{"id":586353,"date":"2026-02-06T14:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/586353\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T14:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:00:18","slug":"steph-curry-on-knee-injury-porzingis-trade-warriors-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/586353\/","title":{"rendered":"Steph Curry on knee injury, Porzingis trade, Warriors future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Golden State Warriors<\/a> star Steph Curry<\/a> told ESPN that a patient approach is needed as he rehabs a right knee issue<\/a> that has sidelined him the past two games.<\/p>\n

“It’s trending in the right direction,” Curry said. “It’s different than last year, but something that will heal.”<\/p>\n

It is unclear when he will return to the lineup. Early last season, Curry dealt with tendinitis in both of his knees, forcing the Warriors to manage his minutes and rest him for a game. This time around, he is dealing with what the team is listing as patellofemoral pain syndrome, also known as “runner’s knee,” which typically consists of swelling and pain around the kneecap.<\/p>\n

The problem flared up two weeks ago during an individual workout. He missed one game in Minnesota, tried to play through it the next two and then exited a home loss to the Detroit Pistons<\/a> in the third quarter. He limped to the locker room and has since been off to the side doing individual rehab work.<\/p>\n

The team continues to call him day-to-day, but he doesn’t sound like someone preparing to return for Saturday night’s ABC showcase game against the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It’s a matter of learning as I go what works rehab-wise,” Curry said. “Because it’s still painful. You have to try to get rid of all the inflammation and pain. It’s something we still have to monitor and injury-manage, but it’s something where if I come back too early, it could flare up.”<\/p>\n

Curry detailed this to ESPN in a celebratory locker room on Thursday night in Phoenix. Without Curry, the shorthanded Warriors ripped off a 25-7 run to close out a wild 101-97 comeback win<\/a> over the Suns<\/a>, bumping their record to 28-24.<\/p>\n

“Felt like we won a championship,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of the celebration.<\/p>\n

The outpouring of emotion was in part a response to the team’s recent stretch of adversity, beginning with Jimmy Butler<\/a>‘s ACL tear <\/a>on Jan. 19 that derailed their momentum and appeared to end realistic title hopes.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, the Warriors’ front office made an aggressive pursuit<\/a> ofMilwaukee Bucks<\/a>star Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> that bled into the public, revealing their willingness to involve franchise legend Draymond Green<\/a> in trade talks<\/a>, adding to the ground level tension.<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t on the phone with [general manager] Mike [Dunleavy] and them making calls,” Curry said. “I knew there was an offer that was made, as you’d expect. At the end of the day, nobody got him. So that’s the situation right now.<\/p>\n

“For us, our challenge is to try to stay at a level we can be a threat in a playoff series and finish the regular season off strong.”<\/p>\n

Dunleavy and the Warriors’ front office pivoted off the Antetokounmpo chase when it was clear Milwaukee planned to keep him<\/a>. They instead flipped<\/a> Jonathan Kuminga<\/a> and Buddy Hield<\/a> to Atlanta for Kristaps Porzingis<\/a>, the often-sidelined veteran center who has been limited to 17 games this season.<\/p>\n

“I’m learning some Latvian,” Curry said when asked about Porzingis. “I’m just hoping that he’s healthy, first and foremost, so that he can do what he can do on the floor. Him and Al [Horford]<\/a> won a championship together. Different context, but there’s a familiarity and skill set and size and presence that we’ve been looking for awhile.”<\/p>\n

The Warriors have a cupboard full of future first-round picks that were on the table for Antetokounmpo, but they were unwilling to redirect that type of draft ammunition in trade talks for Jaren Jackson Jr<\/a>. (Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>) or Ivica Zubac<\/a>(LA Clippers<\/a>), two mid-prime centers who were traded for multiple first-round picks this week.<\/p>\n

Curry didn’t voice any displeasure about a lack of front office aggression.<\/p>\n

“Deadline is always tricky because you are trying to make the right appropriate move and then everything is obviously in the context of Jimmy’s injury and what’s possible,” Curry said. “I’m excited with what KP can bring. You saw the fight tonight. We’ll learn each other as we go.”<\/p>\n

Is Curry content with the state of the situation?<\/p>\n

“No,” Curry shot back. “I’d rather have Jimmy Butler playing basketball. But it’s our hurdle to overcome as a team. Three weeks ago, we were heading in a certain direction. The record scratched and stopped and now you’re trying to figure out how to get it going again.”br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry told ESPN that a patient approach is needed as he rehabs a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[78838,7,6794,130,479,164,4025,4024,6,2828,23773,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-586353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-78838","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-curry-stephen","11":"tag-espn","12":"tag-golden-state","13":"tag-golden-state-warriors","14":"tag-goldenstate","15":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-trade-deadline","18":"tag-porzingis-kristaps","19":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116024051221565784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}