Report: Warriors owner considered offering Stephen Curry a contract below the max – CBSSports.com

The Warriors‘ run the last few years has been a mix of incredible team building, smart use of assets and, yes, a whole lot of luck. They changed basketball with revolutionary offense and a defense that can maintain a high level even at a high pace.

However, none of that is possible if Stephen Curry doesn’t become the greatest shooter ever. What he did for the Warriors set up everything they’ve managed to accomplish the last few years. He’s also been massively underpaid the entire time due to frequent ankle injuries he suffered early on in his career. 

If there was one certainty in last summer’s contract negotiations, it was going to be that Curry would receive a max contract in response to everything he did for the franchise. However, according to an excerpt from Marcus Thompson’s book “Golden,” there was a point where Lacob considered not offering him the max. GM Bob Myers intervened.

On top of that, as the Warriors prepared for the postseason, Warriors owner Joe Lacob was considering offering Curry a contract below the max, even though Curry has been one of the most underpaid players in all of sports over the last three seasons. Warriors general manager Bob Myers kept Lacob from bringing a reduced offer to the negotiating table, but it was enough of a thing that Myers reassured Curry of the franchise’s commitment. 

Considering offering less than the max and actually doing so are clearly two different things. That said, the Warriors would have been absolutely insane to not immediately give Curry the deserved max. He made the Warriors what they were and had already spent years underpaid for what he did for them. Anything less than the max would have been a massive error in what should be the easiest contract negotiations of their entire summer.

Of course, that’s not what happened. Curry got his max contract, Kevin Durant ended up taking a discount and everybody on the Warriors went home happy thinking about their chances of winning three titles in four years. It’s funny to think about the alternate universe where the Warriors actually offer him less than the max though.