Golden State Warriors Run It Back as Draymond Green Returns for the Money He Left

Draymond Green opted out of $27.7 million in June so the Golden State Warriors could chase LeBron James. James signed with Philadelphia. On Tuesday, Green agreed to come back for one year and $27.7 million, the exact figure he walked away from. That round trip is the cleanest possible summary of Golden State Warriors news this offseason: a lot of motion, a lot of ambition, and a roster that ends up looking almost identical to the 37-45 team that lost in the play-in. Of the 12 players on standard contracts, exactly one, rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, did not finish last season on the roster.

The week that was

Green's return, reported by ESPN's Shams Charania on July 28, was the last real domino. The 36-year-old is heading into his 15th season in the Bay, coming off 8.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists in 27.5 minutes a night, his lightest workload since he became a full-time starter in 2014-15. The advanced numbers are unkind, Golden State was 3.9 points per 100 possessions better with him off the floor, and the eye test still says he is the guy you put on Victor Wembanyama in May. Both things can be true, and the front office paid as if they are.

The mechanics matter more than the money. Because Green re-signed on a one-year deal using Bird rights, he holds an implied no-trade clause, though reporting on that point has not been unanimous. Either way, his contract expires next summer alongside Kristaps Porzingis and Jimmy Butler, which is the actual design here. Golden State is not building a 2026-27 juggernaut. It is preserving the ability to blow the thing up in 2027.

The season they are running back

It is worth being blunt about what 2025-26 was. Golden State started 4-1 and then spent five months treading water. Butler's ACL tear in January took the floor out. The Warriors finished 37-45, tenth in the West, their first losing season since 2020 and their first over a full 82 games since 2011. They clinched a play-in berth for the third straight year, came back to beat the Clippers in the 9-10 game, and were then run off the floor by Phoenix in the second play-in round. Four missed playoffs in seven seasons is not what the previous decade led anyone to expect.

The February deadline was the pivot. Trading Kuminga and Hield for Porzingis was a bet on getting an expiring 7-footer healthy for a playoff push that never happened, and the Warriors have now doubled down by re-signing him. There is a version of this roster, with Butler at full speed and Porzingis available, that is genuinely dangerous. There is also a version where the two of them combine for 70 games and Curry turns 39 in March carrying the whole thing.

What the Golden State Warriors roster looks like now

The offseason ledger is short by design:

• Re-signed Kristaps Porzingis to a two-year deal with a player option for 2027-28.
• Re-signed Al Horford to a two-year deal, also with a 2027-28 player option. He turned 40 in June.
• Re-signed De'Anthony Melton for two years and $11 million.
• Re-signed Draymond Green for one year and $27.7 million.
• Drafted Yaxel Lendeborg at No. 11 (four years, roughly $28 million, team options after year two) and Lajae Jones at No. 54.
• Lost backup center Quinten Post, who signed an offer sheet with Memphis.
• Steve Kerr signed a two-year extension.

That is it. No outside free agents. Green's deal pushes the payroll to roughly $213 million for 12 players, over the first apron with about $8 million of breathing room under the second. There are two standard roster spots to fill and one open two-way slot behind LJ Cryer and Malevy Leons, with Jones, Chance McMillian and Lachlan Olbrich in the mix. Golden State has been linked to veteran frontcourt help in Kelly Olynyk and Georges Niang, and Gary Payton II remains unsigned and plausible.

Lendeborg turned Las Vegas into his own week

The best thing that happened to this franchise in July had nothing to do with contracts. Lendeborg, the 23-year-old Michigan forward taken 11th, was named Summer League MVP and dragged the Warriors to the Las Vegas title, their first since 2013, with a 94-90 win over Memphis. He went for 21 points and 10 rebounds in the final on 9-of-18 shooting and scored seven straight Golden State points down the stretch, outplaying No. 3 pick Cameron Boozer head to head. Across six games he averaged 14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists on 45.9 percent shooting and 35.7 percent from three, and made the All-Summer League First Team.

He was not alone. Undrafted guard LJ Cryer led the team with 90 points on 41 percent from deep on 51 attempts. Second-year wing Will Richard shot 47.4 percent from three and was a plus-14 in the fourth quarter of the championship game. Graham Ike averaged 10.5 points and a team-best 8.0 rebounds. Jones, the 54th pick, looks like a G League assignment to start. The caveat, and it is a real one, is that Lendeborg's defense was a mixed bag in Vegas and he arrived in Golden State needing conditioning work. A 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward who passes like that is still the most interesting thing on the roster under 30.

Injury watch, Curry's clock and the Kuminga postscript

Everything about the Warriors' season hinges on a knee. Butler tore his ACL against Miami on January 19 and had surgery on February 9. In late June he said he hoped to be back early in the season and wanted to retire in Golden State. The more sober update came on July 24, when ESPN's Anthony Slater reported Butler has "turned the corner a little bit" but still cannot sprint unrestricted more than five months out, and pegged a realistic return between January and February 2027, roughly 11 to 12 months post-surgery. Rick Celebrini's staff does not rush these, and Melton's own year-long ACL recovery is the in-house precedent.

That is a long time to wait on a 37-year-old carrying an expiring $56.8 million contract. Curry and Porzingis both need better availability than they managed last season, and Moses Moody is another name the organization expects to have fully back in the second half.

Stephen Curry enters 2026-27 on $62.6 million, the first $60 million salary in NBA history, and it is the final year of the extension he signed in 2024. He is reportedly extension-eligible again in August. That decision, more than anything Green or Porzingis does, sets the franchise's direction, and it explains why every other contract on the books conveniently expires at the same time. Between Porzingis, Horford and Melton declining options and Butler coming off the books, Golden State could open 2027 free agency with north of $100 million in room.

As for Jonathan Kuminga, the offseason rumor mill has mostly forgotten that he is not a Warrior anymore. Golden State sent him and Buddy Hield to Atlanta on February 4 for Porzingis, a deal that also ended the team's long flirtation with Giannis Antetokounmpo, and shipped Trayce Jackson-Davis to Toronto for a second-rounder the same day. Whatever happens with Kuminga's next contract is somebody else's cap sheet.

What's next for the Golden State Warriors

Training camp opens in late September, media day sits just in front of it, and the 2026-27 schedule should be released in August. Before then, expect two veteran minimum signings, a two-way announcement, and continued quiet on Butler until the medical staff has something worth saying. Golden State Warriors news between now and October is unlikely to be loud. That is the plan. Run it back, get healthy, keep the 2027 books clean, and hope Lendeborg is a rotation player by Christmas rather than a summer story.