I know, I know. It sounds crazy at first. Why would 36-year-old Steph Curry want to come to San Antonio when you know he wants to compete for a championship, and, more importantly, why would the Spurs want to add an aging star to their young core? NBA analytics savant Tom Haberstroh answered those questions convincingly, and I'm on board with the idea.
To sum up his main point, Victor Wembanyama is making money on a rookie-scale contract, allowing the Spurs to take on a star player's contract. The Warriors are flailing, but Steph is still a top-ten player, so they should try to move him to jumpstart their rebuild. On SA's side, Wemby is good enough to make his pairing with Curry devastating, accelerating their window to compete.
There's plenty of precedent for this. Haberstroh reminds us of Pat Riley's decision to trade for a 32-year-old Shaq after Dwyane Wade's stellar rookie season, for example. Two years later, they won a title. He gave several other NBA examples, but this strategy isn't unique to the NBA.
Teams capitalize on talented rookie players all the time
In 2012, the Seattle Seahawks drafted a late-round quarterback, but they also spent a large sum of money on the same position in free agency, bringing in Matt Flynn. Little did they know, the player they drafted would take the reigns in training camp, winning the starting position. His name was Russell Wilson.
Wilson led them to the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs, and in the offseason, they cut Matt Flynn loose and spent millions filling out their roster with veterans to take the team over the top. The result was a Super Bowl in their quarterback's sophomore season and the emergence of one of the most storied teams in the history of the sport: The Legion of Boom.
This doesn't work well for every team, but when you have a transcendent player like Wemby, things thought to be impossible are no longer. San Antonio's wealth of assets allows them to take a big swing like this while preserving plans for a strong future.
It would likely take a few players and several picks to match salaries and entice Golden State enough to trade the best player in their franchise's history, but the Spurs have everything necessary to make that possible. Haberstroh's proposal would cost the team Stephon Castle, but they'd keep Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sochan. Adding Chef Curry to that core would be deadly.
A Wemby/Steph duo would be unguardable. Vassell would move down to the third option on the team, and on any given night, Vic or Curry have the potential to go ballistic with more space than either player has ever had. Wembanyama would remain the number one option, putting defenses in the worst conflicts imaginable.
That doesn't have to be the end, either. Curry's arrival could be the cherry on top to entice other players to come to San Antonio to play with Wemby. Even after he's gone, guys could be intrigued by being the next star to play alongside the Alien if things go well with the Baby-Faced Assassin. It's hard to imagine they wouldn't, though. These guys are pretty good at basketball.