Warriors: the offseason so far
the record
The desk keeps a day-by-day record of everything that happens to the Golden State Warriors: results with the players who decided them, injury changes, roster moves, reports, milestones and the schedule ahead. The story of the offseason is written from that record every week; the timeline below is the record itself, each line linked to the page that proves it.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on Jimmy Butler III (8.4 wins without him), Moses Moody (4.5 wins without him), Stephen Curry (4.4 wins without him), Gui Santos (1.7 wins without him) and Brandin Podziemski (1.4 wins without him): on/off from 2025-26, details under Injuries. Computed Thu, Sep 10; the method is on the methods page.
Day by day
the record starts with the first news of the seasonThe franchise today
Updated 2026-09-09Now
Steve Kerr enters another season as head coach, the architect of a core built around Stephen Curry, the franchise cornerstone since the dynasty years, and reshaped more recently by the arrivals of Jimmy Butler III and Kristaps Porziņģis alongside homegrown pieces Draymond Green, Brandin Podziemski, and Moses Moody, with De'Anthony Melton and Brandon Williams in the mix. Last season the Warriors went 37-45, a net rating of -0.5 that ranked 20th in the league, with an offense that finished 19th and a defense that finished 16th, playing at a pace of 100.05. Curry, 38 and in his 17th season, still averaged 26.6 points over 43 games; Butler, 36, added 20.0 points a night in 38 games; Porziņģis managed only 32 games. The payroll sits at $221.1 million across 16 contracts, above the $209.0 million first apron and pressing toward the $221.7 million second apron, against a $165.0 million salary cap and a $200.4 million luxury tax line, with Curry ($62.6M), Butler ($56.8M), Green ($27.7M), and Porziņģis ($19.5M) carrying the bulk of it. The Warriors own their first-round picks in 2027, 2028, and 2029, hold second-round swap rights in 2027 and 2028, but owe their 2029 second-rounder to Brooklyn, and their 2030 first is protected to Memphis with the second conditional to Memphis as well. It was a quiet summer.
Identity and rivalries
This is still Kerr's Warriors: pace, spacing, and a read-and-react offense built on ball movement, the same style that reshaped how the league shoots threes during the dynasty years. Curry remains the symbol of that identity, still the threat every possession is built around. Green anchors the defense as the connective piece he's been since the championship seasons. The rivalry with the Cleveland Cavaliers, forged across four straight Finals meetings from 2015 to 2018, remains the measuring stick for the Kerr era, even with both franchises far from those Finals stakes today. The Boston Celtics carry weight too, from the 2022 Finals the Warriors won 4-2 for their most recent title. The Los Angeles Lakers are a newer sore spot: Golden State's 2023 conference semifinal loss to Los Angeles was the first time under Kerr that the Warriors fell in the playoffs before reaching the Finals.
Home, owners and numbers
The Warriors play at Chase Center, an 18,000-seat arena in San Francisco's Mission Bay. The franchise moved there for the 2019-20 season after 47 years in Oakland, choosing to keep the Golden State name rather than reverting to the old San Francisco Warriors identity. JPMorgan Chase bought the arena's naming rights when the sale was finalized in October 2015. Chamath Palihapitiya has been a part-owner of the franchise. San Francisco has embraced the team as a backdrop to the Kerr era, a different identity than the blue-collar Oakland years the franchise carried for decades before the move across the bay.
What they are chasing
At 37-45 and 20th in net rating last season, the Warriors are chasing a return to being a real threat, not just a big payroll. They're already above the $209.0 million first apron and pressing toward the $221.7 million second, with $221.1 million committed across just 16 contracts, spending that leaves little room to add without shedding money first. Curry is 38, in year 17, and the question that dominates every Bay Area conversation is how many more seasons like last year's the front office will absorb before deciding what comes next. The other argument: whether Butler, Green, and Porziņģis, all on expensive, aging deals, can still be built around instead of just being paid.
The Warriors were founded in 1946 in Philadelphia as a charter member of the Basketball Association of America, owned by Peter A. Tyrrell and run by coach and general manager Eddie Gottlieb, who bought the team outright in 1951. They won the league's first championship in 1946-47 over the Chicago Stags, four games to one, behind Joe Fulks, and won again in 1955-56 over the Fort Wayne Pistons, four games to one, led by Hall of Famers Paul Arizin, Tom Gola, and Neil Johnston.
In 1959 the team signed Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 100 points against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Later that year Franklin Mieuli bought a majority stake and moved the team to the Bay Area as the San Francisco Warriors, playing at the Cow Palace and then the San Francisco Civic Auditorium. After drafting Nate Thurmond, they lost the 1964 Finals to the Boston Celtics, four games to one, then traded Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers for Connie Dierking, Lee Shaffer, Paul Neumann, and $150,000, finishing 17-63.
The 1965 draft brought Rookie of the Year Rick Barry, who led the team to a Finals loss to the 76ers in 1967, four games to two. Barry left for the ABA's Oakland Oaks in 1967-68 and returned in 1972. The franchise became the Golden State Warriors before the 1971-72 season and settled at Oakland Arena. In 1974-75, coached by Al Attles and led by Finals MVP Barry and Jamaal Wilkes, they swept the Washington Bullets, four games to none, for the title. The next season they went 59-23, the league's best record, but lost to the 42-40 Phoenix Suns in seven games.
The team struggled from 1978 to 1987 despite drafting Purvis Short, Joe Barry Carroll, and Robert Parish, and trading for Bernard King, Micheal Ray Richardson, and Eric "Sleepy" Floyd. Floyd's 51-point second half against the Lakers in the 1987 playoffs set NBA records of 29 points in a quarter and 39 in a half. Under Don Nelson, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin formed "Run TMC," and Chris Webber won Rookie of the Year in 1993-94 alongside Latrell Sprewell before a rift with Nelson broke up the roster. Owner Chris Cohan took over in 1994-95; the team drafted Joe Smith, endured the Sprewell-P. J. Carlesimo choking incident, and rebuilt around Jason Richardson, Antawn Jamison, and Gilbert Arenas, losing Arenas after 2002-03. Robert Rowell became president in 2003, Chris Mullin became executive vice president, and the team drafted Andris Biedriņš and traded for Baron Davis in 2005.
Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green brought the title back in 2015. In 2016 the Warriors went 73-9, the best regular-season record ever, but lost the Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games after leading three games to one. Kevin Durant joined and the team won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018, lost the 2019 Finals to the Toronto Raptors, and Durant departed. After two years out of the playoffs, they beat the Boston Celtics in the 2022 Finals.
Known as the "Dubs," the Warriors hold records for best regular season, most combined regular-season and postseason wins, and best postseason run. Curry and Thompson are regarded as one of the greatest backcourts ever, and the franchise ranks third in championships and Finals appearances behind the Lakers and Celtics. Chamberlain and Curry are the only Warriors to win MVP, combining for three awards. The team now plays at Chase Center.