Why championship window seems slammed shut on Warriors

With a 121-110 loss in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, the Golden State Warriors' season ended.

This result against Minnesota seemed like a formality since Golden State superstar Steph Curry suffered a hamstring strain in Game 1, forcing him to watch the rest of the series from the bench. Golden State's dynasty defined the last decade of NBA basketball, but that run of success, which included six trips to the NBA Finals and four championships, is over for the immediate future.

Since their 2022 title run, Golden State hasn't escaped the second round of the postseason, and with the fourth-oldest roster in the NBA, there isn't much to look forward to for the team. The Warriors' best players — Curry (37), Draymond Green (35) and Jimmy Butler(35) — are each 35 or older and making extremely high salaries. Next season Curry and Butler will be the highest-paid and fifth-highest-paid players in the league, respectively, per Basketball Reference. The combined salaries of Curry and Butler next season are a little more than $113M, nearly 73% of the expected $154.6M salary cap for the 2025-26 season. This inflexible cap scenario will make it extremely difficult for the Warriors to improve during the offseason.

According to Spotrac, the Warriors (48-34 this season) will have the highest payroll in the NBA next season and are roughly $111M over the cap. If the team were competing for titles, this would be OK, but Golden State is stuck in mediocrity and relying on older players who are injury risks. 

Curry missed almost all of the second-round series against the Timberwolves and Butler has played in 60 or more regular-season games only twice in the past six seasons. 

The Warriors also lack a strong young core. The team took 7-foot center James Wiseman (9.1 career PPG) with the second overall pick in the 2020 draft, but he's bust. Guard Jordan Poole showed promise during the Dubs '22 championship season, but he was traded to the Wizards after a disappointing 2023 season and an infamous confrontation with Green. Meanwhile, Golden State's vaunted 2021 lottery pick, 6-foot-8 Jonathan Kuminga, was benched by head coach Steve Kerr toward the end of the season.

“During a late-season game against the [Portland Trail] Blazers, team sources say Kerr was incensed after several instances in which Kuminga looked off [Steph] Curry to create his own offense,” The Ringer's Logan Murdock wrote in a column published May 14.

The team that sparked the three-point revolution has become a team of the past. Now overtaken by younger teams such as the Oklahoma City Thunder and Timberwolves, there isn't a place at the top of the NBA pyramid for Golden State.