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Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers prepared to give Kevin Durant ‘whatever he wants’ in contract negotiations

Jay Asser

16:28 12/06/2018

Everyone hoping the Golden State Warriors dynasty breaks up this summer will likely have to wait a little longer, with the team and Kevin Durant appearing to be on the same page in regards to his immediate future.

After helping the Warriors repeat as champions with their third title in four years and winning Finals MVP in the process, Durant has been vocal about his desire to remain in Golden State.

Even though it will likely cost the franchise quite a bit of money to retain him, Warriors general manager Bob Myers expressed the orgranisation is prepared to give Durant “whatever he wants” in contract negotiations this summer.

“Sometimes you don’t negotiate. I’d love to have him for 10 years. Kevin Durant, look what he did for us last year. He did us a great service,” Myers said.

“He’s earned the right to sign whatever deal he wants. I just want him to sign a deal. But [I] want him to be happy and want him to know that we want him as long as he wants to be here. He’s earned that, to kind of lay out the terms.

“He can do whatever he wants. That shouldn’t be a long negotiation. Our goal, to be honest, is to try to keep the whole thing together, so that’s the pieces of the puzzle we’ve got to try to figure out.”

Last year, Durant agreed to a discounted two-year, $51.25 million deal instead of inking a max contract so Golden State could keep Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, while handing Stephen Curry the five-year max.

This summer, Durant could sign for as much as four years at around $160 million, which the Warriors are apparently more than happy to do to retain their championship core.

Golden State are slated to be in the luxury tax as it is, but signing Durant to the max would hamper their ability to fill out the rest of the roster even more.

The contracts of Nick Young, Zaza Pachulia, David West, JaVale McGee, Kevon Looney and Patrick McCaw will all come off the books, leaving the Warriors with plenty of decisions as to who to bring back and who to use their roster spots on.

If Durant opts for a max deal, his contract would align with Curry’s, running until 2022. Meanwhile, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are scheduled to hit free agency in the summer of 2019 and 2020, respectively, meaning Golden State will have to either get creative, or foot a historic tax bill to keep their core four together.

That could open the door for at least one of the foursome to leave in the coming years in order to maximise their financial earnings, but it doesn’t seem like that will be the case with Durant this summer.

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