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Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry was hampered by runner’s knee this season, causing him to miss 27 consecutive games, and will turn 39 next season.<\/p>\n
Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
The Golden State Warriors<\/a> lost eight more games than they won in 2025-26, but general manager Mike Dunleavy<\/a> didn\u2019t seem to think Friday their record reflected their depth of talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDo we need to get better roster-wise? I think so,\u201d Dunleavy said at his annual season-ending news conference. \u201cBut we didn\u2019t get to a point where we played a team where, you know, the roster is better than ours.\u201d<\/p>\n As the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs prepared to tip off the Western Conference finals Monday, the Warriors are left to reimagine their roster for 2026-27. Injuries certainly played their part in undermining their hopes for this season, but even before they lost\u00a0Jimmy Butler<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 to a torn right ACL in January, preceding Moses Moody\u2019s<\/a> torn left patellar tendon in March\u00a0\u2014 their record parked them in the play-in tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Dunleavy said \u201cwe\u2019ll always look to be better, talent-wise, roster-wise\u201d while touting belief in the roster\u2019s core: \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to do some stuff, whether it\u2019s retaining some of the free agents that we have (or) bring in some new players. But the general core of guys \u2026 I think is very solid and we\u2019ll look to add to it.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s the condition of the active roster?<\/p>\n Golden State has $181.5 million committed to a nine-man roster for 2026-27 against a luxury tax line of $201 million. The first apron looms at $209 million while the second sits at $222 million.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Stephen Curry,<\/a> Butler and Draymond Green<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 amid his $27.6 million player option\u00a0\u2014 account for 81% of the active payroll. The contracts of Moody, Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos and Will Richard are guaranteed. Al Horford ($6 million) and De\u2019Anthony Melton ($3.5 million) have player options. The Warriors also pick 11th in the first round of next month\u2019s NBA draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got good players on good contracts,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cAnd I think a big part of (improving) will be Moses getting back and getting healthy. That was a tough one for us, but overall, I think, relatively speaking, we\u2019re in pretty good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n What about Kristaps Porzingis?<\/p>\n Acquired at the NBA\u2019s trade deadline (from the Atlanta Hawks) for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield, the 7-foot-2 sharpshooting big man is bound for unrestricted free agency. That after averaging 16.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks while shooting 43.3% (and 31.1% from 3-point range) in 15 games for Golden State. Injury and illness plagued Porzingis, whose proof of concept\u00a0\u2014 as a floor-spacing, mismatch attacking, rim-protecting complement to Curry\u00a0\u2014 was best fulfilled in the play-in tournament victory over the Los Angeles Clippers with 20 points, five rebounds, three 3-pointers and two rejections.<\/p>\n \u201cKP is just a unique, unique player on both ends of the court. I think for us to have that talent back is something we want,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cWe\u2019ll start having the conversations to try and get him back in the fold, but we like what we\u2019ve seen from him. I think next year could be a more healthy, productive year for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Porzingis headlines a crop of Warriors free agents that features Gary Payton II, Seth Curry, Charles Bassey, Pat Spencer (restricted) and Quinten Post (restricted). It could also include Horford if he doesn\u2019t retire, and Green and Melton if they decline their player options (as Melton almost surely will).<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n What do the Warriors need to add?<\/p>\n Youth, athleticism, ballhandling and positional size, as evidenced by the Thunder and Spurs, who flood the court with speed, strength and versatile skill around their respective franchise players.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Warriors are down their starting wings\u00a0\u2014 Butler and Moody, two of their top defenders, Butler in help and Moody on the ball\u00a0\u2014 into 2026-27 and short on off-the-dribble shot creation, save for Curry and Podziemski, albeit in a secondary role.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll always look to add athletically, length, size, skill, all those things,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cBut, yeah, I mean, watching the playoffs, you learn a lot. You see the teams where they\u2019re at, where you need to go, and it\u2019s good to see.<\/p>\n What tools can the Warriors use to improve?<\/p>\n The most immediate way to improve is through the 11th pick in a draft that\u2019s armed with depth and high-end talent, particularly in the top half of the first round. Golden State stands to add a starter or rotational contributor.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Beyond the pick, the Warriors have the non-taxpayer mid-level exception\u00a0\u2014 worth $15 million\u00a0\u2014 to offer an unrestricted free agent in addition to the $5.5 million biannual exception. Top trade chips include four first-round draft picks, Podziemski and the expiring contracts of Butler and Green, should he elect to exercise his player option.<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as trade acquisition stuff, I mean, we\u2019re probably always in the conversation, frankly, because we have the draft capital to be,\u201d Dunleavy said, \u201cSo we\u2019ll always look at stuff, whatever we can do to make the team better that makes sense now and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Concern for Curry\u2019s runner\u2019s knee?<\/p>\n Curry acknowledged the \u201cnew normal\u201d he might be facing with runner\u2019s knee, which kept him out 27 consecutive games. He\u2019s turning 39 next season, his 18th in the NBA, and Dunleavy said the Warriors are mindful of how he\u2019ll be managed.<\/p>\n \u201cMy understanding is we expect him to have a year next year where that knee, we\u2019ll manage it, but it\u2019s not something we\u2019re worried about,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cAt his age, given what\u2019s happened, you have to think that way, but it\u2019s not something I probably need to think more about his actual age than I do the knee. I guess that\u2019s the way I\u2019m thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Curry is eligible for a contract extension and the Warriors expect to grant him one.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see any scenario where we don\u2019t want to figure out a way to have him finish here,\u201d Dunleavy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry was hampered by runner’s knee this season, causing him to miss 27…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[93060,14844,7000,16127,31248,101,103,102,104,106,105,14843],"class_list":["post-324386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-brandin-podziemski","tag-draymond-green","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-kristaps-porzingis","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-stephen-curry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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