Stephen Curry ended speculation surrounding his future, for now, by signing a one-year, $62.6 million extension with the Golden State Warriors earlier this week. Curry re-affirmed his commitment to the Warriors with it and spoke about his decision to The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson II.
“It’s not different from my perspective,” Curry said. “You have an appreciation for the position and the opportunity and the support from people who’ve been with you on the journey. I’ve always said I wanted to play for one team my whole career. So it’s good to get (the extension) question out of the way and give complete focus to basketball and to the season.”
“It’s still about winning,” Curry said, “and taking the steps necessary to give ourselves a chance. The standard hasn’t changed. The expectation hasn’t changed.”
Curry made it clear with those remarks, that he agreed to the extension with the belief that the front office will put together a roster that can contend for titles. The 36-year-old is not hanging around just for one last big paycheck, he wants to win.
Curry is now under contract through the 2026-27 campaign and is guaranteed close to $178 million in those three seasons. Do I see the Warriors turning into title contenders in that time? Not really.
The Warriors finished with a 46-36 record last season and failed to even make it to the playoffs after losing to the Sacramento Kings in the Play-In Tournament. Curry finished the season with impressive averages of 26.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game, but was unable to lift the Warriors up the standings due to not having a lot of talent around him.
The Warriors then didn’t do a good enough job of upgrading their roster this offseason either. Klay Thompson, Chris Paul, and Dario Saric have departed, with De’Anthony Melton, Buddy Hield, and Kyle Anderson being the notable inclusions.
While I believe Melton, Hield, and Anderson make them a better team than last season, they’re not that much better to the point where they can contend for a title. I think there’s a good chance that the Warriors once again find themselves in the Play-In Tournament in 2025. The only way they can get out of NBA purgatory is by landing a big star via trade but that seems very unlikely at this point.
The Warriors only have two valuable trade pieces in Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski, but they are not good enough at this point where a team would be willing to give up a star for them and some draft picks. Thanks to Curry, Draymond Green, and Andrew Wiggins’ contracts they can’t sign a big free agent either. So, I struggle to see how they can turn things around in a couple of years.
If this coming season doesn’t go to plan and if 2025-26 doesn’t either, then you do wonder if Curry decides it might be time to go elsewhere. The 10-time All-Star wants to play in the big games at the business end of the season and as much as he wants to be a one-team player, that desire to win has to take over at some point.
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