Stephen Curry received 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 be around, too. The Warriors have that part of their core locked down.
What about the youth movement? What about Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, who are extendable until 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 to 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 alongside Green in the frontcourt has never been smooth and was a defensive issue last season.
Consider the hard lesson the Warriors learned 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 ready to give Kuminga a max extension (like the five-year, $224 million deal Franz Wagner got from the Orlando Magic, which will start at 25 percent of the cap) or anything too close to that $44.8 million. 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. afterwards. The Warriors were living in the glow of the 2022 championship then. They are not now…
That’s not to say there isn’t a reasonable mid-cap — perhaps in the $30-ish million per season range as the deadline nears. No one can say for sure what will happen if Kuminga is presented with a concrete, life-changing financial offer and the Warriors believe the deal will age well enough as the salary cap projects to explode.
The more likely option is for both sides to let this play out, with Kuminga as a restricted free agent next summer. Kuminga may want to bet that he can make a leap and prove worthy of a max extension, and the Warriors could pay him well if he does. However, they don’t want to overpay him either.
Moody is probably in the same situation – he seems to have more fans outside the organization, in other front offices, than inside it. Kerr just doesn’t seem to be a fan. Moody should be ready to play it into restricted free agency when next summer another team might want 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 on his next contract, whether that’s in Golden State or elsewhere.
It will be an interesting season in Golden State as the Warriors try to figure out how to win another ring with Curry. If it happens, the youth movement will be a big part of that.
