SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers is “pretty confident” he’ll be able to sign Stephen Curry to an extension this summer after the 33-year-old star guard led the league in scoring by averaging 32 points a game and was a top-three finalist for the MVP award.
“I don’t see any reason not to be optimistic,” Myers said during an end-of-the-season video conference on Monday. “He seems like he’s motivated; we’re motivated. I would say pretty confident we’ll get something done.”
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks noted, Curry’s new extension would be record-setting: He would become the first player in NBA history to sign two separate deals worth over $200 million. Curry became the first player to sign a supermax extension in 2017 while inking a deal worth $201 million over five years. He is now 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.”
Myers said a key for him heading into the offseason is adding veterans to the roster. Aside from Curry, whom Myers said played with a “small hairline” fracture of his tailbone down the stretch, and Green, the Warriors didn’t have a strong veteran presence like they did off the bench in years past.
“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.”
Myers offered an explanation for why the Warriors struggled to add a greater veteran presence as compared to other teams in recent years.
“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 said that Kelly Oubre Jr. “did make it clear he’d like to be here” in their exit interview; but Kerr noted that while he liked Oubre and hoped he would return, the swingman would be doing so off the bench.
Courtesy: ESPN
