The Warriors know this might be the final year of this core

There’s no secrets about the core of the Golden State Warriors, and their contracts. It costs a lot of money to get four All-Stars together, and it takes even more money to extend their time.

At the end of the upcoming 2018-19 NBA season, Klay Thompson will be a free agent. Kevin Durant will almost surely opt out of his one-plus-one deal, making him a free agent. A year later, Draymond Green’s services will be on the market.

Of the Warriors four core players, only Steph Curry is locked up for the foreseeable future. And even beyond those four, there are questions marks for the high-impact guys on the team. DeMarcus Cousins is on a one-year deal, and will almost positively be playing elsewhere next season. Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston are both under contract for two more years, but their deals could make them prime players to trade next summer.

Either way, the point is this: The days this Warriors core, as currently constructed, has together, are potentially limited.

But Golden State understands this. At Monday’s Media Day, it quickly became a theme that this could be the final hurrah; not the final run at a title, but the last installment in the journey of the Durant-Curry-Thompson-Green quartet. GM Bob Myers and coach Steve Kerr were open about this.

Even Green got in on discussing the situation, and, as always, he had some wonderful perspective on the matter.

Hopefully there are many more years of these four playing together in the Bay Area. But if not, it seems like everyone has the approach to make the most of this one.