Stephen Curry still wants to play this season. The Golden State Warriors superstar, who has been dealing with runner’s knee and hasn’t played since Jan. 30, reiterated after their 110-107 loss against the New York Knicks on Sunday that he plans to return, provided that he’s healthy enough to do so. Golden State has lost five straight games and seven of its last eight, but that doesn’t mean it’s waving the white flag and shutting him down.
“That’s not who we are,” Curry told The Athletic’s Nick Friedell. “If we have stuff to play for, we play. So, I’m working to get back.”
The Warriors are 32-35 and ninth in the West, and Curry’s knee is just one of their many injury issues. Jimmy Butler is out for the season as he rehabs a torn ACL. Moses Moody has been out since March 2 with a sprained right wrist. Last Friday, half an hour before their game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, they ruled Draymond Green out with lower back soreness. During that 127-117 loss, Al Horford strained his left calf, Seth Curry strained his left adductor and Quentin Post sprained his left ankle.
“We’re about as beaten up as any team I can ever remember,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters that night.
Post played against New York, but Green, Horford, Seth Curry, De’Anthony Melton (left knee injury management) and Kristaps Porziņģis all sat out. Porziņģis, Golden State’s trade-deadline acquisition, is working his way back from a mysterious illness. Omer Yurtseven, signed to a 10-day contract earlier that day, logged 12 minutes. (Horford and Seth Curry were ruled out for a week. The team rested Green, Melton and Porziņģis and plan to have them in the lineup against the Washington Wizards on Monday.)
In this context, it is hard to justify Curry rushing back to the court. He has started individual workouts, though, and the team hopes that he can play a few regular-season games before the play-in. To Curry, this is pretty simple: He’ll play when he’s healthy enough to do so, no sooner and no later.
“I know we’re depleted, but the idea of my injury is just getting information by the day of, ‘Can I play safely, be myself out there and not put myself in danger short term or long term?'” he told The Athletic. “And then we still have stuff to play for. We’d love to see guys in a playoff series and take a swing. Hopefully, see this team that’s currently constructed healthy for a stretch to learn as much as we can and compete. That’s who we are.”
Curry said that there is “for sure” a chance that he will be back this season. His timeline remains hazy, but Kerr said in New York that he has continued to “trend in the right direction.” After the Wizards game, Golden State will have 14 games remaining on the schedule. It is in no danger of falling out of the play-in entirely, but it is only one game ahead of the 10th-place Portland Trail Blazers.
The best-case-scenario outcomes for the 2025-26 Warriors went out the window the moment that Butler tore his ACL. Between Curry’s injury and Porziņģis appearing in only four games since the deadline, the season has gotten bleaker since then. At this point, all Golden State can realistically hope for is that Curry returns to a team that is otherwise reasonably healthy and can establish some semblance of rhythm before the play-in. It would still be nice to end the season on a positive note and have some momentum going into the offseason, but Curry and the Warriors should only pursue that if his knee can handle it.
