Certainly, even the staunchest of Golden State Warriors fans can look at the current collection of players on this roster and see that an NBA championship is not in the cards in 2027. That’s not to say that a good and entertaining season might not be ahead, especially if things go the way they could as the Warriors see it, a path that involves Stephen Curry and his knee staying healthy, the rest of the supporting cast staying healthy, rookie Yaxel Lendeborg making an immediate impact and starters Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody coming back relatively quickly–and effectively–from their own knee injuries.
It’s a lot of “ifs” but all of that combined could lead to the best-case scenario for the Warriors. Even then, though, that best-case is still probably going to put the Warriors behind the Thunder and Spurs, and perhaps even others–Denver, Minnesota, Houston.
The second round of the playoffs is probably the Warriors’ ceiling as things stand. For an organization that won four championships in the last 11 years, that’s a tough notion to get accustomed to.
Warriors ‘Compared to Championship Level’
Oddly enough, the player on the Warriors with the most maniacal workout regimen–Curry himself–can see that the team is not on an elite level anymore. And while many would be afraid to call it even if they see it, Curry is not. Curry is not chasing championships. He is chasing playing good basketball.
As he said this week, via the Curry fan account “Aly”: “We talked about it last year. The success that we’ve had, we’re always going to be compared to championship level, as we should. It’s the way that we work. It’s the way that we put everything together with how we run business with the Warriors. But, I think building a new foundation of what this particular team needs to do to be successful, obviously staying healthy. We have a veteran team coming back with some young guys that are ready to take the step in the right direction to be impact players.”
Stephen Curry ‘Wants to Play Good Basketball’
Curry continued, pointing out that the Warriors should be able to file away the recent glory years and begin to look afresh at where the team is. Curry could have a hand in that–he is due a contract extension but if he holds off on signing it, he could help the Warriors create more than $100 million in cap space that could be used to “reimagine” the roster.
He said: “Of course we want to be in championship contention, but it’s kind of a fun opportunity for us to rebuild everything from scratch with the identity of what Warriors basketball is but try to reimagine it. And so for us, cool, we have to have an idea of what June looks like, but for us to just get off a good start and understand what this team needs to be successful, a long winded way of saying of course I want to win a championship but I just want to play good basketball because we haven’t in a while.”
Stephen Curry Gets Blunt on Warriors Future Amid Contract Talks