Mike Dunleavy Takes Subtle Dig at Steve Kerr with Statement on Warriors Roster

Dunleavy's statement was flat-out surprising

Mike Dunleavy Jr. | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The Golden State Warriors had major roster issues during the 2025-26 season, or at least I thought that was a universally held opinion.

But general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. told reporters Friday that he doesn't see it that way.

“This just isn’t about the roster, frankly,” Dunleavy said. “I don't think we came up short because of the talent on the roster. It was injuries and things we could control.”

“Do we need to get better roster-wise? I think so,” Dunleavy added. “But we didn't get to a point where we played a team where their roster is better than ours. So, that reason we're more focused on stuff that we can control.”

Before the injuries became a major issue, the Warriors were hovering around eighth place in the Western Conference. But apparently Dunleavy believes their roster was as good as the Thunder's, and pretty much all that was holding them back from a 60-plus-win pace was turnovers.

OK.

If Dunleavey truly believes this, he must think Steve Kerr did an awful job last season. After all, the Warriors' record the day Jimmy Butler got hurt was 25-19. Oklahoma City's record that day was 36-8. A team underachieving about 11 games in a half of a season would be grounds for firing the head coach.

Turnovers vs. Roster Deficiency Is a Classic Chicken-or-the-Egg Situation

There's no doubt that the Warriors had a turnover problem last season. They ranked 26th in turnover rate.

Steve Kerr's offensive system has consistently led to high turnover rates. The Warriors tend to be one of the league leaders in passes per game, and the result of that type of offense is often better shot quality but also more turnovers.

In the 2025-26, Kerr didn't adjust the offense to make it less pass-happy and thus less turnover-happy. But it certainly seemed like the roster's deficiencies made it impossible to make major offensive adjustments.

No team had less ball-handling talent than the Warriors. I'd argue this roster needed Kerr's system for offensive competence.

Offenses more reliant on isolation scoring need talented ball-handlers to beat their man off the dribble. Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler were the only two Warriors consistently able to do that, and that allowed defenses to key on them.

Dunleavy's Motives Could Be in Right Place

It's possible Dunleavy isn't being totally genuine here.

He probably knows the roster has to be significantly better for the Warriors to have a chance at a championship, but what good does it do admitting that publicly?

He probably realizes the Warriors' most realistic route this offseason is to mostly run it back, and saying the roster was an issue would not make the players feel good about their chances in 2026-27.

I'm sure Dunleavy would love to make a big trade, but the Warriors don't have young talent or quality money-matching salaries to win the Giannis sweepstakes—or the sweepstakes for any superstar.

So for now, selling the story that the roster is good enough to help the Warriors get by until Butler and Moses Moody return from their injuries makes sense.