Stephen Curry was given a massive one-year contract extension to stay with the Warriors. Draymond Green is locked in for three more seasons (the same total length as Curry now), and Steve Kerr will also be around. The Warriors have that part of their core locked up.
What about the youth movement? What about Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, who are extension eligible through the start of the season? Kuminga, in particular, could have a massive role for the Warriors as they both need his athleticism and are looking for who will step up as the team’s second scoring option behind Stephen Curry. Kuminga was third on the team in points per game last season (16.1) behind Curry and the departed Klay Thompson. However, Kuminga’s fit next to Green in the frontcourt has never been smooth and was a defensive issue last season.
Factor in the hard lesson the Warriors got when they overpaid Jordan Poole and they seem hesitant to go with as big a contract as Kuminga expects. Anthony Slater laid it out well at The Athletic.
The Warriors aren’t currently prepared to give Kuminga a max extension (like the five-year, $224-million deal Franz Wagner got from the Orlando Magic that will start at 25 percent of the cap) or anything that stretches too close to that $44.8 million annual salary, league sources said... Golden State gave Jordan Poole a four-year, $123 million extension right before the trade deadline two Octobers ago and had to attach a protected 2030 first-round pick to offload that deal to Washington eight months later. The Warriors were living in the glow of the 2022 championship then. They aren’t now...
That doesn’t mean there isn’t a reasonable middle ground — perhaps in the $30-ish million per season range as the deadline nears. Nobody can say for sure what will happen if Kuminga is presented a concrete, life-changing financial offer and the Warriors come to believe the deal will age well enough as the salary cap projects to skyrocket.
The more likely option is that both sides let this play out, with Kuminga as a restricted free agent next summer. Kuminga may be willing to bet that he can make a leap and prove worthy of a max extension, and the Warriors might well be willing to pay him if he does. However, they don’t want to overpay him, either.
Moody is likely in the same situation — he seems to have more fans outside the organization, in other front offices, than inside it. Kerr just does not seem to be a fan. Moody should be willing to play it out into restricted free agency, when next summer another team may be willing to step up and poach him, or maybe he becomes trade fodder at the deadline. Either way, Moody will want to be in a place where he can get paid with his next contract, whether that is in Golden State or elsewhere.
It’s going to be an interesting season in Golden State as the Warriors try to figure out how to win another ring with Curry. If it’s going to happen, the youth movement will be a big part of that.
