The Golden State Warriors will enter the 2026-27 season on rather precarious footing. The front office missed out on their high-end targets this offseason, and the team remains largely the same from the one that missed the playoffs in the previous campaign. Apparently, even Stephen Curry dipped his fingers into the recruitment war, but ultimately to no avail.
Just recently, Curry himself admitted to actively recruiting LeBron James this summer before the superstar ended up signing with the Philadelphia 76ers instead, adding that anybody would be a fool not to try their luck to land the living legend. That basically confirms what fans and pundits speculated about his desire for the Warriors brain trust, which is to snag a new star for a possibly final hurrah for the title.
Well, obviously, that has already become a moot point.
Stephen Curry finally admits to wanting LeBron James on the Warriors
The Western Conference has become so top-heavy that it is simply too difficult for an aging team like the Warriors to keep up with the likes of the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The barrier to entry just to be in the conversation with those teams is mightily high, and there is no way they are moving the needle as a collective given the stale summer they just had.
Aside from having an old nucleus, the Warriors are also not going to be at full strength to begin the campaign. Jimmy Butler will be sidelined for the rest of the calendar year as he rehabs his ACL injury, and their core players are not the most durable of cogs, either.
LeBron may not even be enough to catapult Golden State into the title conversation, but he definitely could have helped a ton with this group. He is still an elite playmaker and finisher, and those are traits the Warriors highly value in their system.
Now, after missing out on James, Curry and the Warriors will aim to get back to the postseason. Normally, that would have been a no-brainer for them, but given the circumstances, another playoff absence is well within the realm of reality for this group.