Stephen Curry isn't losing sleep over the missed opportunity to team up with LeBron James on the Golden State Warriors in the closing chapters of their illustrious careers.
James stunned the basketball world Friday when he announced he would join the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year, $8-million contract for his record-extending 24th NBA season.
"That’s why you don't envision anything until it happens," Curry told The Athletic's Marcus Thompson II on Saturday. "There's a lot of moving parts."
James' agent, Rich Paul, confirmed that the Warriors were well in the mix for the future Hall of Famer, and reports suggested Golden State even sought to acquire Anthony Davis from the Washington Wizards to create a Big Four with James, Curry, Davis, and Draymond Green. It's unclear if that swap would have persuaded James to join Curry in the Bay Area, though Paul admitted that the 76ers' acquisition of Jaylen Brown on July 1 played a role in James' decision to sign with Philadelphia.
After failing to land James and having made no offseason additions yet, the Warriors will have to chart a new path to improve a roster that finished 10th in the Western Conference last season and crashed out in the play-in tournament. However, with Jimmy Butler still recovering from his ACL tear in January, the 38-year-old Curry said he recognizes that a shorthanded, aging Warriors squad is likely to face another season-long uphill battle with little margin for error in a loaded Western Conference.
"The through line, which is hard on anybody in this situation, especially with us keeping this thing together, is knowing that when Jimmy got hurt and Moses (Moody) got hurt, the whole calculus of everything changes," Curry said. "How do you get through their absence and still stay at a certain level?
"And then how that goes into this year. It's the same deal. So, I'm a realist on that."
