Warriors' Steph Curry Trade Decision Comes Down to One Key Factor

The Golden State Warriors have reached the point where it would make sense to trade Stephen Curry and rebuild.

Curry would bring back a haul of players and first-round picks if traded now, but that might not be the case in a year or two. After all, he's 38. If he shows significant decline this season, his trade value will drop.

But there's one reason above all that Curry won't be traded, and it's not directly because it would be unpopular or make the team much worse in the immediate.

It's because Curry is the only thing keeping this team from having a major revenue issue.

Curry Is the Ultimate Moneymaker

It's not clear how much more money the Warriors make on a season-to-season basis due to Curry's presence. So I'll have to generalize here, but I doubt you'll disagree with any point.

Curry has some impact on all of the following: ticket sales, concession and parking costs, sponsorship deals, regional television deals and apparel sales.

The Warriors have actually protected themselves to some degree with personal seat licenses. Their season ticket holders had to pay a one-time fee that gave them their seat license for 30 years. This fee will be paid back to each season ticket holder at the end of the 30 years, but in the meantime, that's money that Curry's eventual departure won't affect.

But there's no escaping that when Curry leaves the Warriors or retires, there will be much less demand for tickets. Team governor Joe Lacob will have to drop ticket prices substantially to get people in the building, and you'd have to guess even that won't lead to big crowds, as interest will wane without Curry.

The Warriors are far from being the only team that has lost a star player who drove revenue, but the potential falloff for this Dubs team could be historic. As the most valuable franchise in the NBA, the Warriors have more room to fall than anyone else.

Lacob is surely thinking about what he can do to ease the Curry transition, but there's one thing that's certain.

As long as Curry is selling out Chase Center, he'll remain a Warrior,

Warriors Looking for Post-Curry Moneymaker

There's a section of Warriors fans furious with Lacob and GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. for not trading future first-round picks for players that can help Curry compete today.

The fans argue that they owe it to Curry, who is the reason the franchise is so valuable in the first place.

Though I agree with those fans, it's easy to see what Lacob's priority is.

The best-case scenario for the Warriors is acquiring a player via trade who is a marketable superstar. For example, Giannis Antetokounmpo would qualify. After Curry's retirement, a team with Antetokounmpo would still sell out Chase Center. There would be much less of a drop-off in revenue with him.

Though the Warriors are linked to many stars on the trade market, I believe they have been lowballing with their offers for most of them because many of these stars won't sell out Chase Center without Curry.

But I do believe reports that the Warriors offered a massive package for Antetokounmpo, who would solve their post-Curry problem.

If they can't trade for this marketable superstar, then they'll need to draft one. And that, I believe, is why the Warriors are so hesitant to make a move on the margins like trading one first-round pick for a low-end starter.

They want to keep all of their first-round picks to either a) trade for the marketable superstar or b) give themselves as many shots as possible to draft the next marketable superstar.

Curry could threaten to demand a trade so that the Warriors invest some of their future first-round capital for immediate improvements. That would put Lacob in an uncomfortable spot of having to choose how much of the future can be sacrificed to keep Curry happy.

But it probably won't come to that. Curry has never publicly demanded such things, and he doesn't seem like he's about to start now.

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