Kurtenbach: Under-the-radar Warriors have rare freedom to reinvent their game. That’s easier said than done

SAN FRANCISCO — It wasn’t that long ago — or perhaps it was — that the Warriors were the NBA’s gold standard. They were the team to beat. The vanguards of the sport itself, setting the pace for what basketball could and should be.

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Now? They’re playing catch-up.

Don’t take my word for it; just ask Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who said during his media day press conference on Monday:

“We have to reimagine our team this year… We have to win the game in the margins.”

All so that the Warriors can play “a more modern brand of basketball.”

Yes, the revolutionaries have become the reactionaries.

The good news is they know changes need to be made.

Kerr grew up in Southern California as a massive fan of the dynastic UCLA basketball team. The Bruins’ legendary coach, John Wooden, who had as many famous maxims as championships, once said, “Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.”

It might as well be the Warriors’ mantra for 2026–27.

Beyond Wooden, Kerr sounded more like a different iconic coach on Monday: Nick Saban.

The former LSU and Alabama football coach won seven national titles behind his fabled “Process.” On Monday, Kerr cited the Warriors’ new process — and the team’s need to commit to it — explicitly 10 different times, and subtextually across his entire appearance at the dais.

The process to modernize their offense. The process to stop turning the ball over at the rate they once did. The process to give this exceptional era, which has not been so exceptional lately, an honest shot at one last triumph — which might just be the process of pretending that the late 30s are the new late 20s.

And that’s really the problem at hand: Kerr gave 30-plus sharp minutes at the mic Monday, but how many guys in his locker room can deliver an equally sharp 30 on the hardwood night in, night out for something close to 82 games?

The Warriors’ largely unchanged roster is a mix of players who are quite old and those who are not quite ready for prime time.

Yes, “load management” will be the norm for the top players who stay healthy. Draymond Green, at 36, is practically a bouncy toddler compared to Curry (38), Jimmy Butler (37), and Al Horford (40).

Butler — “Robin” to Curry’s Batman, per Butler — is coming off knee surgery and isn’t expected back until the holidays at the earliest.

Curry missed 27 games with runner’s knee last season. “There is a management element to it, for sure,” Curry said of the painful condition he has admitted is chronic.

Green missed 14 games last season and was ineffective in many more.

Horford wasn’t allowed to play back-to-back games last season and certainly won’t this year.

The Warriors didn’t even make it to Hawaii for training camp without an injury scare: Center Kristaps Porziņģis has a vague medical issue that will prevent him from traveling with the team. One can only presume it is related to the mysterious prior health matter that sidelined him for parts of the last two seasons. General manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said he first heard about it Sunday night.

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Can the “process” fix that?

Then again, what else can you do but try?

Yes, the Dubs are, in all likelihood, not going to compete for a title this season. That has been the case for a few years now, despite what the team told itself at the start of last season.

This “fading dynasty” — Kerr’s words, not mine — went from a rising squad to the undisputed team to beat (one of the greatest in sports history) in a hurry. The decline has been slower and more circuitous. They won a title in 2022 as a mere contender, then lost even that status in the seasons that followed.

They’ve won two playoff series total since that surprising triumph in Boston five seasons ago. In two of the last three years, they missed the postseason entirely.

External expectations have never been lower in the Kerr era, which began in a 2014–15 season that ended with a parade.

When asked about that reality — the common and fair belief that Golden State is merely fighting for a bottom-half playoff seed — Curry could only muster faux histrionics.

“That’s how bad it is?”

He said it in jest, but the truth remains.

Ironically, this is the best time for the Warriors to reinvent themselves, even if they’re doing it with essentially the same roster.

They can fly under the radar. Gone are the swarms of national media that shadowed them for nearly a decade. The circus has packed up and moved to Philadelphia, New York, Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

The elevated status the Warriors once held has dissipated to near nothing.

In other words, the pressure is off. They can get weird.

That freedom cuts both ways: It could spark vintage Curry brilliance — a renaissance MVP-caliber campaign — or Green morphing into his final, fully evolved form. Young players could take the leap, too. The Dubs are genuinely excited about rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, and for good reason.

“He checks all the boxes,” Kerr, a former NBA GM, said of Lendeborg’s scouting profile.

Or, as Butler more colorfully put it: “He’s (expletive) massive. He shoots the ball so incredibly well. He’s smart. He wants to learn, and he’s a winning player.”

That could be a game-changer for the Dubs.

That said, this season could also simply be another, sadder edition of the “Strength in Numbers” era — one where the sheer numbers exceed the strength.

“I think the league has shown all of us that it’s all about depth this year,” Kerr said.

Either way, the Dubs are once again promising a revolution.

We’re about to find out if these old dogs can learn new tricks — or if they’re just chasing their own tails one last time.

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