The question no longer sounds exaggerated or opportunistic. After finishing the season with a 37-45 record, ending up tenth in the West, and missing the playoffs after losing to Phoenix in the play-in, Golden State is looking in the mirror again with an uneasy mix of feelings: Stephen Curry is still there, but the franchise has less and less room to keep the old project alive without touching the pieces that made them champions.
The end of an era that can no longer be disguised
For years, talking about a rebuild with the Warriors felt almost sacrilegious. The franchise had won too much, Curry was still a unique offensive threat, and Steve Kerr maintained a recognizable identity. But recent results are starting to weigh more than nostalgia. Golden State has now followed up a losing regular season with a tenth-place finish in the Western Conference and another playoff absence, its second in three years. This is not just a rough patch for a contender: it is a sign of structural wear and tear.
On top of that, the overall numbers do not show a contender hiding behind bad luck. The Warriors posted an offensive rating of 115.05, a defensive rating of 115.60, and a net rating of -0.56, the kind of figures that belong to a flat team with no real ability to compete for a title, as it was shown on Betsson’s platform during the season. This is an inconsistent team, mediocre by the standards it set for itself, with a roster built around a generational talent like Curry.
The emotional context also points toward the end of an era. After the play-in loss to the Suns, Steve Kerr admitted he needed a week or two to think about his future, with a contract that runs until the end of the season. He even floated the idea of “new ideas” coming into the franchise. When even the head coach acknowledges the possibility that everything may be over, it is because people inside the organization already sense that the model needs more than a few tweaks.
Curry is still there, but he is not getting any younger
The problem for Golden State is that rebuilding is more than just a basketball decision. Stephen Curry is still the face of the franchise and is under contract for next season after signing his extension in 2024. But he is now 37 years old, while Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green are both 36. The window is not completely shut, but it is clearly starting to close.
That forces a distinction between a full rebuild, which would mean tearing down the historic core and accepting several years of decline, and a partial rebuild around Curry: making the rotation younger, regaining flexibility, and stopping the use of resources to stretch out an already worn-down version of a former champion. Everything points to the second path more than the first.
There is also a fair share of bad luck to consider. The Warriors were 25-19 before losing Jimmy Butler to an ACL injury that ended his season. Up to that point, they had been the fourth-best defense in the league. That fact suggests the project is not completely dead… but it also opens the door to even more doubts: if the team’s ability to look competitive depends on several veteran pieces staying healthy and performing at a high level for months, then the foundations are already compromised.
Money, decisions, and why the rebuild does not have to be total
The biggest obstacle to any quick reinvention lies in the books. The financial books, to be exact. Their active salary for 2025-26 and more than $234 million in total commitments put them far above the salary cap, with the team also hard-capped at the second apron. In other words, this is an aging, expensive, inflexible group that is being punished by the new collective bargaining rules. Rebuilding from that position is harder, because making the wrong move becomes extremely costly.
Even so, it is not all bad news. Golden State controls its own first-round picks through the 2029 season, plus protection on the 2030 pick. Having your own draft capital matters because it prevents the sense of being trapped in a dead end, something other franchises with aging stars have experienced. The Warriors are not completely forced to choose between competing now and having a future… but they do have the option of accelerating that future if they decide to.
With all this in mind, it does seem like the time has come for a rebuild… but not a complete one. It looks more like a limited renovation, one that does not throw away the final years of Stephen Curry’s career, years in which the point guard can still produce and keep the team competitively relevant. What is no longer negotiable is accepting that the old formula no longer works: too much age, too much physical dependence, too much salary rigidity, and too many underwhelming results to keep selling continuity as if it were ambition.
