Steph Curry Warriors Extension Primer: Max Salary, Min Salary, Pros and Cons of Waiting

Stephen Curry became eligible to sign a contract extension on Saturday.

The two-time MVP is under contract this season for $62.6 million. If he doesn't sign an extension this season, he would be an unrestricted free agent next offseason.

ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel wrote that the Warriors will give Curry any deal he wants up to his the maximum length and salary allowed for a 38-year-old signing an extension.

Let's go over what that maximum would be and the pros and cons of waiting to sign a new contract.

Curry's Maximum Contract

Curry can sign a two-year, $136.7 million extension until June 30.

Curry's salary would be $71 million for the 2028-29 season that he starts as a 40-year-old and finishes as a 41-year-old.

If Curry waited until next offseason after June 30, he could sign a three-year, $212.9 million max contract.

Curry's Mininum Extension

It should be noted that Curry could decide to sign an extension for significantly less than his max.

The CBA says he can sign an extension that is a 40 percent decrease of his $62.6 million salary. That would leave his 2027-28 salary at about $37.5 million.

I don't think anyone is expecting him to take this kind of pay cut, but he could choose to sign for something like $50 million to give the Warriors more flexibility.

Pros and Cons of Waiting

The two pros of waiting are a) pressuring the front office to get him some help this season and b) preserving cap space for next offseason.

Curry has never publicly demanded that the front office trade high-value draft capital for win-now pieces, and there's no indication that he'd start now. But it's not totally out of the question that he'd use his leverage.

Say the Warriors get off to a 2-8 start. Could Curry tell the front office he won't retire a Warrior if they aren't competitive? That could lead to team governor Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. making a trade.

The second pro to waiting feels like something Curry could seriously consider.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst recently said that Curry should not sign an extension so that the Warriors have about $65 million more cap space next offseason.

There may not be an elite player like Nikola Jokic available with that money, but surely the Dubs would get some quality pieces.

The "free agency shopping spree" plan would likely result in the front office asking Curry to sign for less than his max. I suppose that's a con of waiting for him.

Another con is that Curry could suffer a serious injury this season that affects how much the Warriors would be willing to pay him in future seasons.

These cons don't seem to outweigh the pros. Waiting has the potential to make the team better, which should be more important than signing for the maximum amount immediately.

Max Extension Would Hurt Team's Chances

There's no doubt that Curry has earned the max he can get for many reasons—perhaps the biggest of which is how much he's led to the Warriors' meteoric rise in franchise value—but both sides have to think about what that will look like.

A 39-year-old making over $65 million could hurt the team's ability to contend. A 40-year-old making over $70 million could really hurt the team's ability to contend.

So it's not just about the timing of the extension and how the Warriors would be better off if they wait to do it. It's also about how a max extension could make it difficult for Dunleavy to build a quality Curry supporting cast.

The pragmatic move to pursue ring No. 5 is Curry signing for something a bit under the max next offseason.

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