Көрри багийн удирдлагуудтай хамтран ирээдүйн шийдвэр гаргахад бэлэн байгаа бөгөөд 18 дахь улиралдаа өрсөлдөх чадвараа хадгалахын төлөө бодитойгоор хандаж буйгаа онцолжээ.
Стефэн Көрри Голдэн Стэйт Уорриорс багт бүх карьераа өнгөрүүлэх хүсэлтэй байгаагаа олон жилийн турш илэрхийлсээр ирсэн бөгөөд NBA-ийн 18 дахь улиралдаа бэлтгэж байна. Өнгөрсөн улиралд 37-45 амжилтаар өндөрлүүлж, багийн бүрэлдэхүүнд томоохон ахиц гарч чадаагүй нь түүний ирээдүйн талаарх эргэлзээг улам бүр нэмэгдүүлжээ. Гэсэн хэдий ч тэрээр өөрийн бодол санааг хуваалцахдаа багийг орхихоос илүүтэйгээр тулгарсан хүндрэлийг даван туулах арга замыг хайж байгаагаа мэдэгдсэн байна.
Жими Батлер болон Мозес Мууди нар бэртэл авсан нь багийн бүрэлдэхүүнд ихээхэн нөлөөлсөн бөгөөд Көрри энэ нөхцөл байдалд реалист хандаж байгаагаа илэрхийлжээ. Удирдлагуудтайгаа олон жилийн турш үргэлжилсэн яриа өрнүүлж ирсэн тэрээр багийн ирээдүйн 5-7 жилийн боломжийг алдагдуулахгүйгээр одоо өрсөлдөх чадвартай үлдэх тэнцвэрийг олох нь чухал болохыг онцлов. Мөн багийн ерөнхий менежер Майк Данлэйви болон эзэн Жо Лакоб нар ирээдүйн драфтын эрхүүдийг үр ашигтай зарцуулах талаар бодолцон ажиллаж байна.
Өнгөрсөн зун шинээр залуу тоглогч Яксел Лендебрөгийг сонгохоос өөр томоохон солилцоо хийгээгүй ч Уорриорс баг ирэх хоёрдугаар сарын солилцооны цонх хүртэл боломжит хувилбаруудыг судлах аж. Улирал эхлэхээс өмнө Көрри болон Брендзин Позиемски нарын шинэ гэрээний асуудал шийдэгдэх нь багийн ирээдүйн чиг хандлагыг тодорхойлох чухал үзүүлэлт болох юм. Мөн Дрэймонд Грин болон Жими Батлер нарын багтаа үлдэх эсэх, санхүүгийн нөхцөлийн талаарх хэлэлцээрийн асуудлууд хүлээгдэж байна.
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Stephen Curry has long said he wants to play for one team for the entirety of his career. As he heads into his 18th NBA season, he has stayed true to that promise. He is the Golden State Warriors.
But LeBron James’ decision to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers, compounded by questions surrounding the lack of significant improvement to a roster that finished 37-45 last season, has only intensified questions about Curry’s future. People wonder if the loyalty that has defined his career will remain strong in the final years of an incredible run that has lifted the Bay Area’s basketball team to unprecedented heights.
As he so often has for nearly two decades in the league, Curry took a measured approach when discussing the future in a recent interview with The Athletic during teammate Moses Moody’s charity event in North Little Rock, Ark.
“The through line,” Curry told The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson II, “which is hard on anybody in this situation, especially with us keeping this thing together, is knowing that when Jimmy (Butler) got hurt and Moses got hurt, the whole calculus of everything changes. How do you get through their absence and still stay at a certain level? And then how that goes into this year. It’s the same deal. So, I’m a realist on that.”
Curry desperately wants to win and remains as competitive as ever, but his answer offered a glimpse into his mindset. He’s not looking for an exit as much as he’s looking for the Warriors to find a way through their current situation. Unlike some of his superstar peers, Curry has never developed a reputation for pressuring the front office into specific moves. The Warriors have always operated as partners with Curry, and that mutual respect between player and team has been at the core of their four championship runs.
In trying to decode his public statements to look for clues about what comes next, Curry’s thoughts from just before February’s trade deadline also offer some guidance about how he views the Warriors’ uncertain future. He discussed the balance between competing now and protecting the franchise’s long-term future. He made it clear he didn’t want the Warriors to “suck right now, either,” but also emphasized that he and the organization would navigate those decisions about the future together.
“I think honestly, you figure it out in real time,” Curry told The Athletic. “Because the same way we got to this point — there’s not a crystal ball that tells you what opportunities are on the horizon, how to maintain competitiveness with everything that goes on during an NBA season, injuries, all that type of stuff. But I do know there’s a level of — reasonability — in terms of moves or options or opportunities that can help us stay competitive now but don’t handcuff the next five, seven years of our team. So, everything that’s happened to date has been with that as the mindset.”
Now, a few months later, with little improvement to the roster, the league wonders whether Curry’s mindset will change. Speculation continues from both fans and the media that Curry may become so frustrated that he eventually asks out during the final year or two of his career. But that’s still hard to envision given that he has been so consistent in both his messaging about wanting to stay with the Warriors and in expressing his love for the Bay Area.
According to one team source, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the organization’s internal discussions, it’s not like Curry isn’t aware of what Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy and the rest of the front office are trying to accomplish. The conversation between the star and the team has been ongoing — for years.
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The Warriors have consistently pursued high-level trade targets, and that’s not going to stop even though those pursuits haven’t ended well recently, aside from landing Butler just before the 2025 trade deadline. The fact that they haven’t landed more stars has irritated the fanbase, but the Warriors remain favorably viewed throughout the league for the way the franchise operates and spends money from top to bottom. Curry is still a strong draw, even if the Warriors keep coming up as the bridesmaid and not the bride in their chase for the next star to pair with the future Hall of Famer.
While a portion of the fanbase continues to rage at the fact that the roster that finished four games under .500 has been brought back almost untouched aside from rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, Dunleavy and owner Joe Lacob’s decision not to pour all of their future first-round picks into some last-ditch move to get marginally better was the right one. The only player readily available this summer who could have closed the gap enough to warrant that kind of move was Giannis Antetokounmpo. He was the game-changer the Warriors hoped to acquire for years, but they didn’t have the pieces to make it happen.
If fans want to be angry at the front office, this is where they should direct their ire. The Warriors’ misses on James Wiseman in the 2020 draft and Jonathan Kuminga in the 2021 draft directly impacted their inability to acquire Antetokounmpo. The pair’s lack of development also made any other major deal tougher and forced Curry to carry more of the burden night to night as his career entered a later stage. After Butler’s injury, Dunleavy spelled out exactly what kind of player it would take for the Warriors to pour future picks into any potential deal. It’s important to remember that answer as the league waits to see how the Warriors will approach their final years with the player who has changed the organization forever.
“I think if we’re talking about trading draft picks that will be going out when Steph isn’t here, it’s gonna have to be a player we think we’ll be getting back that is gonna be here when those picks are going out,” Dunleavy said at the time. “That player’s gonna have to be pretty impactful. … If there’s a great player to be had, we’ve got everything in the war chest that we would be willing to use.”
That remains true after a summer in which the cap-strapped Warriors didn’t make a major move aside from Lendeborg’s selection. It’s also a crucial distinction heading into a new season. Just because the Warriors didn’t make a move over the summer doesn’t mean they won’t make one as the deadline approaches again in February.
Both Curry and Dunleavy have been open about the possibility of getting an extension done later this month. Whether Curry decides to sign before the season is another marker that could provide the clearest indication yet of how he views the organization’s direction and where his mindset is entering his 18th year. The next biggest question facing the Warriors, aside from whatever Curry does, is whether they get a rookie extension done with fourth-year guard Brandin Podziemski before the season begins. Dunleavy has made it a point to not have too much money locked into the future, a fact underscored by the reality that the only players currently signed beyond next season are Moody, Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton, Gui Santos, Will Richard and Lendeborg.
With that in mind, once Dunleavy figures out what is happening with Curry and Podziemski’s new deals, there is an intriguing question lingering into next season, one that impacts Curry’s present and future. Both Butler and Draymond Green have said they want to finish their careers with the Warriors, and both will have interesting negotiations ahead.
Green is a forever Warrior, but he is no longer a player worth close to $28 million a year, which is what he’ll be paid this season after agreeing to a new deal. Butler is in the final year of a max deal that pays him almost $57 million, but he’ll be returning around the middle of the season after a career-altering ACL injury. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be able to return to the same level he reached before injury. Are those two potential future Hall of Famers willing to take a major pay cut to stay with the Warriors? Do they both still fit into the Warriors’ plans moving forward?
Curry’s opinion, as it always has, will factor into all of this. He has defined the organization’s past and present. Now the question involves how much he’ll shape its future.
