Sources: Warriors’ Stephen Curry stands to benefit in new CBA
Golden State Warriors star guard Stephen Curry is poised to go from being one of the NBA’s most underpaid players to a contract that will pass the $200 million threshold thanks to the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN that Curry stands to benefit massively from the new designated veteran player provision in the freshly agreed labor deal, which sets up the two-time reigning MVP to triple his current salary of $12 million to $36 million next season.
Currently playing out the last year on a four-year, $44 million extension that he signed in October 2013 at a time that his long-term durability was still being questioned, Curry will be eligible in July for a new deal that sources say would be worth an estimated $207 million over five years, making it the richest contract in league history and paying out an estimated $47 million in the final season (2021-22).
This new rule enables a narrow selection of superstars who are willing to re-sign with their current team to receive up to 35 percent of the salary cap if certain benchmarks are met. As a two-time MVP who has played for the Warriors his entire career, Curry would meet all the qualifications for the maximum allowable salary. A player with Curry’s experience level, under the previous CBA, would have been able to sign for only 30 percent of the cap.
Curry ironically might have new teammate Kevin Durant to thank for his forthcoming windfall. The league’s introduction of two designated veteran player exceptions per team in this new CBA, which have been modeled after the designated rookie player exceptions permissible in the current labor deal for one designated player per team still on his rookie-scale contract, appears to be a reaction to Durant’s departure from the Oklahoma City Thunder in free agency last summer.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged in recent weeks, before the NBA and the players association reached a tentative agreement Wednesday night, that both sides were determined to give small-market teams “some advantages” in their efforts to retain star players.
The widespread expectation in league circles is that rival teams had virtually no shot anyway at luring Curry away from the Warriors in free agency in July, but now the finances are stacked against his departure even more. If Curry were interested in changing teams this summer, interested suitors could only…