msudaisy26
Footballguy
Sure, it's nice to say pay people past their prime when it's not your money. Yes, they helped make the Warriors a winning organization, but what happens in a couple of years when Klay and Dray cost a combined $100 million a year in salary and aren't even average players and / or their performance actually hurts the team? Wouldn't it make more sense to better spend that $100 million on players that are reaching or in their prime?
Besides missing two seasons, Klay hasn't had a positive net rating since the 2016-17 season (meaning his defense has been worse than his offense). His value has been worth about 1 point per 100 possessions over his last 200 games. Dray has been a little better (and less injured). As mentioned earlier, he still has a slightly positive net rating and his value has been in the 1.8-1.9 point range per 100 possessions. Green ranked 64th and 168th in VORP. By comparison, Jokic had a value of 9.8 points per 100 possessions. That works out to 27.5 wins over a replacement player. Draymond was at 4.8 wins this year. Green hasn't been league average in player efficiency rating since 2017-18.
I get it, many people ignore the performance rankings and analytics and much prefer what their eyes tell them and what the traditional stats show. That's fine, but the geeky stat nerds are coming (if they aren't here already), and teams with average advanced numbers are going to end up being average unless they find ways to boost their productivity, no matter how much they pay out in salary.
If I were an owner, I would prefer to get something for my $100 million guys instead of paying premium dollars to guys that are aging, frequently injured, and quickly trending toward league average. GS could take that $100 million and reallocate it, bringing in guys that would potentially be worth their salaries.
People say they are fine paying a guy or 2 the max because they brought titles to the team until the team is lottery bound for a few years then they hit on a player and they can't add anyone because they are in cap hell.
Could be even worse for the Warriors. They may have another solid young nucleus to build around, but then pay Green and/or Klay and have no flexibility in future.