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The Warriors rang in 2026 with an uninspired 37-point defeat to the defending champion Thunder.
Draymond Green rested, Steph Curry rested, and Jimmy Butler stayed home to nurse an illness. Jonathan Kuminga was in line for big minutes after getting DNPs in nine of the prior 10 games, but his back flared up shortly before tipoff.
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Punting against Oklahoma City should be easy to move past. But generally, the Warriors are hoping there won’t be too many of those games in 2026.
Here’s what Golden State is bringing into the New Year, and what it should leave behind.
Ins
Existential dynasty navel-gazing
Just last week, head coach Steve Kerr explained how the Warriors are a “fading dynasty” — a good but not great team, one that’s hoping to do what’s necessary to at least have a puncher’s chance in the playoffs. Then, with his old pal Tom Tolbert, he expanded by saying the Warriors aren’t under any false pretenses that they’re in position to compete for championships with the Spurs and Thunders of the world. (opens in new tab)
It’s all true. Just ask Green (opens in new tab). But that doesn’t stop the outcry.
Maybe, just maybe, this is some sort of Phil Jackson-esque motivational tactic from Kerr. He is a candid person, and Occam’s Razor suggests he’s just being honest, but maybe he wants his players to hear the noise that nobody believes in them — not even their coach.
Regardless of intent, the reflections won’t go away until there’s nothing left to opine on.
Will Richard and De’Anthony Melton
They closed tight wins in Brooklyn and Charlotte, and they’ve been Golden State’s best two-way wings. Richard the revelation, Melton the X-factor when healthy.
The two guards being so important to the Warriors wasn’t necessarily how the team drew it up. Nonetheless, they represent the current roster’s best options at surrounding Curry, Butler, and Green.
A Golden State Warriors player prepares to shoot while Oklahoma City Thunder players watch from the bench and court.
Rookie Will Richard has become a trusted member of Steve Kerr’s closing lineups. |Source: Amber Pietz/The Standard
The trade machine
Concocting fake trades is what this next month is for, specifically.
Like Michael Porter Jr.? Fire up the trade machine. Trey Murphy AND Herb Jones? Knock yourself out. Confused by the second apron trade restrictions? Check out Spotrac. With the internet, anything’s possible — even Giannis for a bag of balls.
Clutch games
In the last three seasons, the Warriors have played the most clutch games in the league (112). They’re 57-55 in such situations, flirting with pure mid.
Why would the tight, stress-inducing games suddenly stop in the New Year?
The Warriors are 7-11 in clutch games this year, almost always closing with Green at center. Their falters almost always come back to turnovers, and their successes almost always come at the hands of Curry and Butler.
A team with such closers should be better in late-and-close games. The Lakers, for example, have a 10-0 clutch record this season. It’s why they’re in fifth place and Golden State is in 10th.
If a couple bounces go the Warriors’ way, and a couple of Curry 3s stay down instead of rim out, maybe the Warriors flip their clutch fortunes and rise up the standings. They’ll surely have chances to do so.
Outs
Jonathan Kuminga
There are fans of Kuminga in front offices around the league. His current string of DNPs likely doesn’t change the way they view him. The Warriors should hope to pit them against each other and contrive some sort of mini bidding war.
But, a pessimistic scout’s evaluation of Kuminga might go something like this:
Kuminga hasn’t yet shown the ability to lock in defensively, rebound consistently, shoot it from the outside, or dribble through traffic. He’s at his best with the ball in his hands, but only when he insists on attacking the rim instead of settling in the midrange. It’s tough to play him next to another forward who can’t stretch the floor because of spacing concerns. You need to give him a bunch of minutes so he can find a rhythm. Oh, and he’s not exactly an iron man.
Trade suitors, get in line! Doors open Jan. 15.
A basketball player in a white jersey with “The Town” and a tree logo dribbles an orange basketball, looking to his right during a game.
Jonathan Kuminga is eligible to be traded starting January 15. |Source: Amber Pietz/The Standard
Complaining about the schedule
The Warriors had a hellacious schedule to begin the season, did you hear? Twelve of their first 17 games at home. A back-to-back every week. Matchups with the Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets, Lakers, and Rockets.
It was brutal, no doubt. We covered it. The team griped about it. The worst is over now. And not only that, it’s coming around.
The Warriors sat their vets on Friday because they have three games in four days. But January is a cakewalk for them, and they should know it.
Golden State doesn’t leave the state of California for three weeks to start 2026. They have two matchups against the tanking Jazz, another against the putrid Mavericks, and two more easy matchups with Sacramento and Charlotte.
It’s not just January. The Warriors had five back-to-backs in the first five weeks. They only have seven more for the rest of the season.
They’re still old, and they’ll find pockets to manage injuries and rest their vets. But they no longer have the right to complain after getting through their early grind.
Turnovers
The Warriors are 5-14 on the season when they turn the ball over more than their opponent. The vast majority of their losses, then, can be explained simply by them playing like a bunch of bozos.
Sure, some of the turnover issues are personnel or scheme-based. A lack of shooting in certain lineup combinations can tighten spaces.
But really, it’s needless one-handed passes, illegal screens, picking up dribbles too early, leaving your feet in the lane without a next plan in place, not giving a teammate an outlet against a trap.
Bozo stuff.
Buddy Hield
He plays through injuries, is beloved in the locker room, always makes himself available, works on his craft as much as anyone and made himself a legend in last spring’s Game 7.
But this is not Buddy Hield’s year.
He’s out there to knock down shots, and he simply hasn’t done that. Hield is shooting 32.3% from deep this season, a career-low by an astounding 3.9 percentage points.
Kerr yanked the 3-point specialist from his rotation in the last week of 2025. It doesn’t look good for Hield in 2026 — as a Warrior, at least.
A Golden State player dribbles the ball while two Oklahoma City Thunder players defend intensely during a basketball game.
Warriors guard Buddy Hield has struggled since the start of the 2025-2026 season. |Source: Amber Pietz/The Standard
Brandin Podziemski, lead initiator
For the second straight season, the Warriors were excited to see what Brandin Podziemski could do with more ballhandling opportunities.
For the second straight year, the results have been underwhelming.
It’s just not the strength of Podziemski’s game, at least not yet, to engineer an organized, efficient offense in the halfcourt. He does so many things well on the court, but running high pick-and-rolls isn’t one of them. Breaking down his man and touching the paint with a purpose isn’t, either.
Podziemski is at his best getting off the ball early in a possession and trusting that he’ll eventually get it back in a position to attack a closeout. He’s adept at running through catches and is an excellent catch-and-shoot marksman when he’s confident and in rhythm.
Per Cleaning The Glass (opens in new tab), his net rating as a shooting guard is +5.1 this season. That sinks to -0.5 as the point guard. He has only played 38% of his minutes next to a point guard, but expect that number to increase in 2026.