Just a little while ago, the Golden State Warriors seemed inevitable.

Two days removed from a grueling seven-game battle with the Houston Rockets, the Warriors went into Target Center and defeated the well-rested Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals.

The multi-time champions looked primed to make yet another deep playoff run.

Then suddenly, Stephen Curry went down.

And then suddenly, so did Golden State’s championship hopes.

The belief within the organization was that Curry could return from his hamstring injury for Game 6 if they could just hold off Minnesota for one game.

They failed to do so.

Not only did they lose four straight games in Curry’s absence, but they also trailed by 15 or more points in each one.

We have seen teams win games in these playoffs without a star player. The Celtics managed to win a game without Jayson Tatum. The Cavaliers won multiple games without Darius Garland.

So, why couldn’t the Warriors win without Stephen Curry?

The Absence of the “Curry Effect”

If Steve Kerr and his revolutionary offense are the brains of the Warriors’ operation, then Curry is the heart that makes the whole thing run.

Despite roster limitations on both this Golden State team and previous ones, they maintain offensive efficiency and game competitiveness through their ability to create quality opportunities for role players.

The biggest reason for their constant offensive effectiveness comes from the “Curry effect.”

In the Curry era, tons of role players have been effective in Golden State playing with him. Just in the previous three years, guys like Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Donte DiVencenzo, Otto Porter Jr. and Gary Payton II played arguably their best basketball with the Warriors and declined after leaving them.

This 2025 team was no different. Players like Buddy Hield, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody and even Jonathan Kuminga stepped into sizable roles. They get to play freely in the Warriors’ offense and get a lot of great open looks.

The reason? Steph Curry was being double and triple-teamed on AND off the ball.

What separates Curry from everyone else beyond being the greatest shooter ever is the fact that he is such a threat without the ball, he often has multiple defenders following him around the court, even without the ball.

In the Rockets’ series, almost every time Curry got the ball or an on-ball screen, they double-teamed him beyond the arc and had a third player lurking near the paint to step up if needed. For off-ball screens, they promptly switched and stayed with him every time.

What did this open the door to? Easy shots, efficient field-goal percentages, and even numerous 25-30 point games from Hield, Poziemski, and Jimmy Butler III.

What happened without the “Curry effect” in the Timberwolves series? Diminished-quality looks and diminished offensive production.

Poor Play from Supporting Cast

In the first round against the Rockets, the Warriors got outstanding contributions from role players in key moments throughout the series.

Buddy Hield shot 47.5 percent from the field. He also scored 33 points and hit a record nine three-pointers in Game 7.

Draymond Green played outstanding defense on Alperen Sengun—one of the best post players in the league—including a game-sealing stop while effectively orchestrating the offense.

Although Brandin Podziemski struggled a bit, he dropped a team-high 26 points in a pivotal Game 4.

None of those guys replicated their production in the second round despite the increase in minutes.

In fact, all of Golden State’s role players underperformed in the Timberwolves series. They all had lower field-goal percentages, lower point totals, and more scoring droughts throughout the series except for Jonathan Kuminga, who didn’t even have a spot in the rotation a week ago.

Even Draymond Green, their best and most consistent defender, underacheived in his role.

Kerr’s job was exponentially more difficult without Curry because of this. It was almost impossible to find a reliable rotation with the way this team is constructed.

Fourteen players saw the floor in Game 2—an astronomical number, especially for a playoff game.

It doesn’t take a genius to know that’s not the situation that you want to be in Game 2 of a playoff series.

That’s what the preseason is for. That’s what the 82-game regular season is for. In reality, that’s what the entire calendar year is for EXCEPT April, May and June.

No team is going to be the same without its best player. But if you have to figure out how to look like a competent professional basketball team because your star got hurt, that’s a pretty good indication that the roster is flawed.

This team lacks size, athleticism, defense, young talent and additional shot creators outside of Butler. There are many things that this team is missing and the lack of balance is what made it so hard to adjust.

Jimmy Butler III’s Passive Play

Let’s address the uncomfortable elephant in the room for Warriors fans: Jimmy Butler was a huge disappointment in this series.

A few weeks ago, Butler called himself the Robin to Curry’s Batman. And I don’t blame him: There’s nothing wrong with being a sidekick to Steph.

But he clearly doesn’t realize that the Warriors traded for him and gave him a two-year, $111 million dollar contract extension to be Batman when needed. And with Curry’s absence, they absolutely needed him to be Batman.

Warriors fans weren’t the only ones expecting Butler to be “Playoff Jimmy.” The team also clearly was expecting better showings from him.

Butler led the team in minutes per game and total minutes throughout Golden State’s playoff run with 36.3 and 436 respectively. One of Kerr’s adjustment attempts was to run his offense through Butler.

In a post-game press conference after the Warriors’ stole Game 1 in Minnesota, Green was quoted saying “Jimmy’s capable of carrying the team. He carried a team to the Finals twice, so we won’t panic. We’ll figure out what that means.”

It turned out to mean almost nothing.

The main problem wasn’t necessarily his play—though he did miss more uncharacteristic layups and open shots than usual.

The real issue was his lack of aggression.

When you are the first option on any team let alone a playoff team, you should be taking at least 20-25 shots a game. Even if the shots aren’t falling, at least you can produce by getting to the free-throw line.

Butler didn’t even lead the team in field-goal attempts in multiple games.

Taking 13 or fewer shots in three out of four games will not lead to star-level production. You’re not going to open up opportunities for your teammates either.

In a series against a team with a clear superstar in Anthony Edwards, the Warriors needed Butler to step up and be their superstar. But he never shifted out of the “Robin” mindset.

Because he didn’t rise and lead the charge, the Warriors got gentlemen swept.

The Bottom Line

Without Stephen Curry, the Timberwolves are simply a better basketball team than the Warriors. Period.

The T-Wolves’ roster is deeper, bigger, stronger, faster, more efficient on all three levels, and features the best player in the series by far.

Most importantly, they know exactly who they are.

Without Curry, the Warriors do not.

Ultimately, there is nothing that the Warriors do better on the court than the Minnesota Timberwolves if Stephen Curry is in street clothes—even when they aren’t playing their best basketball.

If the Warriors are serious about competing for championships moving forward, general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the front office have a lot of work work to fix this team’s major issues.

Four NBA championships. Six NBA Finals appearances, including five consecutive. A coach of the year award. Voted a top 15 coach in NBA history by his peers. Won 70 percent of his 148 playoff games. Set the record for most wins in an NBA regular season with 73.

All in 11 seasons–yet Steve Kerr still doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

Despite his accomplishments rivaling those of coaching legends such as Gregg Popovich, Don Nelson, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson, the general public scoffs at anyone who mentions his name with the other greats.

Kerr’s Golden State Warriors have been the gold standard of professional basketball since he began coaching them in the 2014–15 season. Immediately after taking over the team, they evolved from a young squad with a bright future under Mark Jackson to one whose future had officially arrived. 

While he has benefited from having all-time great players like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant play for him, Kerr’s consistency, offensive innovation and game-changing playoff decisions get overlooked far too often in NBA dialogue.

Kerr’s offensive system took the league by storm. By combining principles of Phil Jackson’s triangle offense and Gregg Popovich’s motion offense, the Warriors won a then-franchise-record 67 regular-season games and finished third all-time in three-pointers made in a single regular season. Curry had a breakout season in this offense, winning the 2015 MVP award and setting a NBA record for threes made in a single regular season with 286.

In just one year under Kerr’s leadership, this team transformed and looked ready to win championships.

And that’s exactly what they did.

In the 2015 NBA Finals, Kerr’s Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games and brought the first NBA title to the Bay area since 1975. He became just the third coach in NBA history to win a championship in his first season as a head coach, joining Paul Westhead and Pat Riley. Forward Andre Iguodala took home the Finals MVP honors. 

But the real MVP of that series was Kerr himself.

After Game 3 of the 2015 NBA Finals, the Warriors trailed 2–1. They seemingly had no answers for LeBron James, who scored 44, 39, and 40 points in the first three games, and their championship hopes were looking bleak.

Then, Kerr made a bold lineup change that completely flipped the series in favor of Golden State.

He inserted Iguodala into the starting lineup ahead of Game 4 in place of center Andrew Bogut. The move had multiple motives: Slow down James’s production, increase their offensive pace, and force the Cavaliers’ role players to beat them.

This small-ball lineup of Curry, Thompson, Iguodala, Green, and Harrison Barnes was Kerr’s solution to the James problem.

Newsflash: It worked. 

In Game 4, James posted series lows in points, shot attempts, field-goal percentage, and three-point percentage. The Cavaliers as a team shot 2-for-18 from the field and were outscored 27–12 in the fourth quarter, and the Warriors stole Game 4 in Cleveland by a score of 103–82. This turned the tide of the series, and the Warriors would not lose another game.

Kerr’s role in winning the 2015 title does not get talked about enough when discussing Golden State’s dynastic success. But that was nearly a decade ago. Consider a more modern example of Kerr’s genius. 

Last week, the seven-seeded Warriors faced the second-seeded Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs. To the young Rockets’ credit, it was a hard-fought series. Coach Ime Udoka tried to combat the Warriors’ now-notorious small-ball lineups by giving extended minutes to center Steven Adams.

After three games and most of Game 4, this strategy seemed to be working. Adams had four blocks and seven rebounds in Game 4, and Golden State was struggling with his dominant physical presence.

Kerr’s solution? Simple: Get him off the floor.

During the fourth quarter, he implemented a plan similar to that of the “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy. Because Adams is a bad free throw shooter and shot about 53 percent overall in the series, Kerr instructed his team to intentionally foul Adams. 

When he realized what was happening, Udoka saw no other option but to take Adams out of the game due to this liability.

Kerr forced Udoka to play right into his hand, and it worked. This brilliant move propelled his team to win the game 109–106 and take a commanding 3–1 lead in the series. And, just like most teams that take a 3–1 lead, the Warriors would win the series and send the second seed home.

These types of series-defining coaching decisions can be found all throughout his playoff career. The greatness of Curry and others may overshadow them, but Kerr is a master of the details. His offensive schemes, in-game and in-series adjustments, and his sustained success in the postseason are exactly why he is worthy of being on the 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA History list.

Steve Kerr is one of the greatest basketball coaches of all-time and undoubtedly deserves to have his name mentioned with the other legendary coaches in the sport. It’s time for the NBA community to finally start treating him that way.