The next round of Warriors contract business may end up being tied to Stephen Curry, and Brandin Podziemski is the player caught in the middle.
Podziemski is currently under team control after Golden State picked up his $5.6 million option this year. He had been set up as a free agent after the 2026-27 season, but the Warriors kept him in the fold for another year as they sort through bigger financial questions.
The real issue now is timing. Golden State has to decide how aggressively it wants to chase cap space, and that choice could shape when Podziemski gets his next deal. A recent report suggested the Warriors might push that decision all the way to 2027 if they decide to go after maximum flexibility.
“Brandin Podziemski, Warriors. If the Warriors decide to go all-in on cap space, they could tell Podziemski he'll have to wait until 2027 for a new contract.
That hinges on what Stephen Curry decides to do. If Curry waits on an extension, the team is set up with a massive amount of cap room.
“It would not make sense to let a Podziemski deal interfere with that. The guess here is that if Steph waits, Podz waits,” Sean Deveney wrote.
That leaves Curry’s contract situation as the biggest storyline in Golden State right now. There’s no sign a new deal is close, even if plenty could be happening behind the scenes. And depending on how that plays out, Podziemski could either be in line to benefit or end up waiting longer for the Warriors to make their move.
In Other News...
Warriors Fans Will Hate Where This Latest Spurs Hype Went
Charles Barkley already has the basketball world talking again, this time with a comparison that will land hard in the Bay Area. After praising Spurs guards Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, Barkley floated the idea that San Antonios young backcourt could grow into something reminiscent of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, a bar so high it practically comes with a warning label. The Spurs do have reasons to dream, with Victor Wembanyama anchoring a promising core and a pair of talented guards giving the franchise a new kind of upside.
For Warriors fans, the bigger issue is how casually those comparisons get made before anything has been earned. Curry and Thompson helped define an era, and matching even a slice of that success is a long way off for any young pair, no matter how much talent they show early. San Antonio also has its own roster questions to sort through as this core develops, and until those pieces settle, the new Steph and Klay talk feels more like a provocation than a prediction. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Just Lost The Lakers Threat They Feared Most
LeBron James is no longer part of the Lakers regular-season picture, and for Golden State that changes the equation in a way that is hard to ignore. The Warriors had spent years dealing with a matchup problem unlike most others, because James consistently seemed to raise his level when these teams crossed paths and gave Golden State a very specific kind of trouble on both ends of the floor.
The Lakers have already shifted their attention toward Luka Doncic in the wake of James departure, but the immediate effect for the Warriors is simpler: one fewer proven problem to game-plan around. Even if Los Angeles still has enough talent to matter, the absence of James removes the player who has so often made that rivalry feel heavier, more physical and a little more personal for Golden State. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors May Have Avoided A Ben Simmons Role Problem
Ben Simmons latest stop came with a familiar wrinkle, as Sacramento officially signed him and listed him as a 6-foot-10 guard, keeping the conversation around his best NBA role alive. Rich Paul has suggested Simmons could be used more like a center in pick-and-roll looks, but the Kings current roster does not appear built to make that experiment easy, which makes the fit feel a little awkward before the season even gets going.
For the Warriors, the intrigue had looked a bit different. Golden State had shown interest in Simmons and could have tried to use him as a backup point guard or a versatile forward, the kind of Swiss Army piece that sometimes finds a lane in their system. Even then, he would have had to win a preseason roster spot over Brandon Williams, so the path was never going to be automatic, and the latest Sacramento move suggests the Warriors may have sidestepped a role puzzle before it reached their own locker room. [Read more 🡒]