Sitting at the podium after a season-ending loss, head coach Steve Kerr offered the state of the Golden State Warriors in a few words.
“But it just gets more difficult as you get older.”
Steph Curry can attest.
He looked like unanimous MVP Steph will his dazzling late-game heroics in an improbable road victory over the L.A. Clippers in the first of two play-in games.
But less than 48 hours later, 2016 Steph fizzled as did the Warriors’ season. It summed up perfectly what is holding Golden State back from being a threat in the West.
Let it be known as the old LeBron James formula.
The 41-year-old James became the third option behind two potent scores. His Lakers rocketed to the third seed in the West and on the verge of contending for a championship before one night in Oklahoma City.
That’s what Curry and the Warriors need — to embrace the old LeBron James formula.
But the question is … will they?
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Tallying eight more wins than losses was certainly not on Golden State’s mind entering the 2025-26 season. Not after a season that could’ve ended in at least a conference finals appearance had Curry’s hamstring not had the mind of its own.
Brutal injuries to Jimmy Butler and to Moses Moody a couple of months later sealed the Warriors’ fate. All expectations crumbled at that point.
The Warriors had Curry forced to an over two-month shut down as they won single digit games in the time the two-time MVP was sidelined.
The team entered the play-in tournament with nothing to lose. Watching Curry go retro against the Clippers was fun, but it was only a temporary distraction to the Warriors’ overarching problems.
GettyInglewood, CA – April 12: Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler, and guards Stephen Curry (30) and Seth Curry (31) sit on the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the LA Clippers at Intuit Dome on Sunday, April 12, 2026 in Inglewood, CA. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The roster is old and not in a position to compete as currently constructed. Curry is still an elite talent who wants to compete for titles. Golden State has decisions to make, starting with Curry’s future, but it can’t have a convincing choice until other moves are made first.
“Even Curry’s immediate future is a bit hairy,” wrote Danny Emerman of the San Francisco Standard. “He wants to play multiple more years and is interested in an extension, but it’d be unrealistic to expect him to carry the Warriors through a full regular season.”
Bingo. In other words, the old LeBron James formula.
Curry can absolutely remain a Warrior and experience meaningful basketball games again, but all signs scream one thing: he cannot be the best player on the team for that to happen.
In other words, the old LeBron James formula.
Curry and James are luminaries of the 2010s. They are still capable of playing like the best player on the court on any given night.
But on any given night, they are also well capable of a clunker. Because they are 38 and 41, respectively, not those MVP candidates from 2016.
James has stumbled into a role he perhaps had no idea how effective he would be in. Playing behind Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves has allowed James to move off the ball, rest more during games and pick up the pace in bursts and spurts.
That’s the role the Warriors need to put Curry in.
But they’ll have to find another player (or two) to put in front of Curry in the pecking order.
It can’t be the 36-year-old Butler who is coming off a major injury. And outside of him, the Warriors don’t have a capable creator in the half court.
Curry Knows What His Team Needs
After Friday’s play-in loss, Curry sat at the podium and stated the Warriors have a busy offseason ahead.
He said that with intention.
Curry later gave a multi-layered answer, although a bit more between the lines, on what the Warriors need to do to recapture some swagger.
He said that with intention.
It’s perhaps hard for Curry to admit he’s not the player of old in his most self-absorbed times. It is for all superstar athletes who know they are closer to the end than the beginning, or even the middle.
Curry knows he still possesses special abilities, things no other human can do. He also knows he sometimes can look like a going-on 39-year-old on the court.
So he let go of his inner superstar ego and addressed the reality astutely.
“Can we rethink how we do things with the foundation that we’ve established?” Curry expressed. “We don’t have to keep saying ‘championship, championship, championship’ every day, even though we’ve experienced that. Can we build the foundation again with what this team needs to do, with the way that the game is played now, how fast it is, how young and athletic it is?”
There is the answer to it all. My interpretation: what he meant by building “the foundation again” is Curry sliding in the pecking order and a younger, more consistent star (or two stars) taking the lead.
Just like the Lakers have done with James.
They didn’t toss the four-time MVP to the side or completely shelve him save for times of leadership and cheers and claps on the bench. They made him perhaps the best third-option ever, all while becoming the third-best team in the wild, wild West.
Did someone say James is regressing into prime Magic Johson?
Of course, following this exact blueprint with Curry will be challenging for the Warriors.
It is unheard of to land an all-world superstar like how Doncic fell into the Lakers hands. It is hard to make a former undrafted player the second-best scorer on a supposed contender like the Lakers are seeing with Reaves.
Golden State will have to go through more hoops this summer than it made all season just to supplant Curry with a younger star who will embrace the lead.
But if the franchise is serious about keeping Curry happy and sniffing the promise land one more time, it must commit to making big changes this summer.
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