This offseason, LeBron James and Stephen Curry accomplished a huge goal on their basketball bucket lists by teaming up for Team USA and winning gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. After competing in the NBA Finals four times, the two defining superstars of this era have long expressed a desire to play together, and now they’ve done it with extraordinarily high stakes. Both excelled as teammates. James was awarded the Olympic tournament’s MVP, and Curry’s clutch shooting salvaged the day in close medal-round games against Serbia and France.
James, the Lakers’ star, will turn 40 this season and has openly expressed his desire to retire with the Lakers. Curry is 36 and has never played for a team other than the Golden State Warriors. Neither will be in the NBA for much longer, and neither appears likely to leave in the near future. James can become a free agent after the 2024-25 season, but the Warriors, based on their present salary cap situation, can only afford to pay him the mid-level exception. Given the estimated cost of re-signing Jonathan Kuminga, he is more likely to be offered a minimum-wage deal.
The Warriors tried to trade for James at last year’s deadline, but James informed the Lakers he would prefer not to be traded. The Lakers and Warriors could potentially revisit trade talks this season, but the new, stricter salary-matching rules enforced by the 2023 CBA that begin this season would make such a deal significantly more difficult. The Lakers are hard-capped at the second apron, which they are just barely below, and the Warriors are hard-capped at the first apron, which they are also just barely below.
They’d need to find a third team to help make the money work before even getting into the basketball side of the equation.
Never say never in the NBA. Far stranger things have happened. But given how old the two of them are, fans are lucky to have even seen James and Curry play an Olympic run together. The odds of them renewing the partnership in the NBA appear very slim.
Leave a Reply