The Golden State Warriors return to action tonight, kicking off the 27-game second “half” with a home matchup against the Boston Celtics. The good news is that the Warriors should be quite well rested … they didn’t have a single player lace up their sneakers at the busy All-Star weekend. The bad news is that the rest doesn’t seem to have helped those in the infirmary. Steph Curry, who had been hoping to return before the break, has been ruled out for Thursday’s game, and it’s a little ominous — coach
Steve Kerr has said that Curry might be headed for yet another MRI.
Despite all that, tonight’s game at the Chase Center is must-see TV for Dubs fans who are starved for hoops after a week without meaningful games … and for anyone invested in where the Warriors will end up in the standings. There’s no shortage of storylines to pay attention to as the Warriors get back on the court, but here are the eight biggest questions that will be answered over the next two months.
How does Kristaps Porziņģis fit?
The Warriors didn’t land Giannis Antetokounmpo, but they still made a significant addition at the NBA trade deadline. In two separate deals made to facilitate each other, the Warriors traded Jonathan Kuminga, Buddy Hield, and Trayce Jackson-Davis, while receiving Kristaps Porziņģis and a second-round draft pick.
Porziņģis, who was an All-Star in 2018, is on the final year of a two-year, $60 million deal that hasn’t aged particularly well … he’s only played in 59 games over the course of that contract, and has been traded twice. Yet it seems unlikely that the Warriors acquired him merely to be a rental who would reach free agency and seek out the next opportunity. Sure, there were some other long-term benefits of the trade for Golden State — they rid themselves of the final two years and nearly $20 million on Hield’s contract, and grabbed a late draft pick — but the primary goal of the trade was to acquire Porziņģis.
That’s not to say that the Warriors have already made up their mind that they’ll re-sign Porziņģis this summer (though they certainly can, as they acquired his Bird rights in the trade). But it does mean that they’re open to it and curious about it.
With the Warriors no longer harboring dreams of contention following Jimmy Butler III’s ACL tear, watching how Porziņģis fits with his new squad is the biggest storyline for the rest of the season. In theory, the 30-year old Latvian is a great fit with the team. He’s one of the tallest players in the NBA, at 7’2, and his wingspan is outrageous. Despite that daunting size, he’s a fluid player who moves well and has good athleticism, and is a career 36.6% shooter from deep … and 38.7% over the last four years. He’s a very strong defensive player, and can be a force on offense.
But there are always questions about how new players will fit in Kerr’s system, and alongside Curry, and that’s doubly true for big men. Can Porziņģis make the right reads and decisions, and can he make them quickly? Will he understand his role, set big screens, and fit the defensive scheme? An enormous, athletic, slick-shooting stretch five with strong defense feels like the perfect fit on offense next to Curry, and on defense next to Draymond Green, but you never know until you see it.
Perhaps more importantly is the question of whether or not Porziņģis, who has played just 17 games this year, can get healthy and stay healthy. He only played 42 games last year, and has hit the 60-game mark just once since the 2016-17 season. How he looks on the court — and how often he’s on it — may determine whether his 2026 stint with the Warriors is a blip on his Basketball-Reference page, or the start of a long journey.
How will Gui Santos, Will Richard, and Pat Spencer fare with larger roles?
Butler’s injury and the deadline trades opened up playing time for a lot of players, but specifically for three. With forwards Butler and Kuminga no longer suiting up, Gui Santos has slid into a large role, with Kerr saying that the Brazilian is likely to stay in the starting lineup going forward. With Hield gone, playing time has opened up for Richard to be one of the primary backcourt players off the bench. And with the team clearing some cap space and two roster spots, they were able to give Spencer a guaranteed contract, right as he exhausted his two-way contract playing time.
All three players have shown great things throughout the season, and all three have had moments where their inexperience is on full display. They now get nearly 30 games, with more leash than ever before, to prove that they can be not just intriguing players, but key rotation pieces on a good basketball team.
Richard is under contract for next season, but Spencer is not, and Santos has a team option. It seems certain that at least two of the trio will be on next year’s roster, and probable that all three will. But it’s audition time for each one: not just for a future roster spot, but for a more permanent role moving forward.
Is Steve Kerr enjoying himself?
After the shorthanded Warriors used a furious late rally to beat the Phoenix Suns two weeks ago, I commented on Bluesky that Kerr was “living his dream now.” It was mostly a joke, but not entirely. Kerr looked happy and rejuvenated. He admitted after the game that the win felt like a championship victory.
There’s no doubt that Kerr enjoys playing with a scrappy team of underdogs who hustle hard and buy into his philosophies, but that can only take you so far when you’re as competitive as he is. And while the Warriors can fill that role now, they can’t next year, when they’ll be anticipating the (eventual) return of Butler, while trying to push Curry’s championship window open once again.
The question becomes: is Kerr still enjoying this? It’s no secret that he is not under contract for next season. And while it’s also no secret that Kerr and Joe Lacob have not always seen eye to eye, Curry is the most powerful voice at 1 Warriors Way, and he has made his stance crystal clear: he doesn’t want to play for anyone else. That stance is strong enough that it will force Lacob to always have an offer on the table for Kerr; but no stance of Curry’s is strong enough to control Kerr’s desires. If he’s no longer enjoying himself, then this may be the final run. But if he looks as rejuvenated in the final months as he did in that win against Phoenix, you can bank on him returning to the Bay for a 13th season.
Can Seth Curry get healthy and prove himself?
The younger Curry’s season has quietly been one of the saddest parts of the year. At long last, the Curry brothers were united on the same team, and would get to share the court. But due to cap restrictions, the Warriors didn’t add Seth until December, and he played in just two games before suffering an injury that has sidelined him since. Worse yet, Steph was injured for the two games that Seth played in … so we still haven’t seen them on the court together.
While injuries are a persistent concern with Seth, he still looks the part of a player who could play a key role in the rotation. With Hield now in Atlanta, the Warriors are shockingly thin in terms of shooting depth, and Seth — a career 43.3% marksman from deep — can help with that. If he can get on the court and show that he fits in the system, he could play himself into a contract for next year, too.
Can they play well enough for next year?
Right now, the game plan for next season looks shockingly similar to what ended up being the course of last season: become a good enough team that adding Butler at the All-Star break can push them into contention.
It arguably did in 2024-25, when the Warriors beat the No. 2 seeded Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs, and were picked by many to topple the Minnesota Timberwolves in the semifinals before Curry suffered an injury that he never returned from.
Now they’ll try to do the same in 2026-27. Instead of getting Butler by trade, the Warriors can expect the six-time All-Star to return from his ACL injury sometime in January or February. In order for that to be as impactful as it was last year, the Dubs will need to be in a place where Butler’s presence can push them over the edge.
The next two months don’t count towards next year’s standings, but they will give the Warriors a sneak peek into next year. They simply need to be a team that can have a winning record without Butler if they want his return to nudge them into the realm of contention. If the Warriors look lost and hopeless over the rest of the regular season, then Mike Dunleavy Jr. will enter the offseason knowing he needs to make a sizable change before opening night. If they comfortably post a winning record between now and the end of the year, then they’ll have confidence that they only need to do a little tinkering, and then sit back and wait for Jimmy.
How consistent is Moses Moody?
It’s been a little bit of an up-and-down year for Moody. He’s spent most of the year looking like a solid rotation piece who should probably be coming off the bench on a good team. He’s spent some of the year looking like a high-quality starter who should get 30+ minutes every night. He’s spent some of the year looking like he belongs at the back of the bench.
Moody has two years and $26 million remaining on his contract after this season. Is he part of the next winning Warriors team? Or is that a contract they should be looking to move this offseason to facilitate more impactful moves? The Warriors have seen his talent on full display, but now they need to see if he can bring it consistently, in all phases of the game. It could shape the offseason.
Will Steph Curry’s injuries linger?
Injuries are nothing new to Curry, but lately they’ve become less severe and more varied. He’s been relegated to street clothes on a few different occasions this year, with various ailments. The latest issue, a case of runner’s knee, has been lingering. Curry had hoped to return before the All-Star break, but was then ruled out for the team’s final few games, and the All-Star Game as well. Worse yet, he won’t be on the court tonight, and may be headed for an MRI.
There’s only so much that we can learn about Curry’s 2026-27 health over the next two months. But needless to say, if he the current injury lingers — or if a few more pop up — it will be cause for concern as to whether or not he can stay healthy enough next year to lead the Dubs back into contention.
What rumors and reports pop up?
When the year began, no one expected the Warriors to trade for Antetokounmpo. But as the deadline approached, suddenly it started to feel like a distinct possibility. In the NBA, things are only off the table until they’re put on it; and they can be put on it very quickly.
There will be rumors about LeBron James having interest in joining forces with Curry and Green, two of the players he most respects in the league. Perhaps Kevin Durant, who already seems to be falling out of favor with the Rockets, will again be on the trading block and this time the Warriors won’t care about whether or not he wants to come back. Nikola Jokić is nearing free agency. The league can’t go more than a few months without a star surprisingly expressing that they’re no longer happy on their team. The Antetokounmpo rumors will certainly pop back up.
Nothing that big is even remotely likely to happen, but life moves fast in the NBA. Nobody thought James Harden was on the trading block a few weeks ago until a move was made. Heck, Luka Dončić was viewed as untouchable until a Shams Charania tweet was fired off one Saturday night last year.
The Warriors go big game hunting. If there’s actually any big game to hunt, it could control the shape of the summer.
