On July 01, Beijing time, according to a report by Woj, a well-known reporter from ESPN, sources revealed that Klay, who is about to leave the Warriors, is willing to sign and trade to make a deal in order to help the Warriors recover some assets and get a bigger contract himself.
Woj said on the show:
"The Warriors are hoping to sign Klay and trade him, maybe that would send him to a team that doesn't have enough salary space and get a bigger contract. If the Warriors can salvage some assets from it, the team will be very happy. They're going to communicate today to try to broker a sign-before-trade agreement. ”
Klay's last contract, signed in the summer of 2019, was signed for five years, $190 million, and this summer has expired and he has become a free agent, and in the 23-24 season, Klay played in 77 regular season games for the Warriors, averaging 17.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game, shooting 43.2% from the field and nearly 39% from three-point range. During the regular season, Warriors management offered Klay a short-term contract of 2 years and $48 million, which Klay turned down; Then in the offseason, the Warriors did not complete an early contract extension with him, which naturally made Klay's idea of leaving even more determined.
As a champion of the Warriors dynasty, Klay has been with the team for many years and has won four championships. At the age of 34, he definitely wants to sign another long-term contract with a medium to high salary at the end of his career, but he has suffered a major injury, and the state after returning from injury is not as good as before, so the Warriors naturally dare not risk a long-term contract for him. After all, Klay occupies the tactical position and ball control of the second leader, but he cannot play the value of the second leader, and does not score in the key play-offs, so this performance naturally cannot satisfy the management.
Of course, Klay's poor play is not only due to the decline in his own competitive level, but also because most of the Warriors' teammates are not in their prime, so he needs a different environment to rejuvenate the second spring of his career. According to previous reports, the 76ers, Magic, Mavericks, Lakers and other teams want to get this historic shooter to improve the offensive threat on the outside, so Klay is still very popular in the market.
Although he is about to leave the team he has played for more than a decade, after all, his basketball dream originated here, and he still has a deep relationship with the team. Therefore, Klay is willing to leave by signing and trading, so that he can get some assets back for the team like Durant did in the past, and he can also get a bigger contract, which is a win-win result.
Warriors fans are naturally reluctant to let Klay leave, but as the saying goes, there is no banquet in the world; Perhaps, as the fans sighed: "The splash is over, goodbye youth, thank you for the good things you have brought us, bless Clay!" ”