October 30, 2026
October 30, 2026
Golden State Warriors 2025-26 Season: The Last Stand of a Dynasty Core
The Golden State Warriors’ 2025-26 season was a final, defiant push from a core that refused to concede its window. Stephen Curry turned 38 during the campaign and still produced some of the most electric nights in the league. Jimmy Butler gave the roster a second star until a torn ACL took him away in January. A midseason gamble on Kristaps Porzingis, a 27-game Curry absence and a thrilling play-in comeback followed. The run ended in Phoenix, but not before Golden State showed how much fight remained.
Golden State entered the offseason chasing one thing: time. The 48-34 campaign before had shown that Curry and Butler could carry a contender, so general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. added experience rather than youth. Al Horford arrived from Boston as a floor-spacing big man. De’Anthony Melton signed after a stint in Brooklyn, and Seth Curry joined his younger brother in the Bay Area.
The departures carried emotional weight. Kevon Looney, a fixture of three championship teams, left for New Orleans. Head coach Steve Kerr now had a roster built for the present, with Draymond Green and Horford anchoring the frontcourt. The bet was clear. Golden State would win now or not at all.
One question hung over the entire summer. Jonathan Kuminga, the athletic forward the franchise had developed since 2021, was a restricted free agent. Negotiations dragged for months, and he stayed away from media day. He finally re-signed on September 30, but the deal settled nothing about his role.
That tension would resurface. Kuminga started 13 of the 20 games he played and averaged 12.1 points. By mid-January, Kerr had told him he was out of the rotation. He went unused in 17 of 18 games before requesting a trade.
The early weeks belonged to Curry. On October 23, he poured in 42 points in a 137-131 overtime win over Denver, and Golden State opened 4-2. November proved choppier, yet one night in San Antonio captured everything the Warriors still had.
The Warriors trailed the Spurs 92-82 with 7:25 left in an NBA Cup game on November 14. Victor Wembanyama was dominating with 26 points and 12 rebounds. Curry then seized the game, scoring 14 points in the final 7:12. His two free throws with six seconds left sealed a 109-108 win and a season-high 49 points. As Fox Sports noted, it tied Michael Jordan’s record for 40-point games after turning 30.
Golden State’s season changed forever on January 19. The Warriors were routing Miami and sitting at their high point of the year. Midway through the third quarter, Butler caught a pass in the paint and collided with Davion Mitchell. His right knee buckled on the landing. Gary Payton II and Buddy Hield helped him off the floor because he could not put weight on the leg.
The 135-112 win lifted the Warriors to 25-19, six games above .500. It felt hollow the next day. An MRI confirmed a torn right ACL, and KTVU reported he would miss the rest of the season. Butler had averaged about 20 points and 4.9 assists in 38 games. That injury defined the Warriors’ 2025-26 season more than any single result.
Dunleavy refused to wait. On February 5, Golden State sent Kuminga and Hield to Atlanta for Porzingis. Trayce Jackson-Davis went to Toronto in a separate deal. The front office wanted size and shot-making to replace what Butler had provided.
The timing could not have been worse. Curry had last played on January 30 against Detroit, his right knee aching from patellofemoral pain syndrome. A return planned for after the All-Star break kept slipping. Each workout brought fresh soreness the next day. Porzingis, still managing his own health, appeared in only 15 games for Golden State.
The Warriors unraveled without their leader. They went 4-6 in February and 5-10 in March, sliding steadily toward the play-in line. Brandin Podziemski became the steadiest presence on the roster. He started 43 games and was the only Warrior to appear in all 82. Green, Payton and Melton held the defense together on nights when the offense collapsed.
Curry missed 27 straight games, and Golden State went 9-18 in that stretch. He returned on April 5 against Houston, but the Warriors fell 117-116. That loss guaranteed the franchise’s first losing record since 2019-20.
Golden State finished 37-45, 10th in the Western Conference. The full numbers at Basketball Reference tell the story of a team that went 1-6 in April. Curry averaged 26.6 points in only 43 games. Still, the 10th seed meant one more chance. For the third straight year, the Warriors headed to the play-in tournament.
The Warriors’ 2025-26 season had already absorbed more damage than most teams could survive. Two stars had gone down, a homegrown forward had been traded and the rotation had changed shape twice. Yet the jerseys still read Curry and Green, and those names still carried weight in April.
The season looked finished in Inglewood on April 15. The LA Clippers led 98-85 with 9:53 to play, and Curry had managed just eight first-half points on 2-of-9 shooting. Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers were moments from moving on.
Then the old machinery roared back to life. Horford buried four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, including the go-ahead shot for a 117-115 lead with 2:12 left. Curry’s seventh 3-pointer tied the game with 50.4 seconds remaining. Golden State held Leonard scoreless in the fourth until the final 16 seconds and closed on a 16-6 run. Curry finished with 35 points, 27 of them after halftime, and Porzingis added 20 in a 126-121 win.
Two nights later, the Warriors needed one more win to earn a series with top-seeded Oklahoma City. Phoenix never gave them a foothold. Four early turnovers fueled a 13-2 Suns start, and Phoenix led 33-15 after one quarter. Golden State clawed back within 50-45 at halftime, but the Suns pushed the margin to 16 in the third.
Curry’s 3-pointer cut the deficit to 85-78 with 9:30 left. Phoenix answered with the next seven points, and the threat was gone. Jalen Green scorched the Warriors for 36 points, and the Suns won 111-96. Curry shot 4-of-16, while Podziemski led Golden State with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Draymond Green and Devin Booker were both ejected late after a heated exchange. NBA.com captured a night when the Warriors simply ran out of answers.
The Warriors’ 2025-26 season will be remembered as the year the margins finally closed on Golden State’s veteran core. The plan was sound when the season opened. Curry was still elite, Butler was still a force and Kerr still had a roster that could defend. Two knee injuries dismantled that plan within two weeks of each other.
The record says 37-45, yet the record misses what this team revealed. Curry, at 38, still carried a franchise through the biggest nights. Horford and Green, two veterans near the end of decorated careers, delivered when an elimination game demanded it. Podziemski proved he could be a durable piece of whatever comes next.
The Kuminga saga also closed a long chapter of uncertainty. Golden State chose immediate help over a prospect it had spent five seasons developing. That decision will shape how the Golden State Warriors are judged in the years ahead. For one more spring, though, Curry and Green dragged an injured team into the postseason picture. The fight never left them.
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