Fact or Fiction: The Golden State Warriors are cooked

Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

Last week: The Knicks need Giannis Antetokounmpo if their goal is to win a title

Fact or Fiction: The Golden State Warriors are cooked

Through developments both fortunate and unfortunate, as Kevin Durant left one version of the dynasty, the Golden State Warriors landed three lottery picks in successive drafts during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that trio of prospects was supposed to spin a championship core forward to a new era.

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They took James Wiseman with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody with the Nos. 7 and 14 picks the next June. Sure, Tyrese Haliburton, Franz Wagner and Alperen Şengün were still on the board, respectively, but the Warriors made their picks, sticking to them.

From the outside looking in, they had a choice. They could have packaged those picks, with salaries, to continue building around Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, maximizing what was left around the future Hall of Famers who won titles together in 2015, 2017 and 2018. They did not do that.

Then, a funny thing happened: Curry, Green and Thompson rediscovered their magic, as Andrew Wiggins played out of his mind, and the Warriors won the 2022 title — with Wiseman, Kuminga and Moody in tow.

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So, Warriors owner Joe Lacob touted their “two-timeline” plan to ride out the Curry-Green-Thompson triumvirate, all while developing their replacements, Wiseman, Kuminga and Moody, behind them.

[Get more Warriors news: Golden State team feed]

“I know some people thought we could’ve done more, got another star,” Lacob told The Athletic after the 2022 title victory. “But who were we going to get? Who was…