The Warriors’ season ended with a ‘what if,’ but the path ahead has promise

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All Steph Curry wanted was to be in the mix. 

He got his wish but didn’t get to see it through. 

Although the Warriors’ season was a success on the whole, it ended prematurely Wednesday in the second round against the Minnesota Timberwolves in “what could have been” fashion. 

Curry suffered a Grade 1 left hamstring strain in the series opener. Then, he took a front-row seat on the bench as the Warriors’ season slipped away in five games. 

The Timberwolves series was going to be a fantastic matchup for him. After a grueling seven-game slugfest against Houston — which Curry called one of the toughest defenses he’d ever faced — the floor was about to open up. In the 13 minutes he played before the injury, he scored 13 points while getting anywhere he wanted. 

Just how much Curry could have dominated, and how far he could’ve taken Golden State, will forever be a mystery. 

“I know we had a shot,” head coach Steve Kerr said after getting eliminated. “I know we could’ve gone the distance.” 

The way the Warriors’ season ended showed how difficult a task they have ahead of them. Golden State needed to play a month of playoff-level ball to avoid the play-in before grinding through the Rockets and facing Minnesota in an every-other-day playoff structure. They made no excuses and admitted no fatigue, but that kind of lift is daunting for any team, let alone one led by three stars ages 37, 35, and 35. 

For moments this postseason, the title looked up for grabs. In the East, the reigning champion Celtics blew consecutive 20-point leads before losing their best player to a catastrophic injury. The top-seeded Cavaliers broke down. In the West, the Clippers crashed out, and Denver and Oklahoma City beat each other up. The best teams in the league looked vulnerable. Draymond Green’s championship declaration from All-Star weekend didn’t look so crazy, after all. The Warriors had a chance to fill a power vacuum, like they did in 2022. 

But the teams that win in the playoffs are a bundle of luck, health, continuity, and talent. Without Curry, the Warriors didn’t have enough. 

“It sucks to end this way, but we think we’ve got the pieces to make another run at it and do it again,” Green said. “That’s going to be our mindset going into the summer. Do all that, we’ve got to do to improve. We’ve got one of the best ownership groups and front offices in the NBA; we know they’ll do whatever they feel is needed to help the team improve. … But I think come next year, we’ll be right back at it and give ourselves a chance again.” 

His training camp tan from Hawaii fading, Curry entered the season with a fresh, healthy sense of optimism. He had an open mind, ready to embrace stylistic tweaks in the wake of two disappointing seasons. 

Klay Thompson was gone, and offseason pursuits of Lauri Markkanen and Paul George didn’t materialize. The Warriors, Curry hoped, could be relevant early and parlay that into meaningful basketball come the spring. 

A 12-3 start was a taste, but De’Anthony Melton’s torn ACL extinguished that spark. The Warriors searched for an identity as they played lottery-level ball for weeks. 

Momentum halted. The Warriors lost to the lowly Spurs, Nets, and Raptors as they struggled to score consistently. The pieces on their roster didn’t connect the game, with too many players either being essentially offensive or defensive specialists. 

Kerr hunted for answers, shuffling the rotation that started the season 13 deep. 

Jonathan Kuminga replaced Green in the starting lineup in December in what appeared to be a possible momentous moment in the dynastic era. But it proved to be short-lived. In his fourth season, Kuminga still hasn’t found ways to consistently impact winning within the Warriors’ system, and he hasn’t proved himself enough to warrant tilting the system his way — away from Curry. He didn’t use his athleticism to defend or rebound regularly and is often slow at making decisions in an offense designed on passing, moving, and screening. 

The wing’s roller-coaster season picked up only when he began to come off the bench again. There, he had the best extended stretch of his career — a three-week span in which he averaged 22.7 points per game and made an impact defensively and on the glass. He had the ball in his hands and was playing power forward, the position that best fits him in Golden State’s system. 

But then a Grade 3 ankle sprain sidelined Kuminga for more than two months. Curry was left with a roster heading nowhere, in his 16th season. 

Both Curry and Green warned against mortgaging the Warriors’ future for a desperate trade. Curry in particular frequently batted questions about the existential state of the franchise as the dynasty dawned. 

Then a Miami sun rose and created a solstice. 

At 25-26, general manager Mike Dunleavy swung a masterstroke trade to acquire Jimmy Butler. Suddenly, a season bound to be forgotten had life. Even though the loss of 2022 finals hero Andrew Wiggins stung — players in the locker room in Utah were ghost-faced and emotional upon learning he was off to Miami — Butler instantly shifted the energy. 

The six-time All-Star brought candles and eclectic playlists, swagger, and a scoring punch. His two-way excellence gave Curry a true No. 2 — a Robin to Curry’s Batman, as Butler liked to say — and the Warriors a new life. Before him, no opponent was below them. With him, the Warriors walked into every arena thinking they could win. 

Butler fit in so well, so quickly, that Green guaranteed that the Warriors were going to win the championship during All-Star Weekend in the Bay Area. 

The Warriors went 24-8 after Butler’s arrival, rising from firm play-in territory to the seventh seed through a month of intense games. 

But Butler’s presence also relegated Kuminga to a lesser role. The talented young wing overlapped with Butler too much, with redundant skill sets and a roster unbefitting of them sharing the court. The Warriors couldn’t afford to give Kuminga time to reacclimate after he returned from injury, and Kerr ended up benching him for the team’s biggest matchups — including four games in the Rockets series.

Yet after Curry went down against the Wolves, the pendulum swung Kuminga’s way again. He supplied the downhill scoring against a Minnesota team staying home on 3-point shooters the Warriors desperately needed. He scored 18 points in Game 2, 30 in Game 3, 23 in Game 4, and 26 in the finale. He shot 36-for-65 (55%) from the floor and 39% from 3. 

It was the type of performance, against an elite defense on a massive stage, that every general manager around the league notices. They saw that Kuminga is among the best in the league at beating his man off the bounce and getting to the cup.

Now the Warriors face a decision on Kuminga, a restricted free agent. It’d be hard to blame the 22-year-old former lottery pick for wanting a change of scenery or the Warriors for wanting to execute a sign-and-trade him for a player that could more easily slot into the rotation. 

It’s possible that Kuminga has played his last game as a Warrior. 

That the Warriors fell apart against Minnesota wasn’t a failure of roster construction. No team is built to withstand losing its best player in the second round of the postseason. Still, losing four straight against the Timberwolves highlighted red flags. 

Fourth-year wing Moses Moody had his best season as a pro, solidifying himself as a starter who thrived in his role next to Curry and Butler. But he faded out of the rotation in the playoffs. Moody missed 14 straight field goals when the type of shots Curry and Butler created for him dissipated.

Other role players, like rookie center Quinten Post and Buddy Hield, revealed themselves to be likewise Curry-dependent.

Brandin Podziemski, meanwhile, had a chance like Kuminga to elevate his play in Curry’s absence. Instead, he cratered until it was too late. 

Podziemski shot 22.5% in the first four games of the Timberwolves series before erupting for 28 points in the series finale. He has mostly struggled whenever tasked with more primary playmaking responsibilities. At this point in the 22-year-old’s career, he’s much more suited as a second-side creator who can run through the catch and drive against closeouts. In that role from March on, he averaged 15.8 points and 5.3 assists, surging to close the season. 

But there were red flags in his sophomore campaign. Podziemski started the year shooting 19% from 3-point range through 14 games. When he’s not confident in his outside jumper, he becomes limited on the offensive end because of his lack of finishing ability and tendency to get tunnel vision. Like Kuminga, he doesn’t always play point-five basketball — though he’s permitted to play through mistakes because he’s the team’s only on-ball initiator from the backcourt besides Curry. His body language can slump with his individual play.

Last summer, owner Joe Lacob made headlines by saying he believes Podziemski has All-Star potential. Podziemski himself took to social media when a popular Twitter account left him off its predictions for the 2028 Team USA roster. Coaches in training camp told him they wanted him taking at least eight 3-pointers per game. 

Podziemski was coming off an excellent rookie campaign in which he led the league in charges drawn and the team in plus-minus. Executives around Summer League raved about him. But this season was more of a plateau than a leap.

Still, Podziemski remains a big part of the Warriors’ future.

“There’s obviously a bunch of stuff that I need to work on, that I was able to see what I needed to work on during this playoffs,” Podziemski said. “It gives me some framework of what I need to do in the offseason to help the team get to another level.” 

The day Butler joined the Warriors, before a Lakers game at Crypto.com Arena, Dunleavy said the magic words every observer has obsessed over for three years. 

“We’ve picked a path,” Duunleavy said. 

“I think it’s always been the path we’ve been looking for in terms of maximizing this window right here with Steph and Draymond,” he later added. “I think you’ve just got to find the right player to do that with. I think with Jimmy, we’ve found it. I think there’s been some opportunities before that maybe we held the line on, I think it makes a lot of sense looking back on. I’m glad we did, to be able to get a player of this caliber in Jimmy. I think this has kind of always been the hope and plan.”

Through years of trade rumors and internal deliberations, front office turnover and mediocre seasons, Dunleavy pushed in some chips to help maximize what’s left of Curry’s championship window. 

The trio of Butler, Curry, and Green played 453 minutes together and outscored opponents by 6.6 points per 100 possessions. What’s more, Butler stabilized the interminably shaky non-Curry minutes with his brand of bruising iso-ball. 

Dunleavy’s activity was frantic by NBA standards. He used the flexibility created by letting Chris Paul and Thompson walk to add Melton, Buddy Hield, and Kyle Anderson. He batted .333 on those transactions, but was able to flip Melton for Dennis Schroder before dealing Schroder and Anderson for Butler. 

Dunleavy is also the executive to select Podziemski and get value out of late second-round picks in Trayce Jackson-Davis and Quinten Post. Meanwhile, the Warriors maintain most of their future first-round picks and can trade up to four of them.

Lacob’s background is in venture capital. He knows proper asset management.

The Warriors followed their plan this year. Entering the season, they set out to form an identity as a defensive-oriented team. Golden State finished seventh in defensive rating (and first after the All-Star break). They kept their powder dry to try to make a difference-making deal down the line. Butler arrived, thrusting Curry back into contention; 22 teams would’ve loved to reach the second round. 

There’s more work to do. The Warriors need more players who think at a high level. They could use a center to help out Green — particularly one with 3-point range — and a two-way guard to take more pressure off Curry. They need to get longer and more athletic. 

It’s tough to accomplish all of that given the Warriors’ roster realities. But this season sets up a heat-check summer for Dunleavy’s front office. 

“Mike Dunleavy’s a superstar,” Kerr said. “What he’s done the last couple years, I have total faith in Mike and his ability to look at our team and figure out what we need and help us get better this summer.” 

The path remains ahead.