Stephen Curry shot back at criticisms surrounding him and the Golden State Warriors amid their aging core and quiet offseason so far.
Speaking to NBC Sports Bay Area during the American Century Championship Celebrity golf tournament earlier this week, Curry scoffed at the narrative that the Warriors’ core is too old to make a championship run.
“We’ve heard it for even before the ‘22 championship,” Curry told NBC Sports Bay Area.
But they are three years older, entering next season.
Curry is 37. Draymond Green is 35. So is Jimmy Butler. And if they are to add the 39-year-old Al Horford in free agency, which multiple reports say they will do, then they will have the oldest starting unit next season.
But Curry remains defiant.
“We heard it, so to the point like it’s all it all comes down to health,” Curry continued. “I mean, if you look at every team . . . [Oklahoma City] had a relatively healthy run. And that’s what you need. Like, vets get through a regular season. Try to be in a position where we’re not chasing anything down the stretch.”
But aside from a healthy run, the Thunder are the second-youngest team in NBA history to win a championship.
Steph Curry Used to Defying Odds
The Warriors reached the second round, but not without the young, gritty Houston Rockets pushing them to a Game 7 after they built a 3-1 series lead in the first round.
Butler was never the same again after his scary fall in Game 2. Then, in the second round against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Curry sustained a left hamstring strain and did not return. They lost in five games.
“I know I got hurt,” Curry said. “But you just want to build off that for another year to build chemistry with Jimmy. You know Draymond will do his thing. Hopefully, some of our young guys are able to take another step. That’s every-year process. Just take what we did great, know we’re going to have to elevate that and do it more consistently for a whole year.”
The odds are stacked again against Curry and the Warriors despite their second-round run last playoffs. They only have the ninth-best championship odds (+2000) at Bet Online, one of the best sports betting sites for the month of July, according to Gameshub.com.
“It’s been that way my whole career, pretty much through high school,” Curry told NBC Sports Bay Area of being doubted. “But those narratives take a life of their own. I just want to win. That’s it.”
New Suitor for Jonathan Kuminga Emerges
The Warriors have a lot of work to do this offseason. They only have nine players under contract. Three weeks into free agency, they are the only NBA team that has yet to make a move in free agency.
They have been in a holding pattern pending the resolution of Jonathan Kuminga ‘s restricted free agency.
According to NBA insider Jake Fischer, the Phoenix Suns, fresh off buying out three-time All-Star Bradley Beal, have registered their interest in the 22-year-old Kuminga.
“Sources say Phoenix, meanwhile, is the latest team to express exploratory interest in a Kuminga sign-and-trade … challenging as it would be for the Suns to make such a deal happen,” Fischer wrote on “The Stein Line” Substack newsletter on July 17
The Suns have reached out to both Kuminga’s representation and the Warriors “to make their fondness for the bouncy swingman known,” according to Fischer.
However, no deal is imminent as the Suns face hurdles in a potential sign-and-trade for the Warriors’ former No. 7 pick.
“The Suns, to be clear, do not appear to possess the sort of draft capital or players that Golden State is believed to be seeking in exchange for Kuminga,” Fischer wrote.
