The Golden State Warriors officially failed to qualify for the 2026 playoffs. They have been eliminated for over a month, but the math became formal once the postseason field locked. The question now is whether the Steph Curry era is over.
It probably is. Not the Curry-on-the-floor era. He is still playing. He just made another All-Star team. The era of the Warriors as a real championship threat is what is gone.
Draymond Green turns 37 next year. Andrew Wiggins regressed. The Jonathan Kuminga negotiation went sideways for the third straight summer. The Jimmy Butler trade from the previous deadline did not produce the second wind the front office sold to the fan base. The roster around Curry has gotten older and shallower at the same time.
Curry himself was the best Warrior again. He averaged a high mid-twenties on efficient shooting splits, played 65-ish games, and was the only reason the team was even hanging around .500 in February. But asking a 38-year-old guard to carry a roster this thin was always going to crack at some point.
The crack came in March. Curry tweaked his hamstring. He missed nine games. Golden State went 2-7 in that stretch and never recovered. By the time he came back, the deficit was too big.
This is the part where Joe Lacob and Mike Dunleavy Jr. have to make decisions they have been avoiding for two summers. The pieces that could be moved are mostly gone. Kuminga’s value is at a low point. Brandin Podziemski is the only young player on the roster who looks like a foundational piece. The picks they would need to attach to any deal are limited.
Steve Kerr is signed through next season. The expectation is he finishes his contract and decides from there. Internally, everyone has been respectful about what comes next. Externally, every executive in the league assumes the Warriors are in transition.
The hard truth is that Curry deserves better than what the roster around him has become. He showed up to play. The decisions around him stopped being good moves two summers ago. The Chris Paul trade was a swing. The Butler trade was a swing. Neither connected. They cost picks and roster flexibility, and now there is not much left to swing with.
Curry has one year left on his extension. He turns 38 this season. The Warriors could trade Draymond. They could trade Wiggins. They could amnesty their way back to the lottery and start over around Podziemski and the next high pick. None of those moves are pretty for a fan base that has been watching the best Warriors team of all time for a decade.
Steph is still Steph. The team around him is not. Missing the playoffs is the league’s way of confirming it.
The next 18 months are going to be the hardest stretch of Curry’s career. He has never had to play without title contention as the goal. That changes now.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
