One last 10am game: Warriors at Hornets
Preview: Warriors aren't lost, but 2025 has not resolved ongoing struggles
The calendar year is winding to a merciful close, and the Golden State Warriors get one more chance to show 2025 who is the boss. Golden State has won 4 of their last 5 games and will be coming into Charlotte for a Curry family reunion that will fill the stadium. This is an early one (10am in California) which can always mean some weird basketball - rhythms are off, schedules are changed; but this should be a fun game.
The Hornets haven’t had a great year, but have won two of their last three games, and have found a new young group that is willing and able to shoot the lights out. Let’s go!
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors (17-16) at Charlotte Hornets (11-21)
WHEN: Wednesday, December 31, 2025: 10am PST
WATCH: NBCSBA
Cheers to the end
A funny thing happened to the 2025 calendar year Golden State Warriors. After the arrival of Jimmy Butler last season, Golden State made some noise, going on a bit of a win streak and then pushing into the playoffs before getting derailed by injuries. After a full off-season, the current season started hot1 - and then turned into the worst version of lukewarm. Like a broken clock that isn’t fully stopped, so isn’t right twice a day, these Warriors are stuck in limbo. Too good to tank, not good enough to breeze through the competition, the Warriors end 2025 dissatisfied. Still hungry but looking at the empty cabinets and wondering what’s for dinner tonight.
Some of the elements are set. Curry is still phenomenal. Butler and Green are able to help control games, but are a little overpriced at this point in their careers and therefore unlikely to be moved. Beyond that, the Warriors have plenty of contributors that are able to help now, while also showing progress on becoming something more. Quinten Post, Pat Spencer, Will Richard and Moses Moody aren’t exactly irreplaceable, but each has shown flashes of brilliance that go beyond simple functional utility. And then we have the veteran free agents. Al Horford and De’Anthony Melton are back to health and have immediately demonstrated their value.
There is a ticking clock here. The looming Kuminga trade window extends for less than a month (from mid-January to February 5th).
So, 2026 will likely start with a bit more uncertainty as the Warriors run out the clock on Kuminga’s tenure and explore trades that could well cost the team someone they’d much prefer to hold on to.
After an ugly overtime loss, the Warriors came back and responded with a blowout win over the Brooklyn Nets. Curry (27 points) and Butler (21 points) combined to score 48 points as the rest of the Warriors’ starting five scored 14… but in a game where our bench outscored the Nets 58-27, and all eight players who came off their bench had a positive plus/minus. There’s promise here. A viable design.
Kerr and his staff have made no secret about the fact that they don’t know exactly where to go with this roster. Kuminga falling all the way out of the rotation has disrupted the primary design plan, but then again, maybe that doesn’t matter so much if 90% of the plan is to have Curry and Butler save the team on a nightly basis.
Remember that the Warriors are hampered by some of the league’s salary cap rules. None of this makes a trade impossible, but it will be slightly more difficult.
What seems likely is that Golden State will have to create some additional package to entice teams to trade for Kuminga - a player that has tons of raw athleticism and has shown that he can help teams; but hasn’t been reliably able to do so here.
More critically, the Warriors are looking to trade partner teams that don’t hold many interesting assets at this point in Golden State’s trajectory. Now, with Kuminga languishing on the bench and glued to irrelevancy, maybe that’s an acceptable outcome for the Warriors’ front office. “Literally anyone who could play minutes for Kerr right now” may well be the team’s outlook. Or, we could see some sort of wild multi-team trade go down.
So fittingly, the last game of 2025 will come with a couple of major priorities. First of all get that win. Secondly though, I’m sure the team is continuing to work the phone lines searching for what comes next - hopefully something better.
Prediction
2025 and I have a complicated relationship. I am so happy and fulfilled, the Warriors still have Steph Curry, who continues to shatter the ceiling nightly. But it’s a bit of a mess out there. And yes, I’m calling this one another victory for the Warriors today.
Thank you, DNHQ, for remaining one of the strongest bastions of good internet content with a thoughtful, active community. Let’s do it all again next year!
We will always have that 12-3 start to keep our hearts warm