The Golden State Warriors are in hot pursuit of one more NBA championship for future Hall of Famer Stephen Curry, to go with the four already in his trophy case, before the 37-year-old calls it a career. Curry’s $54 million-per-year contract expires after the 2025-2026 season, but the NBA’s all-time three-point shooting leader last year signed a one-year extension, upping his salary to $62.6 million for the 2026-2027 season.
“We want this ride to last as long as possible,” Curry said after last season, as quoted by ESPN. “It’s just about what does this team need for next year, answering those questions over the summer, everybody preparing themselves individually to get through another 82-game season hopefully with a little bit more of a comfort room down the stretch where we don’t have to have a two-month gauntlet just to make the playoffs.”
One Big Move For Warriors to Create Title Contender
What will the team do to create that situation for Curry? According to the experts hosting the Locked on NBA podcast, one thing the Warriors may do is add arguably the greatest NBA player if all time â certainly the greatest of his era â LeBron James.
That the Warriors have not been able to do that yet is not for lack of trying. According to NBA insider Jake Fischer of The Stein Line writing over the weekend, as quoted by CBS Sports, “the Warriors have called the Lakers on multiple occasions over the past 18 months to see whether there is any trade pathway to pairing James with Stephen Curry.”
So far, the Lakers have rebuffed all such inquiries. As Heavy.com reporter Alder Almo wrote on Saturday, “Jamesâ longtime agent, Rich Paul, urged both sides to step back, citing concerns about potential backlash if James were to switch teams for the fourth time in his career.”
James Could Get ‘Story Book Finish’ at Golden State
But according to the NBA experts hosting the Locked on NBA podcast, there is still an open “pathway” for James to join the Warriors and chase the fifth championship of his career, which began when he was drafted No. 1 overall in 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers directly out of St. Vincent-St. Mary high school in Akron, Ohio.
That pathway would involve James playing out the final year of his contract in Los Angeles, and then deciding to make the move north.
“There’s a pathway here. What it takes is like you have to have a story book finish,” said Locked on NBA co-host Matt Moore, a longtime NBA writer for Action Sports and other outlets, on Monday’s program,. “It’s got to be like he goes to the Warriors and he and Draymond (Green) are fighting and it’s not working and everything is rough and then suddenly there’s a meeting. There’s a players only meeting and these greats come together and understand what they need to do and then they go on a run and they win the title.”
Grouping of Older Players Often Doesn’t Work
On the other hand, Moore acknowledges that a pairing of James and Curry â with Green and Jimmy Butler as well â could simply go nowhere, even if happened.
“The most likely outcome is like he goes there, they’re all too old, it doesn’t work,” Moore concluded. “We’ve seen this story a million times in the NBA when old guys get together.”
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