Stephen Curry is fresh off a starring role on Team USA’s gold medal winning Olympic team, which served as the perfect reminder that, yeah he’s still one of the best players in the entire universe. In between all of his clutch shot making, it was difficult not to notice how well Curry and LeBron James played together. Of course it got people thinking about the possibility of the duo teaming up together, but if that were to happen it likely wouldn’t involved Curry leaving the Golden State Warriors.
Curry is expected to sign an extension with the Warriors, per Marc Stein, but the timeline of it is unclear right now. The four-time champion is eligible to sign a one-year, $62.6 million extension between now and before Opening Night on Oct. 22, or he could wait for a slightly more lucrative extension that could be two years and around $130 million, per Stein.
Whatever he decides, though, it seems to be clear that Curry’s committed to staying with the Warriors past the two years left he has remaining on his current contract. That should be a sigh of relief for the Warriors, who missed out on their two main targets this summer, Paul George and Lauri Markkanen, and lost franchise staple Klay Thompson to the Dallas Mavericks. But while Golden State was unsuccessful in trying to trade fro Markkanen to sign George, they did bring in some quality role players in Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield and De’Anthony Melton.
We’ll have to see if those additions will be enough to make the Warriors title contenders once again, and with the absence of Thompson that means more responsibility will fall on Curry on the offensive side of the ball. Without Thompson, Golden State is banking on Brandin Podziemski blossoming into a star, which is why they were reluctant in including him in trade talks with the Utah Jazz for Markkanen. If that happens, the Warriors would be in good shape, and the team feels they’re “well positioned” to trade for an upgrade at some point in the future as they have all of their draft picks going forward. If that’s the messaging being told to Curry, then there should be optimism on his end to remain with Golden State for the latter years of his career.
But optimism can only take you so far. This will be the first time since Curry’s fist two years in the league that he won’t have Thompson either out there on the floor with him or on the sidelines. That’s going to be a massive change for the Warriors, and if Golden State struggles this season and fails to land any of their targets this year or next year, perhaps we could see Curry flirt with free agency in 2027.
