Three Words to Sum Up the 25-26 Warriors Season
With the NBA Playoffs now in full swing, excitement around the league is reaching its peak, at least for the 16 teams that are still competing. For the other 14 teams, the offseason began early. One of those teams is the Golden State Warriors, who did not grab the eighth seed after their loss to the Phoenix Suns. With many questions left to be answered in what I foresee to be a busy offseason for the Warriors, we can only discuss what transpired during this campaign. If I had to be as succinct as possible, I believe that the 2025-2026 season for the team from the Bay can be described in three words.
The first of those words, and arguably the most overarching narrative, is injury-riddled. It’s tough to say that no one saw this coming, considering that Golden State started this year as the second-oldest roster by average age at 27.5 years old. Four of Golden State’s starting five missed at least 20 games with injuries, two of which were both severe and significant. Losing Jimmy Butler to a torn ACL in January halted the momentum that the Warriors had built at that point. The team’s slide ramped up with Moses Moody suffering a gruesome knee injury, which effectively capitalized on the detrimental stretch the Warriors sustained in recent months. Smaller ailments for another two stars, Stephen Curry and Kristaps Porzingis, held the team even further back, until they eventually ran out of bodies.
Honestly speaking, this was also a disappointing campaign. As the season progressed, it became easier to cut Steve Kerr and his players some slack, due to all the misfortunes described above. However, if we take into consideration all of the preseason anticipation, Golden State did not live up to its floor. After beating the Rockets in a thrilling series during last year’s playoffs, I would’ve expected Kerr’s group to at least get back to that stage. One can understand that the expectation-reality gap may not have been seismic, but it’s at least noticeable. The Warriors went from hoping to book a ticket to the Western Conference Finals to, deservingly, falling short during the Play-In Tournament.
Finally, to bring a more sentimental element to this conversation, I would classify the 2025-2026 Warriors as disheartening. Their superstar may not have played many games, but Curry’s teammates failed to support him on a consistent basis. Throughout the season, step-up candidates like Brandin Podziemski or Jonathan Kuminga showed flashes of what they can be, but none delivered on that level during most games. The front office tried to bolster the team by trading for Porzingis, but at last that didn’t resolve the issue. Almost every role player had chances to become a nightly feature for the team, especially with bodies dropping left and right, but no one did to a satisfactory level. General manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. will be called to pick up the pieces and puzzle them back together quickly, because this aging core is approaching retirement fast.
