GS clings to veteran promise

The Golden State Warriors (GS) entered the 2025-26 season with both hope and pragmatism, believing that their unique blend of talent and experience could keep them firmly in the playoff picture. In the unforgiving calculus of an 82-game grind, however, chance has become the architect of their fate. After a poor start, they were looking at a plausible late-season surge. Now, they are at a crossroads of mediocrity wrapped in uncomfortable truths. Injuries to Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kuminga have exposed their roster’s infirmities, with their humongous payroll leaving them little to no wiggle room to explore options before the trade deadline.

After a year of integrating Butler into the rotation, the Warriors have evidently elected to stick with him rather than dangle him in the market. Management has assured him that he remains a part of their future, a decision rooted as much in loyalty as in basketball sense. And therein lies the rub. Keeping a 36-year-old, multimillion-dollar contract on ice for the remainder of the campaign effectively torpedoes any plans they may have had of competing for the hardware. Which is to say they concede to the reality of having wasted yet another year of near-prime Stephen Curry.

To be sure, it doesn’t help that Kuminga, supposedly a tantalizing trade chip that had contenders and rebuilders alike considering his potential, has also been sidelined indefinitely. Gone is any value he may have had, effectively depressed by the Warriors’ refusal to give him consistent minutes; his absence from meaningful action turned what could have been leverage into liability. At various junctures, his trajectory has oscillated between promise and frustration. And a bone bruise raises the possibility that he has already spent his last meaningful time in blue and yellow.

Taken together, these developments delineate the Warriors’ increasing susceptibility to compromise: clinging to veteran promise while acknowledging the emergent cost of deferred youth. The season began with a clear-eyed vision, only to be reshaped more by what has been lost than what remains. At another time, they might be moving ahead with resolve. In this particular case, they find themselves merely adapting to forces over which they have no control.

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.