How Stephen Curry’s unprecedented longevity forced Warriors to trash their ‘two timelines’ plan

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SAN FRANCISCO — Somewhere in the far fringes of the multiverse, the young, upstart Golden State Warriors are just starting to hit their stride.

Jonathan Kuminga is a 25-point-per-game scorer. Jordan Poole is an All-Star. Brandin Podziemski is putting up triple-doubles. Moses Moody is a versatile 3-and-D connector. Trayce Jackson-Davis is the elite vertical spacer the Warriors have always craved. James Wiseman, given time to develop without immediate expectations, has blossomed into a starting-caliber center with promising upside. Steve Kerr has gleefully transitioned into his late-career Gregg Popovich mentoring role, rediscovering his joy for the game through teaching like Pete Bell under the playground lights in “Blue Chips.”

The words themselves are now a Rodney Dangerfield-worthy punchline, but, to be honest, the “two timelines” strategy actually could have worked.

Back in our universe, however, none of that is possible. And that’s due to one reason and one reason only: Wardell Stephen Curry II.

By age 37, Curry was supposed to be riding off into the sunset on his farewell tour. He’d almost certainly still be a Warrior, but his warlock powers would be wearing thin as he graciously ceded the spotlight to the youthful rising core. After all, smaller guards begin their rapid descent in their early 30s — or so the adage goes.

Mix in the early career ankle problems and the literal miles put on his body every game due to his unrelenting off-ball movement (2.4 miles per game last season at an average offensive speed of 4.8 miles per hour), and you wouldn’t exactly be laughed out of the room for thinking Curry would no longer be a championship centerpiece in his 17th NBA season.

Yet here we are, in 2025, and every move Golden State has made over the past few years has been in service of Curry, who’s still one of the handful of NBA superstars capable of being the best player on a championship team. It’s why the Warriors traded Andrew Wiggins for Jimmy Butler. It’s why they signed Draymond Green to a four-year extension. It’s why they locked in 39-year-old Al Horford on a two-year deal. It’s why they played hardball with Kuminga — who, on other teams, might be making significantly more money as a future franchise cornerstone — ultimately signing him to a trade-bait contract with a team option for 2026-27 after tedious negotiations.

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“At the end of the day, it’s still Steph Curry’s team. Whatever we need to do to help Steph win, that’s what we’re going to do,” Jackson-Davis said at Media Day on Monday. “Coach [Kerr] is always about winning. He’s always about helping Steph because we know when Steph does what he does, the likelihood of winning is very, very high.”

Indeed, when Curry “does wat he does,” Golden State is flat-out elite. In 31 games following the Butler trade last season, the Warriors scored 122 points per 100 possessions with Curry on the floor (the equivalent of the league’s No. 1 offense), compared to just 109 without him. The movement, the IQ and, of course, the otherworldly shooting ability make everyone on the team better, as has been the case for essentially Curry’s entire career.

Last season, he averaged more points and made more 3s than he did during his first MVP campaign in 2014-15 as a 26-year-old. He also became the only guard age 36 or older in the history of the NBA to average more than 24 points per game, per Stathead.

The legendary commitment to training and maintaining his body are largely to thank for his productive longevity. Like LeBron James, Curry finds new and innovative ways to extend his career, leaving his younger teammates awestruck and inspired.

“When you see a guy like Steph working out, I think he’s 37, right? And you see him working more than guys that’s 20, his physical is amazing,” Warriors forward Gui Santos said on Media Day. “So you just say, like, yeah, I got to work more and more. So when I get that age, I will be good like him. That’s impossible, but we try our best.”

Curry keeping his production at such a high level is miraculous enough, but it takes much more to remain the face of the same franchise for 17 seasons. While contemporaries like James, Butler and Kevin Durant have bounced from team to team, Curry has ridden it out with Golden State through the highs of four titles and the lows of being the league’s worst team.

Character is an underrated aspect of longevity and, by all accounts, Curry’s character is as pure as his jump shot.

“He’s one of those guys, the way he speaks and how he carries himself, you just watch him and look at him,” Warriors guard Buddy Hield said. “You have to be a sponge because he does everything correctly. He’s probably one of the best guys I’ve probably been around. Not talking about basketball guys, really. Just life in general.”

Ask virtually any teammate and you’ll get some iteration of the same answer. That’s why players like Butler, Horford and, before them, Durant, are willing to upend their lives — both basketball and personal — to play alongside 30 in Golden State. Players want to win for Curry, and he wants to win for them. That’s leadership.

It’s rare in the NBA, in sports, and in the polarized world we live in to see someone so universally admired. In fact, Curry found the perfect word for it during Media Day on Monday.

“I think everything we do around here is unique, for sure. So it kind of adds to that journey,” Curry said. “Us being realistically championship relevant for this long is unique. Us trying to maintain that for as long as we have is unique. … Me being in my position where I’m at in my stage of my career is unique.

“Like, the whole deal is just — you’ve got to take the good with the chaos, as well, because it is kind of unprecedented.”

The Warriors went 23-8 after acquiring Butler last season, with the league’s best defensive rating and third-best net raging over that stretch. They then upset the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs before losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the conference semifinals with Curry playing only 13 minutes in the entire series due to a hamstring strain he suffered in Game 1.

As if we needed a reminder, that just confirmed what we, the Warriors front office, and everyone in NBA circles knows: This team will only go as far as Steph Curry takes them, even at this advanced stage of his career.

“I don’t think I’m over that [playoff] disappointment because you always wonder, what if?” Curry said on Media Day. ” … As a player, you always think about that type of stuff. It motivates you to understand what you can do this year to put yourself in a better position. I think I’m still carrying that, which is, I think, healthy and a good thing.

” … Just enjoying myself, but also looking forward to today and this new year because I know I don’t have many more in front of me in that respect. So I’m excited to give everything I’ve got to what’s in front of me this year.”

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