Golden State Warriors: 5 reasons they’ll repeat as NBA champions in 2018
5. Curry and KD aren’t going anywhere
Championship or no, this one was pretty much inevitable. Unless the Warriors somehow, against all odds, completely tanked this season and the Kevin Durant experiment was a massive failure both on and off the court, they always stood a pretty good chance of re-signing both Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant this offseason.
After signing a 1+1 deal with the Dubs last summer, KD will most likely exercise his $27.7 million player option to become an unrestricted free agent. Curry, meanwhile, is long overdue for a massive pay raise, after being on a bargain four-year, $44 million deal that made him the best value contract in the NBA.
With the team’s two best players hitting free agency, there’d normally be cause for concern. But Curry is a Bay Area legend who can receive a five-year, $205 million “super max” by re-signing with the Dubs — a proposition made even sweeter by winning his second championship in three years.
Stephen Curry says he wants stay with Warriors as free agency looms https://t.co/BJjx6k6jzf pic.twitter.com/pFiBYHVBCS
— Sporting News NBA (@sn_nba) September 28, 2016
Durant, meanwhile, just got his first taste of championship glory as Finals MVP. Fitting in with this high-powered team was a seamless transition and the Warriors are just getting started, since Durant has already said he’s not going to be looking elsewhere in free agency.
Like it or not, that four-man core of Curry, KD, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green will be back again next season — and probably for the foreseeable future.