So how good will the Golden State Warriors be in 2025-26?

That’s the question haunting the Warriors faithful heading into the new season. Golden State got a shot in the arm at last year’s trade deadline, and with six-time All-Star swingman Jimmy Butler rostered the team rounded into playoff form, ultimately falling in the second round of the 2025 playoffs. After bringing in even more veteran help this summer, can the team return to the Finals next summer, for the first time since winning it all in 2022?

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Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report offers up a fairly modest prediction for Golden State’s regular season record, all told: 47-35, one game worse than the club’s record last year.

If one zooms into the Warriors’ 2024-25 season a bit further, that 48-34 number isn’t actually representative of how good Golden State got after trading to acquire Butler on Feb. 7, in a five-team blockbuster deal. After bringing in Butler, the Warriors closed out the year on a 23-8 tear. That’s a 61-win pace across a full 82-game season.

Old Dogs in San Francisco

Of course, the core players on the club — Butler, two-time MVP point guard Stephen Curry, and 10-time All-Defensive Team forward Draymond Green — are all only getting older.

The 35-year-old Green is the youngest of the three, and the team just signed 39-year-old free agent former five-time All-Star big man Al Horford to serve as its starting center. It’s unfair to expect the ancient Warriors to be healthy enough to win 60 games, especially when Butler has only played 70 or more games twice.

That’s not to say all of Golden State’s top contributors are geriatric.

Brandin Podziemski, who wrapped up the 2024-25 season as the Warriors’ starting shooting guard, notched a stellar plus-15.0 net rating across 619 possessions to wrap up the year, Hughes notes. But Hughes is openly suspicious that an aging Golden State can actually stay healthy enough to log a 50-plus win record in the talented Western Conference.

Beyond the 22-year-old Podziemski, 22-year-old power forward Jonathan Kuminga, 23-year-old guard Moses Moody, 25-year-old center Quinten Post, and 27-year-old guard De’Anthony Melton all figure to carve out serious roles on the team this season — and could all, conceivably, level up as competitors.

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Hughes singles out Podziemski, Post, Moody and Kuminga as all possessing some upside that could impact the Warriors’ season result, while noting that Kuminga’s two-year, $46.8 million contract might be the Warriors’ biggest asset when it comes to improving the team’s win/loss season record outlook.

The contract is significant enough that Golden State should be able to use it to bring in more consistent help that could actually boost the Warriors’ record this year.

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