How Stephen Curry Could Salvage His Final Act With The Golden State Warriors

On Aug. 29, Stephen Curry becomes eligible to sign a two-year, $136.7 million extension with the Golden State Warriors. During a recent conference call with reporters, Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy expressed confidence that no matter what happens, Curry wants to finish his career in Golden State.

“I’m pretty confident Steph will finish his career here,” Dunleavy told reporters. “But ultimately, it’s his call, his decision. Whether that’s allowing his contract to run out and move on or look, if he comes to me and wants to be moved, (Warriors owner) Joe (Lacob) and I will talk it through. We wouldn’t love it, but he’s earned the right to (go) where he wants and do those things.

“But as far as the messaging or any idea that he would be anywhere else, that’s not a thing we’re looking at or he’s looking at.”

The Warriors pursued LeBron James in free agency this offseason, but “nobody within the Warriors’ orbit believed they were strongly in the mix,” according to ESPN’s Anthony Slater. They added Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg with the No. 11 pick in this year’s draft, but they’re otherwise running back the same core that went 37-45 last season, and that’s with Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody both recovering from torn ACLs.

At this point, the Warriors look like an afterthought in the championship picture heading into the 2026-27 season. Is Curry content with ending his career that way?

If not, he should consider eschewing an extension for the time being. That could give the Warriors a better chance of building another title-caliber supporting cast around him before he retires.

Building an NBA roster is fundamentally a math problem, especially in this day and age. While the NBA technically doesn’t have a hard salary cap, the latest collective bargaining agreement has plenty of triggers that hard-cap a team at either the first or second apron.

This coming season, Curry is earning nearly $62.6 million, which is almost 38% of the $164.9 million salary cap. Butler is earning $56.8 million, which is nearly 35% of the cap. Having that much of the cap tied up in two players makes it difficult to build a championship-caliber roster, particularly when one is recovering from a major injury.

However, the Warriors could have almost a completely blank slate next offseason.

At the moment, Moody ($13.4 million), Lendeborg ($6.4 million), Gui Santos ($5.0 million) and Will Richard ($2.5 million) are the only Warriors players who have guaranteed contracts beyond this season. Al Horford ($7.2 million) and De’Anthony Melton ($6.4 million) each have fairly inexpensive player options for the 2027-28 campaign, while Kristaps Porziņģis has only $3 million of his $20 million salary guaranteed (assuming he picks up his player option).

Curry, Butler and Draymond Green are all set to come off the Warriors’ books simultaneously next summer. Those three are combining to earn more than $147 million this coming season. And if Brandin Podziemski doesn’t agree to a rookie-scale extension by the start of the regular season, he’ll be a restricted free agent in 2027.

The NBA is currently projecting the 2027-28 salary cap to land around $174 million, per Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. If the Warriors waive Porziņģis and don’t sign Podziemski to an extension, they could go into next offseason with more than $140 million in potential spending power.

Granted, they wouldn’t actually have that amount of cap space. Curry, Butler and Green would all have massive cap holds that would effectively wipe out the Warriors’ ability to splurge in free agency until that trio either re-signed or left to sign elsewhere. (Podziemski’s cap hold is a far more manageable $17.0 million.)

The 2027 free-agent class is already starting to get whittled down, and looming extensions for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard and Karl-Anthony Towns could further deplete the potential high-end star power on the open market next summer. But Nikola Jokić has already said that he will not sign an extension this offseason, which means he could become an unrestricted free agent next summer. (Granted, he also said his “idea and desire is to stay in Denver” and that he will “probably sign next year,” so luring him to Golden State might be nothing more than a pipe dream.)

But if Anthony Davis doesn’t sign an extension with the Washington Wizards, he could become an unrestricted free agent by turning down his $62.8 million player option. The same goes for Towns, Paul George, Kevin Durant, Brandon Ingram, Kyrie Irving, Rudy Gobert and Jrue Holiday, all of whom have player options for the 2027-28 campaign.

Curry might not follow in LeBron’s footsteps and settle for a minimum contract next offseason, but every bit of savings from a below-max deal would help as the Warriors attempt to go big-game hunting. Durant could be a model to emulate in that regard.

Last October, Durant signed a two-year, $90 million extension with the Houston Rockets that was roughly $30 million less than he was eligible to receive. The Rockets have been particularly shrewd about negotiating in the second-apron era—as evidenced by Alperen Şengün, Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason as well—which should help extend their window of relevance.

Curry is still playing like a max-contract player, but he turned 38 in March and missed nearly half of the 2025-26 campaign, mostly due to an “unpredictable” right knee injury known as “runner’s knee.” Upon his return in April, he told reporters that there was “nothing structurally wrong” with his knee, but “it is a new normal” for him.

With that in mind, his taking a full 35% max extension could be a death knell for the Warriors’ chances of building a title contender around him again before he retires. While he could agree to a below-max deal as soon as the end of August, it might behoove both him and the Warriors to table those talks until he becomes a free agent so he can see what else they’re able to cook up next summer. Both he and Green could then structure their next contracts around whomever else the Warriors are able to land.

There’s no guarantee that the Warriors will be able to snag another big fish between now and next summer, of course. But Curry tabling extension talks might give them their best chance of doing so.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

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This article was originally published on Forbes.com