After the Golden State Warriors made their selections at the 2026 NBA Draft and got two players who will make them younger and more athletic, the team decided to bring back veteran Al Horford on a two-year deal before free agency.
It's a slightly surprising move since both general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. and head coach Steve Kerr have talked about the importance of the team getting younger, but now they've committed to two more years with a player who is 40-years-old.
Warriors are not picking a lane after Horford extension
This is just more evidence of the mixed signals that the Warriors have been sending in recent times. Dunleavy has talked about how he wants the team to get younger and yet he still left the door wide open for the team to trade away their No. 11 pick in exchange for a veteran player.
While they didn't end up doing that, it just feels like there isn’t a real cohesive vision guiding the Warriors right now. Are they getting younger or older? Yes appears to be the answer right now.
That seems to speak to the weird spot the Warriors find themselves in. They’re no longer a perennial title contender and instead are essentially a perennial Play-In team. Perhaps they're content with that and Kerr has talked about wanting to leave the team in a good spot these next few years.
Perhaps the hope is that they mix together the veterans and youngsters, hoping the latter can learn from the former and then when the time comes, they turn things over to a new crop of players. It’s “Two Timelines” but with newer faces like Yaxel Lendeborg and Gui Santos rather than Jonathan Kuminga and James Wiseman.
Will it work? No one knows, but this seems to be the way Kerr wants to do it for better or worse. For now, it’s certainly the right move because he won’t be forced to squeeze guys into the rotation who don’t fit Kerr’s scheme, but what about when Stephen Curry retires someday?
Can they find someone who can be plugged into the offense to make the brand of basketball the Warriors have played for so long still viable? Probably not considering Curry is the best shooter of all time and is a generational talent.
The Warriors are in limbo right now and the Horford signing proves it. He’s still got some good basketball in him as he proved last season, but the future of the franchise still reamins as murky as ever.
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