Report: Durant agrees to re-sign with Warriors for 2-year, $53M deal

Kevin Durant chose winning over money.

Durant will agree to re-sign with the Golden State Warriors at a significantly discounted price of $53 million over the next two years, sources told ESPN's Chris Haynes.

The second year of Durant's deal will be a player option, Haynes added. Durant will likely sign a longer deal next summer when it is more advantageous for the Warriors.

This agreement falls well short of the $31-million per year maximum Durant could have signed for, but the discounted structure of his deal is by design. This reduced rate allowed the Warriors to retain Shaun Livingston and Andre Iguodala without going too deep into the luxury tax.

In that sense, Durant's contract mirrors that of how the Big Three of the Miami Heat took discounts to preserve the supporting cast. But Durant is doing the Warriors a massive favor based simply on finances, since Golden State already had the ability to exceed the cap for Livingston and Iguodala. This move was strictly done based on saving the Warriors money.

That raises the issue of cap circumvention, and more importantly, it weakens the position of the players' union which wants the most money for its athletes. LeBron James just last week mentioned how Stephen Curry should be paid $400 million if it weren't for the salary cap. Durant taking less to save money for his team owner cuts directly against the position of the NBPA.

But from Durant's perspective, gifting this discount allows his team to be stronger. Thanks to this, the defending champions were able to return all their core pieces while also keeping an eye toward their future finances. That gives Durant the best opportunity to add more rings to his resume, which is the main reason he went to Golden State.