The Warriors’ future after Stephen Curry is still foggy, but it isn’t sealed shut.
Golden State doesn’t have an obvious successor waiting in the wings, and it doesn’t even have a clear star to build around right now unless you want to put Brandin Podziemski in that bucket. Podziemski is eligible for an extension this offseason, though that situation likely gets resolved once he reaches restricted free agency. What the Warriors do have is room to maneuver, along with enough financial flexibility to put together one more strong supporting cast around Curry next offseason if they choose to shed a chunk of their current commitments.
That uncertainty is part of why ESPN dropping the Warriors to 19th in its three-year power rankings makes sense. They were sixth a year ago, but even with Curry still playing at a high level, every veteran on the roster is another year older and the long-term picture remains too murky to inspire confidence over the life of his next deal.
Still, the post-Curry outlook is not a dead end. Golden State still controls all of its first-round picks from now through 2033, and that gives the franchise a real route back to relevance if it manages those assets well. Other teams have found their way back before, and there’s no reason the Warriors can’t do it too.
The catch is that the front office has to treat those assets carefully. Curry has been in Golden State for 17 seasons, and the team’s identity has revolved around him for more than a decade. Letting go of a superstar like that is never clean, and the short-term fallout after his retirement could be rough.
But the league has shown that a rebound is possible even without much breathing room. The Suns pushed themselves back into competitiveness last season despite having almost no draft capital and being only a year removed from a mess of bad contracts that wrecked their playoff hopes. Go back a little farther, and the Oklahoma City Thunder offer another blueprint: a careful accumulation of draft capital and positive assets helped them recover after losing franchise-defining stars.
Golden State has to decide how it wants to play this. There’s a real argument for going all-in on a star now and squeezing every last ounce out of Curry’s prime, especially if that player can still be in their prime after Curry’s career winds down. But there’s also a middle path, and that may be the smarter one.
The Warriors probably aren’t one or two minor moves away from being a championship team, but next offseason could give them enough flexibility to add useful two-way pieces through trades and free agency. If they can keep their draft capital intact while maximizing their first-round picks between now and the end of Curry’s run, they could build a young core that carries them into the next phase.
Yaxel Lendeborg is a solid start. Trading him or future first-round draft capital for a player like Paolo Banchero would not, at least not yet, put Golden State in the same tier as the Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs.
For now, the three-year outlook looks pretty average. But a disciplined approach over that stretch could still leave the Warriors in a strong position when the next era begins, and their front office at least has the tools to pull that off.
In Other News...
Jonathan Kuminga's Next Payday Could Depend On One Familiar Team
Jonathan Kumingas path out of Golden State already took one strange turn this offseason, when the Warriors turned away sign-and-trade interest from the Sacramento Kings and Kuminga ultimately landed with the Minnesota Timberwolves on a two-year, $12.4 million deal. Even after the change of scenery, Sacramento still looms over his next move, because reports say Kuminga is eyeing the Kings as the team most likely to come in with a major offer when he can opt out and hit free agency again next summer.
The problem for Kuminga is that Sacramentos own offseason ambitions may point elsewhere. The Kings have been linked to Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren, a pursuit that could reshape how much cap room they have to play with when free agency opens again. For a player trying to position himself for a bigger payday, that leaves one familiar suitor worth watching, even if the financial fit may not be there when the time comes. [Read more 🡒]
Steph Currys Role In The Warriors Biggest Roster Decisions Is Clear
Stephen Curry has long been the face of the Warriors, but when it comes to the biggest roster calls, Anthony Slater reported that his influence is intentionally limited. His voice still carries weight inside the organization, and Golden States decision-makers listen to what he has to say, but Curry prefers to keep his lane in the locker room rather than blur the line into front-office business.
Even so, his role around the team is hardly passive. Curry has remained active in helping the Warriors attract talent, including this summers outreach to LeBron James, but that is a different kind of involvement than pushing for specific trades or roster moves. For Golden State, the distinction matters, because it shows how the franchises most important player stays engaged without trying to steer every personnel decision himself. [Read more 🡒]
Brandin Podziemski Just Made The Warriors Next Cap Decision Tougher
The market for young guards has shifted again, and that matters in Golden State as it weighs the next step for Brandin Podziemski. Recent multi-year extensions for Keyonte George with Utah and Pelle Larsson with Miami have helped reset expectations for what a promising backcourt player can command, which only sharpens the backdrop around Podziemski as the Warriors sort through their own timeline.
For a team that has to keep an eye on every future dollar, the question is no longer just whether Podziemski is worth a rookie extension, but how aggressively to act before the leverage changes again. Golden State could decide the cleaner path is patience, even if that means letting the process run deeper into restricted free agency, where the price of waiting can get complicated fast. [Read more 🡒]