The biggest Warriors news of the summer may be what didn't happen. After a 37-45 season that ended in a play-in tournament flameout, Golden State entered the 2026 offseason with modest ambitions, and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. followed through on a promise he made months earlier: no dramatic roster overhaul, just an effort to clean up the little things.
According to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area, Dunleavy signaled the plan as far back as May 15, the same day the team announced Steve Kerr would return as head coach on a new two-year deal. Dunleavy told reporters then that the Warriors' top priority was to "take care of the ball, limit turnovers," and that the team's disappointing record wasn't primarily a talent problem.
"This isn't about the roster frankly," Dunleavy said, according to Hoops Rumors. "This year, I don't think we came up short because of the talent on the roster. It was injuries and things we can control. Do we need to get better roster-wise? I think so. But we didn't get to a point where we played a team that the roster was better than ours."
True to that word, July came and went with barely a transaction of note from Golden State. NBC Sports Bay Area and California described the offseason as approaching "with barely a whisper and nothing close to a roar," noting that when the front office shopped the trade market, other teams showed little interest in the assets the Warriors had to offer. The outlet reported that Dunleavy and his staff did make a tepid pursuit of LeBron James, but otherwise the roster moves amounted to keeping the band together rather than adding new pieces.
Golden State re-signed Draymond Green, Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis, all veterans the front office had expressed optimism about retaining throughout the lead-up to free agency, per Hoops Rumors. The team also brought back De'Anthony Melton, Gary Payton II and Charles Bassey. The only newcomer to the standard roster is No. 11 overall pick Yaxel Lendeborg, whom NBC Sports Bay Area and California cautioned carries "the spirit of a veteran" but remains, in the end, a rookie.
Why Injuries, Not Talent, Defined Last Season
Dunleavy's insistence that the roster wasn't the core issue is backed by the numbers NBC Sports Bay Area and California laid out. Golden State opened the season with two elite players, Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler III, and was 25-19 and eighth in the Western Conference before Butler tore his right ACL on January 19 in a season-ending injury. Curry then missed 11 straight games starting January 30 with runner's knee, and Moses Moody tore his patellar tendon on March 23, ending his season as well.
The outlet reported that Golden State went 12-26 after Butler's injury, 9-18 without Curry, and 3-7 over its final ten games without Moody, a stretch during which Kerr was effectively coaching what NBC Sports Bay Area and California called a "bottom-five NBA roster." Before the injuries piled up, the Warriors had been dancing near respectability, a fact Dunleavy pointed to repeatedly as justification for standing pat rather than blowing up the roster.
The Curry Question Looms Over Everything
No storyline shadows the Warriors more than the future of Stephen Curry, who turns 38 this season. Speculation has periodically surfaced that the team's stagnation could push Curry toward requesting a trade, but Nick Friedell of The Athletic reported that the superstar guard has never publicly pressured the organization to make roster changes. Friedell wrote that the front office has kept Curry informed of its plans all along, and that Curry has consistently expressed a desire to stay with the only NBA franchise he's ever played for, a stance Friedell does not expect to change.
That loyalty cuts both ways, according to commentary from Blue Man Hoop, which argued that the Warriors are now caught between two competing realities: a core group unlikely to contend for another championship, and a fan base and front office unwilling to move on from Curry while he's still playing. The outlet drew a direct parallel to the Chicago Bulls' unraveling after Michael Jordan's departure in the late 1990s, a comparison with resonance for Kerr personally, who won four championships as a player with those Bulls teams before general manager Jerry Krause dismantled the roster in 1998. Blue Man Hoop suggested Kerr, now navigating what he has himself called a "fading dynasty," understands better than most in the organization how quickly a champion can slide into irrelevance once its stars depart.
Dunleavy has framed the calculus differently, emphasizing internal development over external additions. "We'll always look to be better, talent-wise, roster-wise, all that," he said, per NBC Sports Bay Area and California. "But the discussions weren't really about that. It was more with the team that we have. How can we be better? And what are the things we need to do to build on for long-term success?"
That approach leaves the Warriors banking heavily on health. Porzingis and Horford are both being counted on to reach 50 to 60 games, Melton is hoping his first fully healthy offseason in three years pushes him toward 70 appearances, and Curry himself is targeting a similar workload. Golden State's front office has indicated it plans to evaluate the roster at midseason, once Butler and Moody are expected to return from their respective injuries, before considering any further moves.
On a smaller but notable note, second-year guard Will Richard used the team's Summer League title run in Las Vegas last month to work on more than just his on-court game. According to Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area, Richard focused on developing his leadership voice within the locker room. "This was a great opportunity for me to find my voice on the team," Richard said. "That's not just talking and all that but leading by example. Making sure I'm coming here doing the right things and being a voice where the coaches can connect to the players."
For now, Golden State's plan is essentially a bet on continuity and health rather than reinforcement, a strategy NBC Sports Bay Area and California summed up bluntly as a coming "gap year" built on internal development rather than external additions.
