SAN FRANCISCO, July 30 -- The number on the table never changed. What changed was what Draymond Green did with it.

Green agreed Thursday to a one-year, $27.7 million contract to return to the Golden State Warriors for his 15th season with the franchise, the same figure he had declined weeks earlier to give the team the salary-cap flexibility it needed to pursue LeBron James. When James chose the Philadelphia 76ers instead, Green picked up the offer he had set aside and signed.

The deal resolves the most consequential outstanding question in Golden State's offseason. It does not resolve the larger one: whether a franchise that went 37-45 last season and finished 10th in the Western Conference has any realistic path back to contention, or...