Preview: Warriors and Clippers facing similar issues & opportunities

Trades could shake up both of these teams teetering on relevance

Here comes 2026!

The Golden State Warriors are looking more cohesive, but still have an eager eye on the calendar as they await the January 15th trade window opening on Jonathan Kuminga so they can make another move towards relevancy. In the interim, Draymond Green has drawn criticism for his rough patch of both play and on-court poise.

Tonight, the Warriors will face the Los Angeles Clippers and a couple of familiar old foes in Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. Much like Curry and the Warriors, Kawhi and Harden are hoping to hold on the the Clippers dream for just a bit longer.

---

GAME DETAILS

WHO: Golden State Warriors (18-17) at Los Angeles Clippers (12-22 )

WHEN: Monday, January 5th, 2026; 7pm PST

WATCH: NBCSBA

---

It’s “fading dynasty” not “faded”

Less than two weeks ago, coach Steve Kerr raised a few eyebrows when he said, “"We are no longer the '17 Warriors, dominating the league. We are a fading dynasty. We know that. Everybody knows that." But this statement didn’t cause much of a stir because despite the unusual delivery¹ this isn’t exactly groundbreaking news. Kerr was making a point about margin for error and realistic performance targets, not lamenting the fact that the team is clearly falling down the distant side of the hill in whatever this story arc ends up being.

So no, this isn’t the halcyon period when Kevin Durant was your initial bail out option if Curry couldn’t make something happen. Still no? Prime Klay Thompson was a lethal, low-touch shooter that fit in seamlessly and didn’t need (or perhaps even want) the ball in his hand unless he was going to shoot it. But this team is far from a lost cause - and not just because of Steph Curry’s continued brilliance. This team is viable. Not elite by any stretch, but competitive in a way that those of us around prior to 2006 or so can still appreciate. The dynasty might be fading, but until Curry retires, this book isn’t done being written.

All of which brings us back to Draymond Green, his emotional outbursts amidst declining production, and the idea that this team should trade him.

They aren’t trading Draymond for a couple of reasons. First, the comments above about fading dynasty are heartfelt and very real. The folks on the insides of this team know what it’s taken to succeed, and how critical Green has been throughout the process. Huge defensive plays. Heck, big plays all over the place, on both ends of the court!

But secondly - and maybe more importantly - Green makes around $26 million this year. That’s an expensive player. Green took a slight discount on his most recent contract, but is still fairly expensive; and that’s even prior to taking his recent performance(s) into consideration. Per SFGate, Green’s 6 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game are both his lowest nightly average rates in over a decade. His 3 turnovers and 3.4 fouls committed per game are the both the highest rates ever in his career. He’s been ejected twice, and walked out voluntarily mid-game in another - all over the course of about two weeks.

As detailed by Apricot in a site comment recently, right now Green’s missing his calling card for most of his career: that secret sauce plus-minus magic.

…since Feb 2014, Draymond Green has very very rarely had streaks of negative +/- before this season… the recent stretch Dec 2, 2025 to Dec 28, 2025 had Draymond’s first 8 game streak of negative +/- when trying. He left Game #2 with an injury and came back after missing 3 games, returning in Game #3.

And yes, the team has looked better without him since the start of the current negative streak, not to mention all the techs and ejections.

In many ways, Green has become the most visible embodiment of this in-between era. He’s still capable of game-changing moments, still wired to compete as if every possession is life or death - but the body, the whistle, and the league around him no longer bend the way they once did. The instincts are the same, the internal temperature still set permanently to “urgent,” yet the tolerance for that chaos has narrowed. What used to be waved off as intensity is now scrutinized, slowed down, and, more often than not, penalized.

The frustration is understandable. Green has always played at the edge of control, thriving in the gray areas where timing, leverage, and emotional force mattered more than box-score production. That edge helped define the Warriors at their peak. But as the roster thins, the margin shrinks, as his body and skills decline and every possession carries more weight, the cost of those moments has changed. The question now isn’t whether Green still cares - no one could reasonably doubt that - but whether that edge can still be harnessed productively, or whether it’s now cutting into the very margin for error Kerr was warning about.

The margin for error Kerr referenced is real, but so is the institutional memory of what winning looks like. That tension runs through everything this team does: the rotations, the patience with aging stars, the hesitation to pull the trigger on the wrong trade simply to feel productive. This is a team caught between urgency and restraint, trying to preserve the final useful years of a dynasty without rushing headlong into a future that isn’t quite ready yet.

So, where to next, then?

When you read this, it will be just 10 days left until the Kuminga trade window opens. It’s safe to assume that the Warriors have been feverishly working the phone lines in the hopes of improving the team, but the exact path remains to be seen. One way or the other though, it’s about a week-and-a-half of status quo before anything happens.

Golden State seems to have stabilized, with De’Anthony Melton and Will Richardson slotting in at the wings and Quinten Post covering the lion’s share of minutes at center supported in spot minutes with Trayce Jackson-Davis. If this team can just look decent enough for Curry and Butler to carry the primary burden, the Warriors should be fine through the trade window - especially considering the home-friendly schedule this month.

I haven’t done any graphics in a while, but I have a point to make with you, dear reader, and anyone else who you might run across: Brandin Podziemski isn’t anywhere near the top of this team’s list of problems. Before I get into it further though, please review the structure of our favorite team below. The pie chart shows all the team salaries, but spread out in a pie chart with percent of total salary shown.

Data from BBall Ref; made by DNHQ, for DNHQ

The Warriors are not executing the initial plan, and that’s not Podz’ fault. Kuminga is not going to play again in a Warriors uniform; the laughably thin excuse for Kuminga’s quick appearance on the injury report all but confirmed that. So between Kuminga getting mothballed and Al Horford’s spotty availability combined with Buddy Hield’s lack of production, the Warriors are playing with almost 15% of their total salary written off as a loss on any given night.

For now, the plan is to tread water. The Warriors are in a bit of trouble, but comfortable enough with their overall position in the playoff race to avoid panic. Horford and Melton’s health improvements and all the other weirdness with Kuminga are enough of a caveat. This team, like the dynasty, is not completely sunk. But it’s clear that some additional tinkering is needed.

This is a “no way out but through” moment for this team. The trade rumors are flying, with smoke all over the place but few slam dunks that make sense for all sides. The reasonable trades for someone like Royce O’Neale or Malik Monk could work - but the Warriors reportedly walked away from that Kings package over the offseason and it’s hard to see much improving that discussion (though perhaps Golden State’s asking price may be lower at this point). Nobody knows. Heck, maybe a center like Robert Williams? Maybe the deal is already done ²and conjecture is already past any relevance.

Shrug.

Ten days. Stay the course. This isn’t prime dynasty, but the Warriors still believe.

Prediction

Due to a very unfortunate turn of the calendar, my lovely vacation comes to an end, and I’m back to the grind tomorrow. At the end of that work day, I am looking forward to this game against Harden and Kawhi - which the Warriors will win by a nerve-wrackingly small margin.

It’s not a great film or anything but there’s a moment from the classic 1991 movie, Robin Hood, starring Kevin Costner that I think about all the time. Robin Hood (Costner) runs into a fight against Jon Little (excellently played by Nick Brimble) where Costner just gets absolutely rocked. Looks way out of his depth.

Cooked. Bloody nose. Sniffing, he looks up from his butt in the creek and asks Morgan Freeman for advice. A dead pan, “get up, move faster” gets a chuckle at first, but then that’s exactly what Costner does. Get up. Move faster.

Trust Curry and the rest of the core of this team to keep pushing ahead as hard and as efficiently as they can. It might not be anywhere near as overwhelming as previous iterations, but the Warriors know they can still do something this year.

1. “Fading dynasty” messages with this level of honesty rarely comes from a team’s head coach in a public availability session.

2. For those that watched Alchemy’s video, I don’t think Kerr’s statement was especially problematic. It felt more like a clarification that the team views each current year as a single-season opportunity, rather than the multi-year execution of an ongoing personnel structure.