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Why Curry and Kawhi Leonard signed two-year extensions: the NBA over-38 rule explained

By McKinley Malbrough III, J.D., MS-HRM · Certified WNBA player agent · Former certified NBA agent

Published October 26, 2026. Last updated October 26, 2026.

John Hollinger of The Athletic reported, in a column the Hawaii Tribune-Herald carried on September 30, 2026, that Stephen Curry and Kawhi Leonard each signed a two-year extension and tied the length to the over-38 rule, per his column as carried by the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. This post reads the rule in the CBA itself. Curry's deal is also covered in the Curry and LeBron James contracts guide and the Warriors contract year post.

What is the NBA over-38 rule?

The NBA over-38 rule is a salary cap rule for long contracts that run past a player's 38th birthday, set out in Article VII, Section 3(a)(2) of the 2023 NBA CBA. It applies to an Over 38 Contract, which is a contract, extension or renegotiation that covers four or more seasons from the day it is signed, including at least one season that starts after the player reaches 38. For this rule only, seasons are counted as starting on October 1, per Section 3(a)(2)(v).

How did the rule shape the Curry and Leonard extensions?

Hollinger describes the rule as letting a team offer only a two-year extension to a player who would turn 38 during it. Curry's extension was reported at $116 million over two years, through 2028-29, per KRON4 and the Associated Press. Leonard's was reported at two years and $115 million, with a player option for 2028-29, per CBS Sports, which says the length came from the rule.

The CBA text does not set a two-year limit. It sets a cap treatment for contracts of four or more seasons. Curry's current deal ends after 2026-27, per Yardbarker, so a two-year extension agreed before October 1, 2026 makes a contract of three seasons from signing, since 2026-27 still counts as the first, which is below the four-season threshold, per Section 3(a)(2)(v). The author reads the press description as shorthand for that result: two years avoids the reallocation, and a longer deal triggers it.

How does the rule change a player's cap hit?

It moves later salary onto earlier years. Salary for the fourth cap year of the contract, or the first cap year that covers a season after the 38th birthday, whichever is later, and for every year after it, is attributed pro rata to the earlier cap years on the basis of those years' salaries, per Section 3(a)(2)(i). The year whose salary has been moved is a zero year, per Section 3(a)(2)(vi).

Take an illustrative four-year contract at 10 units a year, with the fourth season after the player's 38th birthday. The fourth-year 10 units are spread across the first three years, so each of those years carries about 13.3 units against the cap and the fourth year carries zero. Every number there is illustrative arithmetic from the rule, not a real contract. Section 3(a)(2)(iii) adds a rolling July 1 averaging step that this example leaves out.

A 2018 explainer describes the same mechanics, with salary after age 38 treated as deferred and spread over earlier years, per Hoops Rumors. It was written under the previous agreement, and the CBA text above governs.

Does a team ever get around the rule?

The CBA writes in exceptions instead of loopholes, and they apply to a Qualifying Veteran Free Agent aged 35 or 36 who stays with his prior team. If that player signs a five-season Over 38 Contract, only the fifth year is reallocated, per Section 3(a)(2)(ii). A contract of four or fewer seasons signed by such a player at 35 or 36 has no reallocation at all, per Section 3(a)(2)(iv). The conditions turn on the player being a Qualifying Veteran Free Agent re-signing with his prior team, with a player counted as 35 if he turns 35 by October 1; Hoops Rumors describes this as a Bird rights exception.

A contract of fewer than four seasons from signing is not an Over 38 Contract in the first place. The salary cap mechanics around exceptions are in the NBA exceptions guide.

What does it mean for players negotiating after 35?

It sets a trade-off between years and cap room. A longer deal gives a player more guaranteed seasons, but under the rule the team's near-term cap hit rises, which can limit what else it can do. A shorter deal avoids the reallocation. How the cap and the apron lines limit a team is in the guide to how the NBA salary cap works.

Age 35 and 36 carry their own treatment, so a player's birthday and the date of signing matter. Section 3(a)(2)(vii) also treats a player whose birthday falls in the moratorium period as the age he was on the preceding June 30 if he signs within five days after it ends.