Warriors’ wear & tear

The fraying did not happen overnight. Then again, unravelings rarely do. Seasons that go awry usually begin with small fissures: a missed encounter here, a strained knee there, and on and on until the impact on the whole becomes too significant to ignore. And for the Warriors, the wear has reflected a battle of attrition.

The latest blow came against the Timberwolves the other day, when four more players went down during the course of the match, leaving head coach Steve Kerr to survey a roster as if managing a triage. The defeats have mounted accordingly. Lineups have been patched together out of necessity rather than design, forcing the National Basketball Association’s most fluid offensive system to operate in fits and starts. There is little to no rhythm when availability changes by outing night.

The absence that continues to frame everything, of course, belongs to Stephen Curry. The 12-time All-Star has been sidelined with a lingering knee issue and remains out for at least another stretch of days, depriving the Warriors of both their primary scorer and the gravitational pull that anchors their entire attack. His presence has invariably gone beyond filling up the stat sheet; it bends defenses, creates space, and puts teammates into roles they understand. Without him, their competitiveness is affected, and never for the better.

Needless to say, the earlier loss of Jimmy Butler compounded matters. The Warriors have tried to compensate by leaning more heavily on younger players, asking them to shoulder responsibilities that normally belong to veterans. At times, the effort has been nothing short of remarkable. At others, it has merely underscored how fragile even former champions can become once depth begins to evaporate.

It is against this backdrop that Kerr recently revived an old argument: the idea that the league might benefit from shortening its regular season by roughly 10 outings. The logic is straightforward. The modern game moves faster, features much wider spacing, and demands more continuous motion than at any other time in pro hoops annals. Reducing the schedule, he has argued, may well preserve player health while improving the nightly product.

Whether such a proposal ever gains traction is another matter altogether. The league’s economic architecture, banking on television windows, arena revenues, and a global audience that expects a steady stream of fare, rests comfortably on the current calendar. Altering it would require more than medical logic; it would necessitate the willingness to disrupt an extremely lucrative financial model.

Still, the Warriors’ present circumstances serve as a pointed reminder of the tension embedded in the sport. Basketball at its highest level is both competition and commerce, and the two do not always move in perfect alignment. For now, they continue to navigate what is left of their 2025-26 campaign with a lineup held together by equal parts resilience and improvisation.

Dynasties, after all, are not undone by a single moment. Rather, they yield slowly, worn down not by one decisive blow, but by the steady accumulation of smaller hits.

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.