Getty Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors participates in a 3-point challenge against Sabrina Ionescu #20 of the New York Liberty during the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night.
Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry isn’t retiring any time soon. But he revealed that the thought of hanging up his sneakers crosses his mind more often this time during his 14th NBA season.
“I think about it all the time. But, those thoughts stop because you gotta get ready for the next game,” Curry told reporters before he played his 10th All-Star game. “There’s a routine and cycle. You embrace the now. Eventually, you’ll get to a point where you wake up and whatever your body is telling you, or if your mind is telling you it’s time. But, I don’t think I’m anywhere close to that.”
Curry turns 36 on March 14 but he still remains the best shooter in the league, a skill that helps sustain his longevity. On top of that uncanny shooting, Curry has been mostly healthy, something that eluded him during the early parts of his career.
With Curry’s retirement still far on the horizon, the Warriors are exploring all possibilities to maximize his remaining championship window.
They poked around and even tried to acquire LeBron James, Curry’s longtime rival whose retirement is nearer than him, at the trade deadline.
“We have a culture that is very aggressive,” Warriors owner Joe Lacob said on the “Tim Kawakami Show” a few hours after ESPN reported the Warriors’ bold attempt to pair the two of the greatest players in the history of the game. “We’re always going to try to be aggressive, we’re going to try to put the best team on the court.
And if it costs a lot of money, it’s gonna cost a lot of money. We’re willing to invest in it. We do those things, hopefully at the right time, not the wrong time.”
Warriors Will Not Give Up on LeBron James Pursuit
Even after James’ camp and the Lakers emphatically rejected them this past trade deadline, the Warriors will not give up on their pursuit, according to ESPN’s Zach Lowe.
“The playoffs always inform the offseason. Everything I’ve heard for five years suggests James would prefer to finish his career as a Laker. Is that absolute? Who knows. There could be some breaking point at which the Lakers fall so far that James begins to look elsewhere. But the Lakers have one title and a conference finals appearance over the past four seasons. They will be able to trade three first-round picks this summer, and league sources expect them to search for a difference-making perimeter talent. That does not mean the Warriors will give up their pursuit of James,” Lowe wrote on February 16.
The Warriors have optionality in the offseason with Chris Paul’s non-guaranteed $30 million salary which they could pick up and use as a salary ballast in a potential sign-and-trade for James.
NBA Exec Warns Klay Thompson to Temper Free Agency Expectations
Aside from another potential James’ pursuit this summer, Klay Thompson‘s pending free agency also hangs above the Warriors’ future.
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Thompson will test free agency. But an NBA executive painted a bleak forecast for Thompson.
“If he stays with the Warriors, and they take care of him, they treat him fair, they give him a deal like Draymond’s or maybe a little less, it’s a lifetime service reward, you can make it make sense,” the executive told Heavy Sports’ Sean Deveney. “But on the open market, that would be difficult to justify.
“I would not want to go to my owner and say, ‘We want to pay this 34-year-old with so-so numbers $100 million.’ He’s coming off the bench, that is probably the best role for him going forward. I don’t know how you say we’re going to pay a bench guy that much money.”
The 34-year-old Thompson is facing his basketball mortality with his inconsistent play this season. Just before the All-Star break, rookie Brandin Podziemski had supplanted him from the Warriors starting lineup. While he responded to the demotion by scoring a season-high 35 points off the bench, it remains to be seen if he finds consistency in a 6th Man role, which could impact his value in free agency.