The Golden State Warriors have already put themselves elbow-deep into projected tax by signing Stephen Curry to a supermax deal last summer and inking Kevin Durant to one-and-one deals in each of the last three seasons, with the recent two-year, $61.5 million contract the most lucrative of them.

The organization is hoping to keep this core, who is just short of reaching its 30s, for the long run. Yet there isn't an avenue to properly compensate these All-Star players, especially with an expanding cap and max deals exploding out of the stratosphere, nearly reaching the $200 million ceiling.

According to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, keeping Klay Thompson (free agent in 2019) and Draymond Green (2020) would hinge on the stars taking less-than-max money in hopes to stay.

“There is no law that Thompson and Green have to demand the max from the Warriors,” wrote Kawakami. “Yes, each or both might try to wring every dollar possible, and they have earned the right to ask for it, but the environment seems to point to one or both signing less-than-max extensions before hitting free agency.”

General manager Bob Myers knows this and is hoping that Thompson and Green's competitiveness and willingness to win more hardware would overcome their long-term financial aspirations.

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“Look, we know the numbers,” Myers said. “I don’t think we’re running from those things. … (But) we’ve got a group of players and an ownership group that wants to keep it together. That’s very competitive. Both sides. You’ve heard Klay’s comments (saying he might take less than his max to stay with the Warriors). You’ve been around Draymond. He wants to keep winning. …

“We’ll keep talking about it (with Thompson). We talked about that last year (during preseason) in China, we’ll continue to talk about it. For those guys, it’s their choice. We’ll try to pay them what’s fair. And it takes two. I know and understand, they’ve gotta like the deal, too.”

Myers has been known to pull rabbits out of his hat before, but negotiations are expected to be tough, regardless, as both players will want to be as fairly compensated as possible.