Warriors report card entering 2026 after turbulent start: Slight improvement

Since our initial Warriors Report Card following the first 20 games of the 2025-26 NBA season, Golden State has gone 8-6, a slight improvement from being 10-10 since we last checked in. The hardest part of the schedule is over. Living life on the road with constant back-to-backs is done. Now that 2026 is here, it’s go-time for the Warriors at 18-16. Here’s how they grade out so far this session entering the new year.OffenseHow does a team that has Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler rank 21st in points per game (115.6)? Turnovers. The Warriors have turned the ball over the second-most times in the entire NBA. It’s why 11 of their 16 leads have come from blown fourth-quarter leads. They’re now 5-13 when they have more turnovers than their opponents, 10-2 when they have fewer and 3-1 when they’re tied with their opponent in turnovers. The system still creates open shots. The problem is the Warriors miss too many of them and don’t take care of them well enough.The Warriors rank 18th overall in offensive rating (114.3), and were 11th for the month of December (116.3).Grade: C-Defense Advanced statistics like the Warriors’ defense a whole lot more than their offense. For the season, the Warriors now are third in defensive rating (111.8) and were fifth in December (111.9). There still are cracks. Point of attack remains a concern. A lack of stopping ball-handlers, plus being a smaller team, has them ranked 17th in opponent points in the paint per game (51.3). Somehow, the Warriors rank fourth in opponent 3-point percentage (34.3 percent), even though it feels like teams catch fire from deep at the worst times.Second, third and fourth options still are having career games against the Warriors. Yet the numbers tell a different story.Grade: B-Stars So much has changed around the NBA, and so much has remained the same for Curry and the Warriors. He still is the sun of their solar system, and still needs others to shine brighter around him. The Warriors are 4-6 in the 10 games Curry has scored 30-plus points. Curry for the third straight season is leading the NBA in 3-point attempts and makes per game while shooting just under 40 percent from deep. After missing five games to injury, he closed 2025 by scoring at least 20 points in eight of his final nine games, including two 39-point games and a 48-point game.His second true star is Butler, who remains Mr. Efficient and has been everything the Warriors could hope for at 36 years old as of late. In his final seven games of the year, Butler averaged 21.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game while shooting 53.3 percent from the field and 90.7 percent at the free-throw line on 7.7 attempts per game while averaging 33 minutes per game.And then there’s Green. The last two games of December were his only with a positive plus/minus. He was ejected one game and took himself out of another, and the Warriors were better without him in both. Less is becoming more for Green, and the Warriors know they still are at their best when he’s at his best in all facets.Grade: B+/A-Additions From our first iteration of Warriors Report Cards for this season, we established the three players who fit this category are rookie Will Richard, and veterans De’Anthony Melton and Al Horford.To honor older players and give them a longer leash, Richard was a healthy DNP (Did Not Play) in three straight games during December. The Warriors lost all three. Since then, Richard has played 20 minutes per game and averaged 8.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game over the last six games, highlighted by his 10 points and two steals in the fourth quarter of the Warriors’ win against the Nets in Brooklyn. Horford finally returned from a seven-game absence on Christmas, and Melton made his season debut. The Warriors’ Christmas win was a display of what Horford brings with four threes and rim protection, and though Melton has struggled to find his shot, he clearly is one of their top defensive players already and has been a plus-57 in the 10 games he has played.Grade: C+Youth For the seventh straight game to close the calendar year, two younger players have accompanied Curry, Butler and Green in the starting lineup. Moody and Post, at least for now, have security as starters. But that always can change, and the Warriors still need those two to find more consistency shooting the ball. Several youngsters off the bench have come on strong as of late. Brandin Podziemski scored 19 points on New Year’s Eve and averaged 12.7 points on 51.7 percent shooting in December. Trayce Jackson-Davis has re-emerged in the center rotation with strong finishes around the rim, and Richard continues to impress, earning Steve Kerr’s trust to close games with his two-way impact.Writing about Jonathan Kuminga might as well be with invisible ink. Wednesday was his fifth straight healthy DNP and he already has received eight this season. January 15, the first day Kuminga becomes trade eligible, can’t come soon enough for him and the team.Grade: C+Health A number of bumps and bruises have hampered the Warriors while still avoiding major injury. Steph Curry missed five straight games due to a quad contusion, and his young brother Seth has been sidelined due to sciatic-nerve issues in his pelvis and lower back. Horford missed three weeks because of sciatica, and Green was out for a few weeks with a right foot sprain. This is about how it goes for a team that has seven players who are at least 33 years old. As teams around the league have seen their stars miss multiple weeks or worse, the Warriors have played a game of roulette with who will be healthy or have to take a seat. In this case, things could be much more grim for Golden State.Grade: B-Overall The Warriors finished 2025 by winning five of their last six games. Though they failed to earn their first four-game win streak of the season with a bad loss against the Raptors in Toronto, the Warriors are finally are finding consistency in their starting lineup and rotations, as well as the win column.As 2026 begins, the Warriors are the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. The goal going into the season was to be a top-six seed, and they hoped to get greedy as a top-four seed. Well, the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves are three games ahead of them, and the fourth-seeded Houston Rockets are four games ahead.Starting Friday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, 10 of the Warriors’ next 11 games are at home, and they don’t leave California until Jan. 22. This is their chance to bump their grades much closer to what they expected.Grade: C+Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

Warriors report card entering 2026 after turbulent start: Slight improvement

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