With 1:06 remaining, and their season over, Steve Kerr huddled with his two stars during a review on Friday night. Draymond Green under his right arm. Stephen Curry under his left. And when he finished talking to the future Hall of Famers, the three of them hugged.
Nobody knows more than those three how fast times change and circumstances shift. It happened to them this season. So with defeat inevitable, the three stalwarts of the Golden State Warriors, the trio that remains from the dynasty that changed basketball, they took a moment together. No doubt fully aware it could possibly be for the last time.
The end came mercifully. The Warriors’ 2025-26 campaign, one that began with hopes of contention and was temporarily extended by a vintage-feeling Play-In win on Wednesday, finally expired in the Mortgage Matchup Center, euthanized by the Suns in a 111-96 loss.
The proverbial end came much earlier — on Jan. 19, when Jimmy Butler tore his ACL, robbing Golden State of a critical piece. Then, 11 days later, a Curry knee injury sidelined him for 27 games — long enough to relieve the Warriors from the delusion of their puncher’s chance.
Deep down, they knew. The reality of their inevitable demise this season seeped into their comments, into their aura and, eventually, into the Play-In Tournament. Pride wouldn’t allow them to completely relinquish their faint chance at consolation success. But the Warriors ran out of resilience against the Suns. Jalen Green, amid a scorching hot Play-In week, terminated this last gasp in Golden State’s season.
And now begins, perhaps, the last ride.
In the summer of 2023, after losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the playoffs, one year removed from their fourth title of the Curry era, the Warriors stood at a crossroads. They could reconfigure and walk away from their dynastic era, or, instead, opt for one more push. With Curry under contract, they had a three-year window for No. 5.
They signed Green to a four-year extension. They traded Jordan Poole, a pillar of the 2022 championship team, to Washington. Thus began the earnest push to get Curry one more ring. Friday marked the end of Year 3 of that plan. The one-year, $62.6 million extension Curry signed in 2024 adds another year to the window.
But so much has happened since, including the acquisition of Butler and Kristaps Porziņģis, that it’s no longer a clean plan. Now the organization faces a more complicated version of the same question: How much longer does it ride this era?
Steve Kerr does not have a contract to coach the Warriors next season. Green has a player option and wants an extension. Curry and Butler are also eligible for extensions. Porziņģis has to decide if he wants in. Moses Moody, one of the young players who earned a spot as a core contributor this season, would do well to return around the next All-Star break from his knee injury.
The Warriors have just three contracts on the books currently beyond next season: Moody, Gui Santos and Will Richard — along with the rights to Brandin Podziemski, who would be a restricted free agent if he doesn’t sign an extension this offseason. In the NBA, lame-duck contracts are built-in distractions. Players don’t like the risk of no long-term security.
General manager Mike Dunleavy and owner Joe Lacob will have to decide whether next season is indeed the last attempt to construct a new champion from its classic frame. Do they have the stomach to wager it all on this season? Or will they lean in and sign players to extensions?