horford, Will Richard and De’Anthony Melton) each earning less than $13 million. Green, Horford and Melton have player options and can’t be traded unless they opt-in to their contracts.”
It wouldn’t be just Green, though.
The Warriors have four first-round picks they can trade, Marks writes: the 11th pick in this draft and 2028, 2030 top-20 protected and 2032.
With Green, a few other players and a bunch of picks, maybe that’d be enough to pull off a blockbuster. It wouldn’t leave the Warriors with a lot of assets, but it might be a price worth paying.