The Golden State Warriors need stability and Antawn Jamison wants to give them some. But now he needs patience and they need to be careful.

	Jamison had a breakout season in scoring, and wants a contract extension.

Jamison said he would love to sign an extension with the Warriors, just like his friend and former college teammate Vince Carter just did in Toronto. He doesn't want to wait to become a free agent next summer, when he won't be much of a free agent anyway since few teams, if any, will tender offer sheets, knowing Golden State will immediately match. He doesn't want to play out 2001-02, maybe sign a one-year deal, and then finally become an unrestricted free agent.

He wants to stay with the Warriors. A team with few wins, fewer fans and even less chance of seeing the playoffs the next two years.

Among the reasons for encouragement in Oakland -- it's just not humanly possible to have as many injuries as last season, and lottery pick Jason Richardson has awesome potential as a shooting guard with size, athleticism and range -- few rank with Jamison's statement. Whether he is worth a max contract, like Carter, is not the issue right now. The Warriors need him more than he needs them, because the money will be available elsewhere, but 24.9 points and 8.7 rebounds from a third-year player won't be. They need players who get mentioned for All-Star consideration and say they want to stay. That's part of the price right now of being the Warriors.

That's not to say they should give him the six years and $83.7 million today. Flexibility with the salary cap is a great thing, and they have until Oct. 31 to do the extension that would kick in after this season. And there are ramifications for both sides to consider, some technicalities for the cap that most will never realize and some more obvious, like Jamison being able to get a seven-year contract for greater money by waiting until next summer. The sides can also do something then. Either way, management said, they want to match his commitment.

That is to say, however, that they should be very careful. More things can go wrong by waiting, and anyone who wonders how things can get worse wasn't paying very close attention to Golden State's injured list last season. (Total games missed by injury or illness: 414, most in the NBA and the third-most since the statistic started being kept in 1985-86.)

	Fortson

Maybe they want to wait to see if he has a bad season or how he interacts with Danny Fortson if Fortson stays healthy? The latter is a reasonable concern, given Jamison's obvious frustration at his role early in the season before Fortson went out with a stress fracture in his right foot. But so what if he takes a step backward? The guy goes from averaging 9.6 points to 24.9 points from the first to third season and does a great job of adding a perimeter game, and you'd risk losing him if he drops to 18 points and seven rebounds, both of which are reasonable numbers with the presence of scorers like rookies Richardson and Troy Murphy and a rebounder like Fortson? Maybe they want to see if Jamison stays healthy? Good point. These are the Warriors we're talking about. Team Voodoo Doll.

	Hughes

Maybe they want to see if the team gets good? This is the all-time fallback. How good can someone be and how much can they be worth if he plays for a franchise that has won 17 and 19 games the two full seasons and went 21-29 during the lockout campaign? It's a fair question. Except for two things: Teams get better by retaining their best players, and do you prefer a lineup of Mookie Blaylock/Larry Hughes at the point, Richardson at shooting guard, Chris Mills/Chris Porter at small forward, Fortson/Murphy at power forward and Marc Jackson (maybe)/Erick Dampier/Adonal Foyle at center? Thought so.

We offer one counter:

What if they make him mad by waiting? That's why it can be practical to wait and also a big risk. Everyone knew it when he was unhappy with his role in the offense weeks into last season, so you can imagine how that translates if he is unhappy with seeing lifetime financial security just out of reach. Because ankles and shoulders aren't the only things that can get bruised.

"If it doesn't happen this summer, I'm not going to sit here and say I'm not going to wonder why it didn't happen or what's going on," Jamison told the Contra Costa Times this week. "There will be questions as to why it didn't happen. I'm not going to say I'm still going to have the same type of commitment as far as coming back and staying. I made a commitment. This is where I want to be. It's up to them to keep me here.

"If anything good is to happen here, we need a commitment from the players to stick around. The coaches, the GM, and owner, too. As for the players, if you don't want to be here, get out. We don't want you. If you feel you don't want to be part of this franchise, let's do everything possible to get your (expletive) out of here. But if you want to make a difference and you want to work hard, that's how you're successful.?

The Warriors say it's a matter of when and not if. It's just that the "when" part apparently will be of some concern for Jamison, who just deftly made a salary request that some would consider overboard and had it come across as being every bit the team player. He wants to stay.

"Obviously, he's part of our future," assistant GM Gary Fitzsimmons said. ?He's a young player who has improved as he's come in. And as we go forward, he'll be part of it. ... It's going to get done. It's just the timing thing."

They can't afford to lose him or alienate him, even more than they can't afford to pay $83.7 million to someone who has never been an All-Star, someone who has never been on a playoff team, and someone who needs to prove this attitude about accepting a lesser role on the team is permanent. (He needs to become a better defender also, but we decided not to hit him too hard for that since there's a crazy rumor going around that two or three other guys in the league have the same deficiency.) He's not Carter. But this ain't the Raptors, either.

Scott Howard-Cooper covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.