Should the Warriors lock up Stephen Curry, Kristaps Porzingis for the rest of the season?

Everything that could go wrong this season seems to have gone wrong Golden State Warriors has gone wrong. Then again, the ceiling during the regular season never looked particularly high for the Warriors entering the 2025-26 season, especially since this older, experienced team, still led Stephen Curryit was built to compete in the playoffs.

The only problem is that in order to compete in the playoffs, you have to make the playoffs. This franchise hasn’t gone more than six games above .500 all season, and time is quickly running out for them to make something of this season.

Stamina and health have been the biggest challenges facing Golden State this year, and nothing has come easy since the weather froze on January 19 when Jimmy Butler tore his ACL.

With Butler out for the season, a chain of injuries and unfortunate events unfolded for the Warriors.

Draymond GreenAl Horford and De’Anthony Melton seem to have strict rest regimens, especially when it comes to back-to-back games, and six games after Butler went down for the season, Curry found himself on the injured list.

At first, it didn’t seem like Curry’s injury was that serious appeared to tweak his right knee Jan. 30 against the Detroit Pistons and limped off the court into the locker room. The good news for the Warriors is that it was there is nothing structurally wrong with Steph’s knee, and the team considered him day-to-day and likely rested during the All-Star break to be 100 percent for an extended stretch of the season.

More than four weeks have passed and Curry has yet to resume full basketball activities. While the team continues to play down the severity of this lingering knee issue, the fact is that the team is sinking fast and appears to be stuck in the Western Conference standings.

Now 31-30 on the season and on the verge of falling below .500 for the first time since mid-December, the Warriors appear destined to make a third straight playoff appearance.

With Steph, it would be a great opportunity for Golden State to make up a 5.5-game deficit to clinch the sixth seed in the West with 21 games remaining. Without Steph, it’s hard to imagine the Dubs falling completely out of the play-in region, especially considering the bottom five teams in the West are reeling and have no intention of winning another game this year.

The Warriors are currently stuck in limbo again, leading to big questions about how the rest of this season looks, including what happens with Curry over the final six weeks of the regular season.

Does Steph Curry’s return even matter?

Since Curry’s knee injury, which is labeled as patello-femoral pain syndrome and a bruised right knee, the Warriors have lost seven of their last 11 games. Wins over Phoenix and Denver during this stretch seem like nothing more than blips in the matrix, as turnovers and fourth-quarter collapses have been the story of Golden State without Steph.

The bottom line is that this organization cannot find success without Curry, especially with Butler not there to lead the team. Any team that loses its two All-Stars is destined to sink, and that’s exactly what happened to the Warriors.

Given their position in the Western standings, the Warriors have no reason to rush Curry back.

Whether they finish seventh or tenth in the standings, Golden State will still need to win the play-in tournament to secure a playoff spot. Even if they make the playoffs, they would face a meeting with the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs.

A big decision looms for the Warriors, and it revolves around whether or not Steph will return at all for the remainder of the regular season.

Obviously, he has to be healthy and feel 100 percent first and foremost.

While Curry was expected to return to the court after the All-Star break, the reality of his situation is that he continues to deal with discomfort in his right knee, which led to more rest and the Warriors taking more scans on his knee, which came back clean. Although he’s been working a little behind the scenes, Steph has yet to go through a full, extensive workout on the field.

Many tend to forget that Steph turns 38 on March 14 and has played 1,065 career games, 1,220 if you include the playoffs, and even more if you include his Olympic and other endeavors. All that mileage adds up for a player like him, especially when you consider that Curry runs more actual miles on the court than any other player every season.

Rest is necessary for him when injuries like this occur, which is why the Warriors working with plenty of caution. Despite this, sources continue to tell ClutchPoints that if the playoffs started today, Steph would be on round-the-clock treatment and would not want to miss those games for the Dubs.

At this point, the playoffs are all that matters to Curry and the Warriors. If they’re healthy come postseason game time, Steve KerrDraymond Green, and this team understands that it really can beat any team in a seven-game series. Whether it’s a rising threat like the Spurs or the defending NBA champion Thunder, the Warriors, believe it or not, truly believe they can win.

The main reason for that is what No. 30 can do on the field when healthy.

It will be essential that Steph be available for the playoffs, as well as being 100 percent healthy for whoever they may face in the first round playoff series.

That’s why there’s no rush to bring him back, and that’s why sources say he’ll be back at the earliest, but unlikely before this date, the start of the Warriors’ six-game road trip against the New York Knicks on Sunday, March 15.

To be perfectly honest, it may be in the best interest of the Warriors and Curry to shut things down indefinitely until after this trip, since seven of the Dubs’ final 10 games of the season will be in San Francisco. The Warriors have time because they’re not moving anywhere in the playoff standings, which is why Steph’s return doesn’t matter right now.

So far, there has been no talk of the Warriors ruling Curry out for the rest of the season, and sources say he’s especially eager to return before the playoffs to try to build some momentum for this team.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, they can’t seem to get any positive momentum going with all of the injury issues that exist with Curry.

It was only a matter of time before the Warriors traded Jonathan Cummings this season, and they finally pulled the trigger on a deal by sending him and Buddy Hield to the Atlanta Hawks for Kristaps Porzingis. It’s been about four weeks since this trade, and it was completely one-sided in favor of the Hawks.

While the idea of ​​having Porzingis on the court alongside Curry, Green and others is exactly what the Warriors needed at center, the reality is that nothing has changed regarding the big man’s health. Porzingis revealed to the Athletics in October that he did diagnosed with POTSa chronic blood circulation disorder characterized by an abnormal, rapid increase in heart rate.

This is something that Porzingis has continually battled over the past year and a half, and it has seriously affected his career. Since the start of the 2024-25 season, the Latvian big man has played just 60 games as a result.

After making his Warriors debut against the Boston Celtics on Feb. 19, Porzingis has missed five straight games and may not travel with the team for their upcoming three-game road trip. Kerr told reporters on Monday that he is the illnesses of the great man are “mysterious” and that there is no time frame for when he might return.

Porzingis has been absent from the team and hasn’t practiced since playing nearly two weeks ago.

What happens next for Porzingis and the Warriors is a mystery. Rick Celebrini, the team’s vice president of player health and performance, and his staff are apparently continuing to work with the former star to get his health under control, but there is no clear answer as to when, or even if, Porzingis will return this season.

The only good news for Golden State is that Porzingis is in the final year of his contract and will open $30.7 million on the team’s books entering the offseason. However, Porzingis moving on in the offseason and contributing little the rest of the season would be a huge loss for this organization.

For the Warriors to have any chance at postseason success, with or without Curry, they will need Porzingis on the court. Right now, that doesn’t seem like a viable option.

Warrior injuries continue to mount

Curry hasn’t played in over a month, and Porzingis’ status remains questionable due to his illness. Those aren’t the only two injury situations the Warriors are dealing with late in the season.

Seth Curry was barely available for the Dubs because of ongoing sciatica issues, and rookie Will Richard, who has made an impact this season in multiple ways, suffered a mild sprain in his right ankle during Saturday’s 129-101 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Although Richard has been seen in boots recently, the team is marking him as “day-to-day” and could play during their upcoming three-game road trip that begins Thursday.

Gary Payton II had a left ankle problem that popped up before Monday night’s game against the LA Clippers that forced him to miss the game, and starting wing Moses Moody suffered right wrist and shoulder injuries in the team’s 114-101 collapse against the Clippers. Nothing was said about the severity of these injuries or will Moody now be forced to miss time.

The Warriors just can’t catch a break this season, with half of their roster currently dealing with some sort of illness. With a month left in the regular season and this team trapped in their playoff purgatory, there’s really nothing Golden State can do.

This organization isn’t one to throw in the towel and give up on the season, although that’s probably what their fans would like to see at this point. Kerr continues to coach this team like it’s at full strength, and the Warriors are simply dealing with what they have, trying to win every night.

While times are tough for Golden State and injury concerns continue to mount, this franchise still has hope. And that hope is that Curry, Porzingis and everyone else will be healthy by the end of the regular season and head into the playoffs to give the Warriors a chance.

After all, no one in the league is going to want to face Curry and the Warriors, assuming they’re healthy, in the playoffs.