Because Stephen Curry is so good, the Warriors are unable to find a replacement for him.
Golden State has attempted (and failed) to identify their next star to replace Steph or take over the team once in the last six years.
Stephen Curry has become synonymous with the Golden State Warriors, not just as a player, but as the soul of the franchise. Since he burst into superstardom in the early 2010s, Steph has redefined what it means to be an NBA point guard and has changed the geometry of the game with his revolutionary shooting range and offensive gravity. As the architect of Golden State’s dynasty, Curry’s impact has been so immense that the franchise has been unable—and perhaps even unwilling—to envision a future without him. Over the last six years, this dependence on Curry’s brilliance has presented a problem that even the most forward-thinking front office has struggled to solve: finding a suitable successor.
The Warriors, like all dynasties, understood that the championship window wouldn’t stay open forever. But when you have a generational talent like Curry, the temptation is always to keep pushing for one more run, one more ring, and one more season of magic. In that context, the Warriors have operated with one foot in the present and one in the future, hoping to pull off the rarest of NBA feats: sustaining championship contention while simultaneously developing the next superstar. Unfortunately for Golden State, the latter half of that equation has proven far more elusive than they anticipated.
Golden State’s attempts to plan for the post-Curry era became especially visible following their 2019 NBA Finals loss to the Toronto Raptors, when Kevin Durant departed in free agency and injuries began to mount. The 2019-2020 season was a disaster in terms of wins and losses, but it provided a rare opportunity for the Warriors to pick high in the draft. They landed the No. 2 overall pick in 2020, which they used to select James Wiseman, a physically gifted center out of Memphis. At the time, the Warriors believed Wiseman could evolve into a modern big man, someone who could anchor their defense while developing enough offensive versatility to thrive in their motion-heavy system. It didn’t take long for those hopes to be tempered. Wiseman’s development was slow, in part due to injuries and in part because of his raw skill set. He struggled to grasp the complexities of Golden State’s offensive and defensive schemes, and it became clear that he was a poor fit alongside the established core of Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. While the Warriors kept expressing patience publicly, behind the scenes the clock was ticking. A player picked that high is expected to show more promise, especially on a team that doesn’t have time to wait.
The struggles didn’t end with Wiseman. In 2021, the Warriors selected Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody with their first-round picks. Kuminga, in particular, drew intrigue due to his elite athleticism and flashes of two-way potential. The Warriors hoped he could become a wing with star upside, someone who could eventually replace some of what they’d lose when Curry slowed down. Kuminga has had moments—stretches of high scoring, solid defense, and big-time performances—but consistency has been an issue. And more importantly, he hasn’t shown the playmaking or leadership traits that would be necessary to take the reins from Curry. As for Moody, he’s developed into a solid role player, but he never had the superstar ceiling the team needed to seriously consider him as a foundational piece.
In parallel with these young talents, the Warriors continued to lean on their aging core. And it worked—for a while. The 2021-22 season ended with the Warriors capturing their fourth title in the Curry era, and Steph himself played arguably the best basketball of his career, earning his first NBA Finals MVP. That championship vindicated the team’s approach. It showed that Curry was still good enough to be the best player on a title team, and that the mixture of youth and experience might still yield fruit. But the cracks started to widen. The 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons exposed major flaws: Klay Thompson’s declining play, Draymond Green’s volatility and aging athleticism, and the inconsistency of the young players meant the team hovered around mediocrity. Curry continued to perform at an elite level, but the supporting cast failed to step up.
It wasn’t just the draft that failed to produce Curry’s successor. The trade market and free agency yielded no better results. The most glaring example was the acquisition of D’Angelo Russell in the sign-and-trade that sent Kevin Durant to Brooklyn. That experiment lasted less than a season before Russell was flipped to Minnesota for Andrew Wiggins. While Wiggins was instrumental in the 2022 title run, he was never going to be the face of the franchise. He lacked the alpha personality, the killer instinct, and the deep connection with fans that Curry commands so effortlessly.
The dual-timeline strategy—develop the future while contending in the present—might look good on paper, but in practice, it rarely works. The presence of Curry changes everything. He is so unique, so effective, and so central to how Golden State plays that it’s nearly impossible for young players to develop independently. They’re constantly being asked to fit around Steph’s style, to contribute to winning immediately, rather than being allowed to make mistakes and grow through failure. For a franchise that has had such a clear identity for over a decade, the idea of pivoting to a completely new system or style to accommodate a new star feels almost sacrilegious. Yet without doing so, no young player will ever get the room they need to truly blossom into a Curry successor.
Even the return of Chris Paul in the 2023-24 season—an aging star with a Hall of Fame resume—was more of a short-term patch than a long-term solution. Paul offered steady playmaking and veteran savvy, but he wasn’t brought in to be the next face of the franchise. Instead, his arrival only underlined how dependent the Warriors had become on veterans, and how far away their young prospects were from taking over.
Steph’s excellence has, in a paradoxical way, made the Warriors worse at preparing for the future. As long as he continues to play at an All-NBA level, there’s little incentive to truly rebuild. The front office, ownership, and fans all want to see him compete for another title. No one wants to watch him spend his final years playing for a lottery team. And so, the team keeps pushing chips into the middle of the table—trading picks, signing veterans, making win-now moves—hoping that one more run will justify the delay in long-term planning. But the future still looms, and it’s getting closer by the day.
The problem is not just finding someone who can score or handle the ball. Replacing Curry isn’t about stats—it’s about finding someone who can be the cultural and spiritual center of the franchise. That’s nearly impossible. Curry’s humility, leadership, work ethic, and ability to unify a locker room have been as vital to Golden State’s success as his on-court brilliance. You don’t replace that through a draft pick. You rarely find it at all.
As the 2024-25 season nears, the Warriors face some hard questions. Steph Curry is 37 years old. He’s still playing at an elite level, but the minutes, the injuries, and the wear and tear are adding up. Klay Thompson is no longer the same player, and his future with the team is uncertain. Draymond Green remains a defensive anchor and emotional leader, but he’s also volatile and past his prime. The youth movement hasn’t produced a clear heir. The championship window is all but closed.
So where do the Warriors go from here? Do they finally commit to a full rebuild and accept a few losing seasons in hopes of striking gold in the draft? Or do they keep trying to thread the needle, squeezing one more playoff run out of an aging core while hoping someone like Kuminga suddenly evolves into a star? The truth is, there is no easy answer.
Steph Curry’s brilliance has made all of this harder. His continued excellence raises expectations and delays the inevitable. Every time he hits a logo three, every time he drops 40 points in a must-win game, the front office sees a reason to believe. But time is undefeated. Eventually, Curry will slow down. Eventually, he will walk away. And when he does, the Warriors might finally realize what they’ve avoided confronting for years: that replacing a once-in-a-lifetime player is not just hard—it’s nearly impossible.
In many ways, Golden State’s inability to find a successor isn’t a failure of scouting, or management, or development. It’s the natural result of having someone so uniquely gifted, so deeply woven into the identity of the franchise, that the very idea of replacing him feels like a betrayal. Curry isn’t just the Warriors’ best player—he is the Warriors. And maybe that’s why no one has been able to follow in his footsteps. Those shoes are too big. That shadow is too long. And that legacy is too great to replicate.
