With Golden State’s run at the top fading, the idea of Stephen Curry ending up in Sacramento has moved from pure fantasy to a scenario worth at least imagining. For a Kings franchise that has spent years searching for a true jolt, that would be the kind of move that changes everything.
Curry’s place in the league has already been cemented. Over the better part of a decade, he and the Warriors controlled the NBA, reaching the Finals in six of ten seasons and winning four championships.
At one point, they strung together five straight Finals trips. That kind of stretch is the sort of run franchises dream about.
But the league has shifted since Golden State’s last title in 2022. Teams like the Spurs, Thunder, and Knicks have risen, while the Warriors have not kept pace. Rather than developing younger talent, they leaned into older stars, and now the organization is moving toward a rebuild that does not appear to include Curry.
That’s where Sacramento comes in.
Curry is 38 and in his 17th season, but he is still playing at an elite level. His contract runs through the end of the 2026-2027 season, which would make him an unrestricted free agent. On top of that, ownership and management have said they would honor Curry’s request for a trade if he wanted one, because they believe he has earned that right.
For the Kings, the timing is what makes this interesting. De'Andre Hunter and Zach LaVine are both set to have their contracts expire at the same time as Curry’s.
Sacramento will not extend LaVine, and Hunter is also unlikely to get a new deal. If Curry becomes available, Hunter is the obvious name that would not be kept.
That opens up a lot of salary-cap flexibility.
And that’s where the real fireworks start.
If the Kings somehow swung a deal sending Hunter and LaVine to Golden State for Curry - or if they simply let both players walk and signed Curry as a free agent - they’d suddenly have one of the greatest point guards ever in the middle of a roster that badly needs a face. It would be the kind of move that makes Sacramento relevant again overnight.
It would also be a massive boost for the young players already there, especially Darius Acuff Jr. He has the talent and upside to become something special, but a mentor like Curry would give him a blueprint few players ever get. The idea of Acuff learning from Steph is exactly the sort of pairing that makes this whole thought exercise so wild.
Of course, plenty would have to fall into place for any of this to happen, and it probably won’t. Still, the fact that there’s a real path - however narrow - to Curry landing in Sacramento is enough to make it one of the most fascinating “what if” scenarios in Kings history.
And if that wasn’t enough to scramble the imagination, there’s also the possibility that Jonathan Kuminga could come to Sacramento at the same time. That would make the whole thing even more explosive.
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Kings Just Created A De'Andre Hunter Problem They Can't Ignore
The Kings have spent the summer reshaping their roster, and the addition of Ben Simmons along with the seventh overall pick, Darius Acuff Jr., only adds more pressure to a wing group that was already hard to sort out. DeAndre Hunter arrived last season and remains on an expiring contract, which makes him useful in one sense and complicated in another as Sacramento tries to balance present needs with longer-term flexibility.
Scott Perry has not committed to Hunters future, and that silence says plenty about where things stand. With the Kings still figuring out how their wing rotation fits together, Hunter may end up being less of a locked-in piece than a valuable trade asset, especially if Sacramento decides it needs to keep adjusting the roster during the upcoming season. [Read more 🡒]