The Golden State Warriors are completely done. They are too old, stale, and rife with locker room issues to do anything in a loaded Western Conference. Their record reflects this. It’s time to blow things up. It’s been a heck of a run.
Stephen Curry is the last person you could blame for the disintegration. He’s still playing All-Star-level basketball at 37 years old, and based on his style of play, this could continue for another few years.
Curry can still contribute to an exciting product, but the Warriors are not that product. It would be sad to watch Curry play out the rest of his career on a declining team. Curry deserves better. Fans deserve better.
Imagine the complete opposite scenario: Curry on a young, rising, exciting team! Curry as the veteran leader on a rapidly improving club, perhaps in the East, where there’s less of a gauntlet. It doesn’t take too much reflecting to zero in on the Charlotte Hornets as the ideal team for this vision.
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons was thinking this exact thing on Tuesday when he floated a Curry-to-Charlotte idea to his guest, NBA broadcaster Tim Legler. Simmons was only half-joking.
Bill Simmons wants to see Stephen Curry traded to the Hornets
🎙️ @BillSimmons: “Are we at the point where Curry to Charlotte, we should just do it?”
“I don’t think this Warriors team has any chance. We just saw Draymond blow up last night. Can we just do LaMelo and a bunch of picks, send Curry back to Charlotte, and let’s just go?” 🙃 pic.twitter.com/sNb0r8ky6O
— r/CharlotteHornets (@HornetsReddit) December 24, 2025
“Are we at the point where Curry to Charlotte, we should just do it?” Simmons said during a new episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast. “I don’t want to upset Warriors fans. I don’t want to trade Steph Curry before Christmas, but, you know, he grew up there. … His dad’s there. … He always joked about ending his career there.”
“I don’t think this Warriors team has any chance,” Simmons continued. “We just saw Draymond blow up last night. Like, can we just do the LaMelo and a bunch of picks (trade) and send Curry back to Charlotte and let’s just go? Let’s do this.”
Legler’s response was funny, but it wasn’t without substance, especially his notion that Curry and Kon Knueppel would be a Splash Brothers 2.0 situation. That’s actually spot-on. Knueppel has the look of the best shooter to enter the NBA since the Curry-Klay Thompson mania, and Curry is still playing at a high enough level to make the Curry-Knueppel duo a legitimate threat.
Curry to the Hornets would be nothing but outrageously excellent for Charlotte. The Hornets wouldn’t think twice about trading LaMelo Ball to get a deal done. Despite LaMelo’s immense talent and marketability, his long-term fit has been rightfully called into question now that Charlotte has a Knueppel-Brandon Miller duo to build around.
Parting ways with LaMelo’s remaining $168 million (and his constant durability concerns) would feel like a breath of fresh air, and any fiscal losses from his market value would be immediately replaced (and then some) by Curry’s arrival.
It’s not crazy to say that placing Curry alongside Knueppel, Miller, and the rest of Charlotte’s rising core would result in a Play-In berth this season, and a legit playoff run in the weakened East as early as next season.
In sum, there are a million reasons why the Hornets would absolutely love to have Curry. Unfortunately, there’s one reason why this isn’t going to happen: Curry has an undying loyalty to the Warriors franchise.
No matter how bad things get in Golden State, you get the sense that Curry was always destined to retire in a Warriors uniform. It seems important to him to do so, and a greater priority to him than being on a winning team from here on out.
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