The Golden State Warriors' 2024-25 season is officially over after their Game 5 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. This wasn't the way it was supposed to end for Stephen Curry and the Warriors after they added Jimmy Butler ahead of the trade deadline. But now, the Dubs are in an increasingly difficult position, and the age of their three most important players makes their vulnerability more clear than ever before.
Since the Warriors won a championship in June 2022, things have only gotten more and more difficult to navigate. Golden State was eliminated in six games by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2023 Western Conference semifinals, infamously missed the playoffs in 2024, and have now taken their first playoff loss in less than six games under Steve Kerr at the hands of the Wolves.
Getting past Houston in round one this year was a good reminder that Golden State's veteran presence can still get them past even the most physical and talented young and inexperienced teams. But the viability of the Warriors' star players is still a problem that looms large as we look to the future.
Stephen Curry will turn 38 years old before the end of next season, Jimmy Butler turns 36 in September, and Draymond Green will be 36 next March. These three are unquestionably Golden State's most important players in their pursuit of another championship, and none of them are getting any younger.
The age of the Warriors' stars is a huge problem
Let's not get things confused here. When all three are healthy, it's truly still hard to count Curry, Butler and Green out. But we just finished up a playoff series that showed us the difficult reality: You simply can't always rely on three players aged 35 or older to be healthy for an entire regular season and playoffs.
And obviously next season, they'll all be that much older too. The Warriors will of course want to get as many supporting players as they can to complement their stars, but help isn't going to be as easy to acquire as they'd like it to be.
That leaves us with the realization that this trio has an increasingly difficult journey ahead of them. It's going to be very hard to ever truly write them off given their long list of accomplishments, both together and apart. But the miles on their bodies are adding up, and that's going to take a toll on you at one point or another.
In years past, fans saw the Golden State Warriors as an infallible, well-oiled machine. Now, they're far from it. The greatness of their stars can't be questioned, but there's no telling just how much longer they have left.