A lot of people seem to believe the Golden State Warriors are a fringe playoff team as the start of the 2025-26 NBA regular season nears. Doubters point to the fact that Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, the team’s three biggest talents, are all in their mid-to-late 30s as the reason the Warriors won’t be very competitive.
On the other hand, there is an argument to make that they will surprise some people this season. They have a good amount of depth, especially in their backcourt, and they did very well last season once Butler arrived in the Bay in February.
But for the Warriors to have any shot at contending for the NBA championship, they will need to stay healthy, and right now, Butler is ailing due to an ankle ailment. He didn’t play in Friday’s preseason finale, and neither did forward Jonathan Kuminga, but head coach Steve Kerr expects both to be available for Golden State’s regular-season opener on Tuesday.
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Before the Warriors landed Butler in that big trade last winter, they were starving for another star to take some pressure off Curry. At the time, they were struggling to stay over .500, and Curry appeared to be feeling the weight of a decade and a half of NBA wear and tear.
But they ended up going 23-8 the rest of the regular season once Butler made his debut and started to look like a real threat in the Western Conference. Had Curry not injured his hamstring in Game 1 of the second round of the playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Warriors likely would’ve advanced to the Western Conference finals.
If Butler does end up missing the start of this season, Kuminga, who ended a summer-long holdout recently by agreeing to a two-year, $48.5 million contract, is poised to pick up the slack. Having him back is huge, as he, along with other reserves such as De’Anthony Melton, Moses Moody, Gary Payton II and Brandin Podziemski, should help keep the minutes of Butler, Curry and Green down just enough.
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But Golden State will have a challenging schedule to start the year. It will play 12 of its first 17 games on the road, and six of those road games will be against tough teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and Orlando Magic.
The team will face the Spurs in back-to-back road games on Nov. 12 and Nov. 14, and that first game against Victor Wembanyama and crew will be the second of a back-to-back set that begins with a matchup against the defending world champion Thunder.
For more on the Spurs and general NBA news, head over to Newsweek Sports.
