Evaluating How Bad Warriors Roster Is Aside from Curry and Butler

The Golden State Warriors are reeling from the lengthy knee injury for Stephen Curry and the season-ending ACL injury for Jimmy Butler.

They've lost three in a row and 10 of 15 without Curry, but their struggles really started when Butler went down.

The Warriors (32-33) were 25-19 entering their first game with Butler out for the season. They are 7-14 since.

They have lost to the Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls in that stretch.

This begs the question, how bad is the rest of the roster? Let's compare it to the other teams that aren't tanking.

HNI Stat Paints Depressing Picture

Bleacher Report's Andy Bailey has a compelling stat called Huge Nerd Index that ranks NBA players. It is the average of 10 catch-all stats.

Bailey published an update Friday morning, and it has Stephen Curry 18th and Jimmy Butler 20th.

No other Warrior is in the top 95.

To put that into perspective, every team with a top-15 record has at least three players in the top 95.

Team	Players	Total
1. Thunder	SGA, Holmgren, Mitchell, Hartenstein, Joe, Williams	6
2. Spurs	Wemby, Fox, Castle, Champagnie, Johnson, Kornet	6
3. Pistons	Cunningham, Duren, Thompson, Reed, Robinson, Harris	6
4. Celtics	White, Brown, Queta, Pritchard, Vucevic	5
5. Knicks	KAT, Brunson, Bridges, Anunoby, Hart, Robinson	6
6. Lakers	Doncic, Reaves, James	3
7. Rockets	Durant, Thompson, Sengun	3
8. Nuggets	Jokic, Murray, Gordon	3
9. Cavs	Mitchell, Harden, Allen, Mobley, Tyson	5
10. T-Wolves	Edwards, Randle, Gobert, DiVincenzo, Reid	5
11. Suns	Booker, Gillespie, Allen, Williams, Goodwin	5
12. Magic	Bane, Suggs, Wagner, Banchero, Bitadze	5
13. Heat	Adebayo, Powell, Ware, Wiggins	4
14. Raptors	Barnes, Quickley, Mamu	3
15. Hawks	Johnson, Daniels, Okongwu, NAW	4
16. 76ers	Maxey, Embiid	2
17. Clippers	Kawhi	1
18. Hornets	Knueppel, Ball, Miller, Diabate, Bridges	5
19. Warriors	Curry, Butler	2
20. Blazers	Avdija, Clingan, Williams, Holiday	4

Nine of the top 12 teams have at least five players in the top 95. The other three in the top 12 are the Lakers, Rockets and Nuggets, who have elite trios.

Suffice to say, the Warriors have a major talent issue.

With all due respect to Moses Moody (ranked 97th), Brandin Podziemski (108th), Al Horford (164th), Gui Santos (168th) and De'Anthony Melton (169th), the Dubs need another player who could be, at worst, loosely considered a star to help Curry and Butler.

And they also need Draymond Green (ranked 251st) to reverse the typical effects of aging and be much more impactful.

Did the Warriors Let a Player Go That Could Have Fixed This?

The short answer is probably not.

Klay Thompson (ranked 237th), Jonathan Kuminga (246th), Buddy Hield (264th) and Jordan Poole (287th) probably weren't going to be the answer.

Donte DiVincenzo (61st) has turned into a very good NBA player, but the Warriors did not have a realistic way to retain him after his 2022-23 season with Golden State.

Trading Ryan Rollins (126th) might be their biggest regret, but note that at the time of the Poole and Rollins for Chris Paul deal, Rollins had played 12 NBA games and averaged 1.9 points.

Wiggins (85th) would be a great third option, but the Warriors had to include him in the deal to land Butler, who is a much better second option than Wiggins.

There Are 2 Reasons We Got Here

And both are rather obvious.

The first is missing on James Wiseman and Jonathan Kuminga in the 2020 and 2021 drafts. Or more generally, not hitting a home run with any of their draft picks from 2013 to present.

To be clear, they've had some very good draft picks in that stretch, including Kevon Looney (2015), Poole (2019), Moody (2021), Santos (2022), Podz (2023) and Will Richard (2025). But no one is a star.

Of course, drafting a star, especially when you're rarely picking in the lottery, is more luck-based than anything. At least I thought this was obvious to everyone. But the Warriors have consistently held onto their first-round picks instead of trading for a star who can help this team win now.

Yes, they made the Butler trade. But outside of that, they've held onto their picks to the point where they own their next seven first-rounders.

That's the second obvious mistake they've made. Imagine what they could have done over the last three seasons if they had traded some of their future capital to help Curry.

If you look at this season's contenders, many traded multiple first-round picks for a core player. The Spurs traded for De'Aaron Fox. The Knicks traded for Karl-Anthony Towns. The Celtics traded for Derrick White. The Nuggets traded one first-round pick for Aaron Gordon.

These were not obvious wins at the time. But now they look like vaying strokes of genius.

The Warriors haven't made that type of bold move since trading for Wiggins. And that's led them to the roster mess they have today.