The Golden State Warriors don’t seem to be worrying about superstar guard Stephen Curry’s new contract extension, and their ability to sign the future Hall of Famer to a contract extension this summer.
In fact, Warriors general manager Bob Myers is “pretty confident” that the team will get a new deal with Curry, 33, done. Curry led the team in scoring this past season and was a top-three finalist in the MVP voting.
“I don’t see any reason not to be optimistic,” Myers said on Monday, according to ESPN’s Nick Friedell. “He seems like he’s motivated; we’re motivated. I would say pretty confident we’ll get something done.”
Curry’s new extension is likely to be a record-setting contract, as he would become the first player in league history to sign two separate deals worth over $200 million during his career. Curry is eligible to sign a four-year, $215.4 million extension that would keep him under contract through the 2025-26 season.
“Obviously, we want Steph back in the worst way,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “There’s no reason to think why that won’t happen. We’re excited about that. We’re excited about next season. You know, coming back with Draymond [Green] and Steph playing at such a high level to finish the season and to get Klay [Thompson] back and to have the opportunity to fortify our roster, to see these young guys emerge, it’s all very exciting.”
There is plenty to be excited about regarding the Warriors next season, and not only due to their strong play to close out the season, but the return of Thompson, who missed his second straight season after suffering ACL and Achilles tendon injuries, would instantly elevate the Warriors back to the top tier in the Western Conference.
“I don’t know that it’ll be the start of the year,” Myers said. “We’ll see more as camp gets closer. When I say start of the year, I mean Game 1. I don’t know if that’s realistic or not. That’ll be less than a year. … I don’t know what date the season opens up, but I think that’ll be 11 months. I don’t know that that’s realistic.
“I want to talk about Klay a lot, but I’m reluctant because I don’t want to use that as an excuse. I don’t want people to think, when Klay comes back, everything is going to be great. As great as he is, and it will help a lot, we have to look at our team and say Klay will be a huge addition, but there’s other areas where we need to improve on, as well. But I don’t know exactly when it’ll be.”
“I do know we need veterans, and the one area I can say without kind of equivocating is we have to add some veterans in free agency,” Myers said. “We just have to. We’re well aware of that. We’ll try to do it. We actually tried to do it last year with a few guys, so it wasn’t as if that mindset didn’t exist. It doesn’t matter, nobody cares, but we were in second place with quite a few guys that I think were veteran, could have helped, but they chose to go to a team after Klay’s injury that they thought they could win it more, and that’s fair to them.”
“Some even said, ‘Had Klay not gotten hurt, I would have come,'” Myers said. “Who knows if that’s true or not. But that’s the thing we hope we’ve accomplished in the last couple months, is proven to some of those kind of guys, I think the Warriors can win. They have to believe that. I hope we’ve showed that we’re close. But that’s what you get when you’re looking at a vet minimum guy or a vet taxpayer that’s maybe taking less money, is can I win with the Warriors? There’s no doubt they like playing with Steph and they love Steve, and I think they view our organization as one that takes care of its players.”
Myers also spoke about rookie James Wiseman, who has an up and down rookie season that ended when he suffered a meniscus tear in his right knee in April. Myers stated that the team is not looking to deal Wiseman this offseason.
“I think he can help us,” Myers said. “I expect him to be on the team next year. We don’t want to trade James Wiseman. I think he’s a tremendous talent, and he was put in a position where, again, the guy is taking, hopefully, all of his lumps early in his career, but I think he can be very helpful to us in the future. I think he can be helpful in the present.”
