While the wound is still fresh.
The season is over. The Golden State Warriors clawed and they fought, but ultimately, with Steph Curry sidelined, they ran out of firepower. They lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves 121-110 on Wednesday night, losing the series 4-1 in the process, and kicking off their offseason.
There will be time, in the coming days, weeks, and months, to assess how the season went in thorough and thoughtful detail. This is not one of those times. Instead, here’s six quick takeaways now that the season is over.
The window of contention is open
Let’s start with the most controversial takeaway: the Warriors are still championship contenders. Not this year, of course, as they’ve been eliminated. But they will enter the offseason and the 2025-26 season as contenders.
It wasn’t a smooth playoffs, but the Warriors showed that the end of the regular season — when they sported one of the best records in the NBA and the top defensive rating — was no fluke. They fought through the second-seeded Houston Rockets. They dominated the Timberwolves for the short period in which Curry was healthy.
Some will think that the loss to the Wolves exposed the Dubs, but that’s ridiculous. Teams don’t win in the playoffs without their best players. Heck, look at what happened the Cleveland Cavaliers without having Darius Garland and Evan Mobley in every game. And don’t let Wednesday’s blip from the Boston Celtics fool you: they’re toast with Jayson Tatum injured.
Golden State’s loss to Minnesota proved that they’re screwed without Curry, but we all already knew that.
They need reinforcements
There should be no decrying Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Steve Kerr being unable to build a contender in Curry’s absence. You simply cannot plan for your best player being sidelined. If that happens, you’ve already lost, so there’s no use in trying to fight it.
But the Warriors need some sort of reinforcements to help steady the ship when Curry and/or Jimmy Butler III need time off. It was the role they envisioned De’Anthony Melton playing, and who knows? Maybe he’ll be back next year. It was also the role they envisioned Dennis Schröder playing, and, well … that didn’t work.
They should keep Jonathan Kuminga
Kuminga is the biggest storyline as the offseason gets started. It sure felt like his time with the Dubs had come to a close, before he exploded in these four games where Curry was injured.
There are still so many questions with JK and the Warriors. He and Kerr don’t always see eye-to-eye, and the system may not be ideal for him.
But I challenge anyone who watched the Warriors play the Rockets and Timberwolves to claim that what the Warriors need to do to better contend is get less athletic. Kuminga showed he can be a game-changer, and he can play alongside Butler. The Warriors owe it to themselves to give that pairing a full training camp and see how it goes.
The West isn’t getting any easier
After the elimination, Kerr admitted that he thought the Warriors had a chance to win it all if Curry had stayed healthy. And while I maintain that the Dubs will be contenders next year, the conference is only getting more difficult.
The Oklahoma City Thunder ran the West, and they’re young enough that they should be better next year. So will the Rockets and Timberwolves, and presumably the Memphis Grizzlies. I fully expect the Los Angeles Lakers to make a big move around LeBron James and Luka Dončić, and the Dallas Mavericks will start next year with a healthy Anthony Davis and Cooper Flagg. Add in the perennially-contending Denver Nuggets, the ultra-talented LA Clippers, and a San Antonio Spurs squad that has a No. 2 pick to play alongside Victor Wembanyama, and the Warriors won’t just need to reprise their performance next year with better health … they’ll need to improve on it.
Not everyone’s ready
Dunleavy and Kerr will spend the offseason taking some hard looks at players. Wednesday’s fourth quarter notwithstanding, Moses Moody was absolutely atrocious this postseason. Quinten Post, Brandin Podziemski, and Gui Santos were all significantly worse than they were during the regular season,
Some of that might just be variance, matchups, and exhaustion at the end of a tiring season. But some of it is proof that not every player is ready to perform on the largest stage. The Warriors need to make some tough decisions about who is actually ready to contribute at a championship level in April, May, and June, because it’s not the entire team.
They’ll be rested and motivated
I can’t remember a Warriors team in recent memory that will be as motivated as next year’s. Curry will be itching to get back out there after this ending. Butler, clearly still compromised by his first-round injury, will feel similarly. Draymond Green will play the season with the motivation that finds him when he knows his team can compete.
And they’ll be rested. They didn’t play too deep into this season, and there are no 2025 Olympics for Curry to compete in. Expect a healthy, energetic, and highly-motivated Warriors team to take the court for Opening Night in five months.
Here’s to a great offseason, Dub Nation.