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Fresh off his dominant 43-point performance in Golden State’s Game 3 win, Kevin Durant told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols on Thursday that he will re-sign with the Warriors this offseason.
Kevin Durant confirms he’ll be re-signing with the Golden State Warriors, reports @Rachel__Nichols.
— MyNBAUpdate (@MyNBAUpdate) June 7, 2018
This comes as no surprise. Durant has said all along that he wants to remain with Golden State, which is one win away from securing its third NBA Finals win in four seasons, launching a legitimate dynasty.
The question regarding Durant’s contract talks is how his deal will be structured.
In the summer of 2016, Durant signed a two-year deal with a player option in Year 2. Instead of pursuing a super-max contract last offseason, he opted out of his two-year deal, making $25 million this season, fewer than he did during the 2016-17 campaign with the Warriors. He took a $10 million pay cut so the Warriors could retain Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston.
It does not seem Durant will repeat this exercise.
“$10 million? Would that be smart?” Durant asked Tim Kawakami and Marcus Thompson in their Warriors Plus/Minus Podcast earlier this year. “I thought that at that time it was a good deal. But I can’t — that’s not setting a good precedent for me.”
Durant and the Warriors will work out the contract specifics later. For now, the news of Durant’s reported return to the Warriors is a huge positive, though this was expected.