Three straight wins will do that for you. Beating the Suns, the Mavericks, and the Magic in succession feels like proof of life. It feels like stability. The off-court energy might be weird, but the vibes, as the kids say, are improving on the court.

“We’re in a good place,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the Dubs’ Christmas win over the Mavericks.

And he’s right.

For now.

And who knows, maybe it can hold for a while.

Or perhaps the success of this operation depends on the health of a 39-year-old’s sciatic nerve.

There’s no question about this: The Dubs have found something that works with their rotation.

For the time being, the nightly casting call is over. Kerr is no longer frantically throwing things against the wall to see what sticks. It’s not that anything stuck in particular — he just stopped throwing.

Jonathan Kuminga, the supposed bridge to the post-Curry future? His role is to keep his keister stuck to the bench. Buddy Hield, the sharpshooter acquired to replicate the splashy chaos of old? He’s in the land of DNPs now, too.

Fifteen percent of the Warriors’ annual player payroll — a number that is managed with exacting precision (the Dubs currently have $301,410 of room under the second salary cap apron, which they cannot go over) — is healthy and not playing.

Trade value? That’s not Kerr’s problem. Let Mike Dunleavy Jr. figure that one out. And best of luck to him.

But the true absurdity of this operation is how temperamental this homeostasis is.

The Warriors’ peace is a fragile one.

It depends on Jimmy Butler to keep playing with the aggression he seemingly turns on and off, depending on the severity of the overarching moment.

It depends on not running into a team that can both crash the boards and hit 3-pointers — the Dubs have a 44 percent offensive rebound advantage and a 58 percent 3-pointers made advantage over the last three games, despite shooting only 31 percent from beyond the arc during that period.

It depends on the health of Al Horford, whose return to the lineup on Christmas was a shot in the arm for a team that has desperately needed a second stretch center (and one that can defend a bit, too) all season.

That said, the Dubs are asking a man who was drafted when George W. Bush was in the White House to be the structural integrity of a Western Conference playoff contender.

There’s no denying it: The Warriors look like a quality, coherent operation when Horford plays. The defense has a second-string quarterback; the offensive spacing makes sense.

But Horford has played in 13 of the Warriors’ 31 games this season.

Relying on a 39-year-old center to be the fulcrum of your success isn’t roster construction; it’s malpractice. It’s like driving a vintage car with a leaky radiator cross-country and hoping you don’t hit traffic.

And yet, if you listen to the chatter, you’d think this was all part of the master plan.

The refrain is familiar: “We just need to get in. If we can just go on a run like last year…”

This is the most dangerous delusion of all.

The Warriors are currently so intoxicated by the memory of their late-season push from the 2024-25 campaign that they want to reprise it.

They remember the wins. They remember the push up the standings. They remember the confidence they earned and all the nice things that were said about them down the stretch.

They also seem to have conveniently blocked out the ending of that story.

Yes, the Warriors won 23 of their final 30 regular-season games last year after landing Butler.

Then they ran out of gas.

They spent so much energy sprinting for three months to escape the play-in tournament that by the time the real games started, the tank was empty. Steph Curry’s legs were gone, and his hamstring soon after gave way. Draymond Green looked like he was moving in quicksand. Butler was banged up from the butt up.

The “push” was a trap. It burned them out before the finish line.

So, why is this season going to be any different? This roster is older. The dependency on Steph seems higher. Green is further from his peak. Butler is less consistent now that he’s totally over the Miami Heat breakup. Horford is on a maintenance plan stricter than a nuclear reactor’s.

Perhaps the Warriors are a title contender when everything is operating at full capacity. But how often has that happened? How often will that happen?

And trying to cover it up with “strength in numbers” only highlights how many moving parts there are to keep aligned.

Yes, competence in December is a nice story. It sells hope to a fanbase that hasn’t had much to feel good about this season. And it might continue until the new year.

But how do the Warriors make sure that nothing on this old machine falls out of alignment for the next four months? How can they avoid having to light the furniture on fire to keep the house warm?

A trade? A scientific breakthrough?

Hope, prayer, and good vibrations?

The likely answer is they can’t. The NBA season is a grind, not a series of sprints, and this roster is built for short bursts in a league that demands sustained durability.

So go ahead, squint at the standings. Enjoy this sprint. Convince yourself the old magic is back.

Just don’t act surprised when the Warriors show up in April, once again out of breath and out of time.

And as Al Horford buried one 3-pointer after another against Thompson and his Mavericks, his teammates looked to give him every opportunity to bomb away during a victory on Christmas Day. 

He finished 4 of 6 from 3-point land for 14 points in just 11 minutes, returning from a seven-game sciatica-induced absence by reminding both his team and the world of what an impactful force he can be for the Warriors. 

Horford has only played in 14 games thus far, but his teammates know how potent he can be even in limited minutes.

“He definitely spreads the floor, challenges shots at the rim, and is a high-IQ-type player,” Jimmy Butler said. “Then he’s just really, really fun to play with. As long as you’re out there having fun, being joyful, ball’s moving, you’re guarding, you’re competing, that’s who he is, that’s who he’s always been.”

Looking ahead and assuming Horford is able to consistently play anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes most nights, the Warriors’ center rotation goes from shaky to, suddenly, an area of strength. 

Quinten Post, though mired in a shooting slump, is still a high-volume 3-point shooter who provides rim protection. Trayce Jackson-Davis has been a revelation over the last few games, and he scored a season-high 10 points against Dallas. 

With Horford in the mix and Draymond Green always an option to man the center position should the Warriors go small, two-big lineups with passable shooting are now a viable option for coach Steve Kerr. 

“To have Trayce (Jackson-Davis) out there doing the same, defending, blocking shots, and then to have Al suddenly we have a pretty solid front line should we choose to go big,” Kerr said.

While Horford is expected to bolster the front line, De’Anthony Melton has taken great strides in his conditioning. Since returning from an ACL injury that sidelined him for over a year, Melton has been limited to 20 or less minutes a night. 

That changed against Dallas, and he played a season-high 24 minutes while scoring 16 points and taking the second-most shots on the team (14). 

Kerr loved Melton’s aggression, even as he began the game mired in an 0-for-16 slump from 3-point distance. Both coach and player agreed that Melton needs to continue to take those open shots, even if they are not falling for a guard who profiles as the team’s best point-of-attack defender. 

You have to remember he hasn’t played really for most of two years, that’s a long time to be out,” Kerr said. “He’s still getting his rhythm back. You saw when he hit the 3 at the end he sort of put his hands to the heavens. He’s had a lot of open threes that haven’t gone in yet, it will start going once his legs are underneath him and he’s found his groove.”

Though the percentages have not been stellar at 27% shooting in seven games, Melton flashed the two-way ability that made him coveted by the Warriors in spite of his injured knee. 

He repeatedly attacked the rim and was one of the Warriors’ few consistent threats to get into the paint off a live dribble. 

Speaking after the team’s third consecutive victory and looking ahead to a three-game trip beginning in Toronto on Sunday, Melton was optimistic that his minutes will only be able to increase as he approaches the new year. 

“I think definitely my conditioning has gotten better,” Melton said. “Before, my first five minutes of the game, I feel like I’m ready to pass out. But now, I feel a lot better, I feel like I can play a lot longer.”

After looking stagnant for long stretches of the first part of the season, Horford’s return and Melton’s continued emergence have suddenly given the Warriors a boost — and a reliable rotation for the first time this season. 

Seth Curry was the only player on the injury report, giving Kerr the option of playing every expected contributor for the first time this season. 

“I feel like we’re in a good place. We have a rotation, we’re healthy,” Kerr said. 

Whether Melton and Horford can sustain the level of play they showed against Dallas should have a large impact on whether the team is able to climb up the competitive Western Conference standings. 

The moment the Christmas Day crowd was waiting for came about 10 minutes later.

Curry went to midcourt, got his former teammate’s attention and dapped him up. Those who arrived early enough to witness the reunion went wild.

“(The fans), they don’t miss a thing, especially with the Splash Bros out there,” Curry said after dispatching Thompson and the Dallas Mavericks, 126-116, on Thursday afternoon. “Very sentimental moment, for sure. Anytime we’re in the same space, Draymond (Green) included. So that was cool.”

Sentimentality is about all that’s left for the greatest shooting duo in NBA history, which together brought four championships to the Bay Area. Curry led seven Warriors in double figures Thursday with 23 points, but Thompson was contained to single digits, and both took a backseat to Golden State’s supporting cast that stepped up in the win.

The waning Warriors’ era has been back in the spotlight this week, with coach Steve Kerr acknowledging in the wake of his confrontation with Draymond Green that they are, in fact, a “fading dynasty.” The presence of Thompson, in a green No. 31 jersey, only served to underscore the hard truth.

“It will never be normal seeing him somewhere else, but we’re also trying to deal with the here and now,” Curry said. “We’re such competitors that no matter what position you’re in, no matter what situation you’re in with your team, you still feel like you can win. It’s a great reminder of the journey, but you don’t really put too much extra emphasis on it. That time will come.”

Thompson, rocking a buzzcut reminiscent of his early years, wasn’t in the mood to reminisce after he was held to seven points on 3-of-8 shooting in the loss. Curry, a shoe free agent since the end of his partnership with Under Armour, made a not-so-subtle homage by wearing Thompson’s signature ANTA KT 11s.

“It was great, really cool,” Thompson said. “I wish he didn’t get a win in them.”

Thompson was his typical stoic, soft-spoken self after the game. Asked if he could spare a second, Thompson responded in the most appropriate way possible: “Just one, we’re losing precious daylight.” He finished his postgame interview after seven questions and 110 seconds with an inquiry of his own: “Is it raining outside?”

Did he get a chance to catch up with anybody else? “Not really.”

Did he notice the eruption of ovation from the pregame crowd when he and Curry locked hands at midcourt? “Not really. I was just locked in on getting loose.”

What are his feelings toward the Warriors, more than a year removed from their unceremonious divorce? “They’re the opponent. Why would I look at any other team other than the Mavericks like that? It’s just the nature of the business.”

The Christmas Day matchup represented the fourth time Thompson has suited up inside Chase Center as a visitor. He scored 22 and drained six 3-pointers in his first game back last November, and followed that up with 29 points and seven 3s a month later. His output on Thursday more closely resembled the last time the Mavericks came thought town, in February, when Thompson was also held to 3-of-8 from the field for 11 points.

This time around, he said, was “obviously not as emotional, but it’s still always fun coming back and seeing a lot of familiar faces.”

Thompson was announced with the starting lineup on his past three visits. He has embraced a new role in his second season with the Mavericks. Alongside rookie sensation Cooper Flagg, now, instead of Luka Doncic, Thompson is happily filling a role he only did reluctantly at the very end of his Warriors tenure: sixth man.

“I think for Klay, coming off the bench has been great. He’s playing his role at a very high level for us,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said before tipoff. “Being able to anchor that second group, being able to get shots for him, and then just his voice, not just on the bench or in the locker room, but also on the floor. For our young players, he’s been great.”

Flagg, who led the Mavericks with 27 points on 13-of-21 shooting, echoed Kidd’s sentiment.

“Ever since he came in the summer and got back with the team, he’s been great, setting a good example, showing up everyday, showing that no matter what you’ve done that if you show up and work hard, you’ll get your opportunity,” Flagg said. “He’s been great, just being a really hard worker and setting a good example.”

In one of their few one-on-one matchups, late in the third quarter, Curry dribbled around and in front of his longtime Splash Brother, driving to the bucket and completing a layup as Thompson hip-checked him to the ground. Thompson, a few possessions later, sank his only 3-pointer of the night.

The play most likely to conjure happy memories from the Warriors fans came midway through the fourth quarter. Thompson got free from Moses Moody on an in-bounds play and drained a fadeaway jumper from the baseline. It looked like classic Klay, if only for a moment.

Those are the plays that come to Thompson’s mind in his rare moments of reflection on his returns to the place where he, Curry, Green and Kerr achieved so much glory.

“What I think about most when I come back here? Probably the all good times, the record-breaking nights, the championships,” Thompson said. “All that good stuff.”

Thompson’s night came to an end with 4:37 to go in the fourth quarter, when Flagg subbed back in. Because everything comes to an end eventually.

He spent the final minutes on the bench, a sight almost as foreign as him in any uniform besides blue and gold.

“I’ll never get used to seeing Klay on the other side,” Kerr said. “I miss Klay. I wish he was still here.”

On the other was his onetime Splash Brother Klay Thompson, wearing green Dallas Mavericks attire. One after another, both baskets were peppered with swishes by an all-time great shooter. 

But while both looked primed to duke it out in a classic Christmas Day duel, it was the role players, the unheralded collective, who propelled the Warriors to an 126-116 victory in a game where Curry still surpassed the 26,000-point milestone.

No sequence illustrated that strength in numbers ethos quite like the track meet the Warriors put on in the second quarter, when the team ran off six quick fast-break points.

Brandin Podziemski’s perfect lob pass to Moses Moody led to the first two points, and on the very next possession, Jimmy Butler threw a sky-high lob to Trayce Jackson-Davis for a dunk that woke up a sleepy Chase Center Christmas crowd.

Curry, even though he did not have a signature 40-ball, loved it all as he got to grace the Christmas Day stage for the 13th time in his career.

“They’re special because only 10 teams get this opportunity, and especially to play at home, it’s a great honor,” Curry said. “I don’t ever take it for granted, and it is a different energy all around the arena.”

The stat sheet saw the Warriors get 13 from Podziemski, 12 points from Moody and 64 total points from the bench. Curry finished with 23 points, De’Anthony Melton had 16 and Jimmy Butler scored 14. While he did not score much, Gary Payton II had perhaps the highlight of the night when he used both hands to swat away Cooper Flagg’s shot in the fourth quarter.

Flagg, the Mavericks’ 19-year-old rookie sensation, finished with 27 points and shifty guard Brandon Williams — one of Melton’s high school teammates at Crespi-Encino — scored 24 points for Dallas.

It was not just the young players who gave the Warriors a boost. Al Horford made his return after missing the past seven games with sciatica and immediately began bombing shots from behind the arc. Playing in his eighth Christmas Day game, the 39-year-old went a perfect 4 of 4 in six first-quarter minutes. 

Horford also grabbed four rebounds and showed he still had the ability to move his feet on perimeter switches in 11 minutes. He even ran a fast-break with Butler, hitting the wing with a perfect bounce pass.

“High IQ-type player, and then he’s just really, really, really fun to play with,” Butler said. “As long as you’re out there having fun, being joyful, moving and guarding and competing, that’s who he is and who he has always been.”

Star Dallas center Anthony Davis pulled up lame while running the fast break at 8:40 in the second quarter and left for the locker room. He did not return. On the other end, the transition attack was a boon for Golden State. Golden State led 71-58 at halftime. 

Dallas, who was missing Kyrie Irving and did not have a traditional point guard, attempted to use their size to score inside buckets on straight-line drives. Helping keep the Mavericks in check was a locked-in Draymond Green.

The Warriors leader had not finished the past two games — ejected from one, benched after an argument with Steve Kerr in the other — but played without incident against the Mavericks.

“I like that, y’all yell at each other,” Butler said. “Turns me on a little bit, I’m not gonna lie. I like that. I like the confrontation.”

The Warriors led 100-89 after three quarters, and the Mavericks mounted a few charges in the fourth, getting the deficit down to 104-99 with around six minutes left. But led by Melton, Curry and Payton II, the Warriors held the Mavericks off.

The Warriors (16-15), now winners of three consecutive, will travel to Toronto next for Sunday’s matchup with the Raptors. 

Klay off the bench

A sold-out Bay Area crowd rose to its feet in unison as Klay Thompson shed his warmup attire and checked into the game during the first quarter. 

They then gave a loud ovation to the one-time franchise cornerstone who is now an off-the-bench gunner for the Mavericks. He scored seven points and made his first 3-pointer with 3:14 left in the third quarter, earning him cheers from a crowd that still appreciated what he’d done to help the Warriors win four NBA titles.

“I’ll never get used to seeing Klay on the other side,” Kerr said. “I miss Klay. Wish he was still here.”

Guarding Flagg

Flagg, the No. 1 pick in the draft, did not disappoint a national TV audience in his first Christmas game.

The league’s top rookie was the center of attention for the Warriors’ defense, especially after Davis left the game. Butler began the night on Flagg, as Green drew the Davis assignment at the other forward spot. 

Jackson-Davis even got a few minutes on the rookie in the first quarter, before Green guarded Flagg and did a masterful job of denying him the ball at times. But Flagg, who is scoring 18 points per game, was still a handful for Golden State. He showed off a smooth jumper and raw athleticism on a third-quarter dunk over Quinten Post. 

Knock down enough shots to space the floor for Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, make the correct reads in Chicago’s famed triangle offense and help get any newcomers up to speed in coach Phil Jackson’s complicated attack. 

“Whenever we would get new players, we would have to help them adapt to the new offense,” Kerr told the Bay Area News Group earlier this month. “Sometimes, I would help the new guys understand the nuances of the triangle, and I’d shoot with them and give them tips.”

So it was little surprise that one day, the triangle’s architect, Tex Winter, delivered a prophecy to the point guard. 

“You should coach someday,” Winter, an assistant on Jackson’s staff, told Kerr. “You should teach some of this stuff.”

Kerr followed the legendary coach’s advice in more ways than just becoming a coach.

He still endorses elements of Winter’s tactics, and Kerr’s interpersonal approach is reminiscent of Winter’s stern, yet thoughtful philosophy. 

It has served Kerr well during the second act of a basketball career that will see him coach his 11th and perhaps final Christmas Day game today against the Dallas Mavericks. Kerr, 60, is in the last year of his contract, and will not entertain talks of a possible extension until after the season. 

Though Winter died in 2018, his influence still lives on in Kerr. 

“He was a man of principle, a man of humor,” Kerr said. “He loved the game, and lived an incredible basketball life at every level.”

“Incredible” almost undersells Winter’s hoops journey. 

Raised in Northeast Texas during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, Morice Fredrick “Tex” Winter and his family moved cross-country to Huntington Beach when he was a teenager. 

“I lived through when we hardly had enough,” Tex once told Chicago sportswriter Sam Smith. “I don’t forget.”

Smith recounted how a young Winter would spend hours collecting boxes for a local baker in exchange for the day-old bread that would feed his family. 

“He grew up at a time where you didn’t waste anything,” Kerr said. “That sense of waste, of material possessions, all of that impacted his life and his coaching. He believed in being really efficient as a human being, because he grew up in a time where you had to be efficient just to survive.”

After serving in the Navy during World War II, Winter enrolled at USC and received his basketball education from Sam Barry, who in the late 1940s taught him an early version of the triangle.

Over the next 60 years, Winter became a head coach at power conference colleges — including Marquette and Washington — was hired by Bay Area legend Pete Newell to lead the Houston Rockets, and eventually settled in as a trusted NBA assistant with Jackson on dynastic Bulls and Lakers teams. 

So what was it about the triangle that made Winter so coveted?

In an era where many offenses were rudimentary – unbothered by having multiple players standing next to one another and content to have a single player dominate the ball – the triangle dared to create a more egalitarian version of the sport.

“It affords every player on the team the opportunity and ability to utilize their talents,” Winter told the Chicago Tribune. “For some reason, they try to make it more complicated and don’t keep it nearly as simple as it is.” 

All five players had to stand at least 15 to 18 feet away from one another, creating three-man”‘triangles” and running complicated passing and cutting patterns. And whether it was Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal or Kobe Bryant, even the stars had to follow the rules.

Viewed through modern eyes accustomed to pull-up 30-footers and five-out spacing, the triangle appears downright archaic – especially with its seven non-negotiables that fly in the face of today’s free-flowing game. 

A few of them include – thanks to a 1993 guide from the Chicago Tribune: stress the inside power game, and running sets with rebounding position in mind. 

But compared to what most of the NBA was doing pre-Steph Curry, it was futuristic.

It took until 2011 for Winter to be enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, but his peers had long recognized his brilliance. 

Bulls GM Jerry Krause called Winter “the finest offensive mind in basketball,” and Jackson said Winter possessed a “mind of the basketball gods.” Jordan dubbed Winter a “pioneer and true student of the game.”

“That level of complexity was not something that was super common in the ‘80s or ‘90s in offenses, and I think that’s what made the triangle unique,” NBA historian Ben Taylor of Thinking Basketball said. “I also think I felt this way at the time, that the spacing was an advantage.”

The spacing was an advantage in an earlier era, and many of its pillars are still held up by Kerr … to a degree.

“We run the principles of the triangle, and our split-cut action is all based on the triangle, and some of our high post split stuff could be based on the triangle,” Kerr said, before adding, “But it is just very different now.”

Winter’s scheme, revolutionary for its time, was played in an NBA where the 18-foot jump shot was still much en vogue. Many of the classic sets run for Jordan and Pippen would be considered obsolete.

But the fundamentals Winter unflinchingly supported? Kerr believes his team, which ranks near the bottom of the NBA in turnovers, could use those.

“Tex was a stickler for fundamentals, for playing sound basketball,” Kerr said, shaking his head. “I think he would really struggle with today’s game, honestly, because there’s so much that’s different about today’s game that would drive him crazy. I frequently say to myself after I see a one-handed pass, I say to myself or my other coaches, ‘Tex Winter would roll over in his grave.’”

Scheme is not the only part of Winter’s philosophy that Kerr has drawn from. 

In an era where fire and brimstone reigned and verbal abuse from coach to player was the norm, Winter and Jackson’s more measured approach has stood the test of time. 

Though Kerr is more than willing to raise his voice at players, he also knows that coaching the modern player requires a heightened level of sensitivity. That duality was expressed neatly last week, when he shouted at Draymond Green during Monday night’s game and took the blame for the exchange on Wednesday.

Critiquing a careless turnover or dumb shot? Perfectly acceptable. Attacking an athlete’s character? That now crosses the line.

But that satisfaction of helping a player become what Kerr calls “the best versions of themselves” brought Winter great satisfaction. 

“One of the best parts of coaching is when you say something to a player and it clicks, and you can see it’s actually helped them,” Kerr said. “That’s the most satisfying part of this profession, but it’s equally as satisfying whether I’m talking to Draymond or whether I’m talking to (rookie) Will Richard.”

Dealing with strife has always been a part of coaching, even with the high-winning and high-drama Bulls and Warriors dynasties. 

But neither of those teams went through a rough patch like the current-day Warriors, who hover around .500. Such tribulations have hidden the kind of personal growth that Kerr has undergone as a coach, even if the record does not indicate it. 

“You know, in some ways, ignorance was bliss,” Kerr said of his previous championship runs. “You know, we had a really talented team, and I had my ideas, and those were working and I didn’t look back. But now, I have to look back and reckon with some of the mistakes we’re making, and some of the things that other teams are doing against us.”

The Warriors – and by extension Kerr – have been forced to adapt to the changing league. But oftentimes, the solution to new problems is found by looking to the past, to Kerr’s days in Chicago and his revered former coach. 

“While you adapt, you can’t forget all the fundamentals and the basics,” Kerr said. “That’s where you turn back to the Tex Winters of the game, and say these guys, their principles, their ideals, will never fade.”  

Kerr declined to put the blame on Draymond Green for the mid-game argument between the two that led to Green leaving the bench and not returning to the game during the Warriors’ victory over the Magic on Monday. 

In fact, Kerr went a step further than just supporting Green.

“Monday night was not my finest hour, and that was a time I needed to be calm in the huddle,” Kerr said. “So I regret my actions in that exchange. I apologized to Dray, and he apologized to me. We both apologized to the team.”

Kerr said Green will face no fine or suspension by the team, which is facing the Mavericks on Christmas. 

“We had a great chat. I’m not going to share the details, but I can tell you this: I’m expecting the very best version of Draymond tomorrow,” Kerr said. “I know exactly who he is. He’s a winner, he’s a champion. He’s the most passionate, competitive person I’ve ever met, and that can get the best of him, and it can get the best of me, and that’s what happened.”

The coach characterized the relationship, which has gone through its ups and downs during an 11-year partnership, as being familial at this point. Kerr said Green’s loyalty to the team and its best player, Steph Curry, is beyond reproach, and that he “loves” Green. 

The Warriors did not make Green available Wednesday, but he said after Monday’s game that confrontations are bound to happen in sports.

“It’s an emotional game. People lose their emotions sometimes,” Green said. “It happens. It is what it is. We’ve been at this for a long time. Sometimes when you’re with people for a long time, there’s a level of comfort and (expletive) happens. We move forward.”

Kerr believes that he and Green share more similarities than most would expect, as each man is supremely competitive. He called that passion one of the reasons the Warriors have won four titles during their time together, and that he hopes Green will retire a Warrior. 

“He’s a complicated guy. He will be the first to admit that he’s very complex, but he is undyingly loyal and passionate,” Kerr said. “And I will, I will go to bat for him as long as I’m coaching him here. And honestly, I would go to bat for him 20 years from now, when we, you know, haven’t been together because that’s how strongly I feel about him, and that’s how, how I want this thing to end with us, whenever that is.”

Kerr acknowledged that the team has come to grips with the fact that it is no longer the unstoppable juggernaut of the 2010s, calling the squad a “fading dynasty” that has to fight for wins it would once cruise to.

Part of that has to do with a shifting roster. An obvious decline in 35-year-old Green’s skills is another culprit. The aging forward has even offered to come off the bench, something he briefly did last year for Jonathan Kuminga. 

Kerr swiftly squashed that idea. 

“That’s not even a consideration for me right now, because I’m really excited about this starting lineup. Steph, Draymond, Moses (Moody), (Quinten Post), Jimmy (Butler),” Kerr said. “I think it’s a great starting lineup for us, because we get the size and shooting of Quentin next to Dre, which takes the pressure off of him. And Dray is at his best next to Steph. He should play most of his minutes with Steph.”

So in the end, not much appears to have changed. Green remains in the starting lineup, and Kerr has already shifted his focus to the future. 

“In our 12 years together, that’s not the first time (we have argued), and we’ve always, always found a way to not only bounce back, but to make strides as a result,” Kerr said.

Horford should return

The Warriors’ frontcourt is expected to receive a boost on Christmas Day as center Al Horford is expected to play against the Mavericks, per Kerr. 

Horford, 39, has missed the past seven games with sciatica and has only played in 13 games total. The 39-year-old has primarily come off the bench, and his usually dependable shot has yet to come around. Horford is shooting 29.8% from behind the arc.

Look around the Western Conference. The Oklahoma City Thunder aren’t just coming for the league; they already own it. The Houston Rockets are terrifying. The Denver Nuggets remain a buzzsaw. Even the San Antonio Spurs, led by an alien disguised as a French teenager, have leapfrogged Golden State in the left-conference hierarchy.

The Warriors are no longer the hunters, nor are they the hunted. They are the background noise. They are the nostalgia act playing the side stage at the festival, one step away from the county-fair circuit.

So, if the Warriors are going to be mediocre — and make no mistake, that is precisely what they are — they might as well be mediocre in a way that feels good. If the championship window is painted shut, why not throw a brick through it and let the fresh air of nostalgia blow in?

It is time to bring Klay Thompson home.

This is about the soul of the franchise. The sight of Thompson in a Dallas Mavericks jersey was and remains jarring to the system. It just feels wrong at a skeletal level. We’ll all feel that when we flip on our televisions on Christmas Day, when the Mavericks come to Chase Center, with No. 31 (ewww) in tow.

Why not right the wrong?

The Warriors’ problems are too numerous to list, and there is no in-season solution to them.

But perhaps there’s a move toward self-awareness to be made — a three-way deal that acknowledges the failure of the “two timelines” plan while giving the fans (and Steph Curry and Draymond Green, presuming he and coach Steve Kerr can move past their recent spat) the sunset ride they deserve:

• To Golden State: Klay Thompson, a player to be waived from Chicago
• To Chicago: Jonathan Kuminga
• To Dallas: Coby White

Is this a trade that catapults the Warriors past OKC or Boston in 2026? Absolutely not. Don’t be ridiculous.

But no trade that includes Jonathan Kuminga will do that. Who wants him? Who is going to give up anything of worth for him?

Given the current state of affairs in San Francisco, no trade beyond a full mortgaging of the post-Curry future gives the Warriors a bright, title-contending present.

Giannis isn’t coming. Neither is LeBron. Anthony Davis isn’t the solution. The problem with being a mediocre basketball team is that you often have mediocre basketball players, and no one is really looking for those at the deadline.

The tragedy of Kuminga is that the idea of him has always been far more seductive than the reality. The Warriors have spent half a decade waiting for the breakout, treating his athleticism like a dormant volcano. But he has played more games as a Dub than Kevin Durant or Andrew Bogut did. And now he is little more than an end-of-the-bench player for a .500 team —  a fluctuating asset (at best) in a market that demands consistency.

The Dubs need to take the L.

Kuminga’s value has plummeted to the point where Thompson — a diminished legend — or a not-in-our-future piece for another mediocre team like Coby White is likely the ceiling of the return.

The Bulls, forever stuck in their own purgatory, get a high-upside lottery ticket to pair with Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis. (Surely this will go better than all the other high-upside lottery tickets…)

The Mavericks — going all-in on a Cooper-Flagg-led timeline — get White, a spark-plug scorer and ball-handler who can balance out their lineup, with or without Kyrie Irving.

And the Warriors? They get their identity back.

I can appreciate that Thompson seems to be living the good life in Texas, highlighted by a public romance with rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Who am I to suggest his quality of life would be better here?

But surely one last ride with the gang would be good for the soul. A tacit admission from the Warriors that they were wrong to let him leave would be healing.

As for the on-court stuff, Thompson is not the Klay of 2016. The defense has bottomed out; the legs are heavier.

But he can help the Warriors by providing the one thing this current roster is screaming for: competent, high-volume 3-point shooting to pair with Curry. This team produces catch-and-shoot opportunities. They’re just missing a Klay.

He would be unquestionably additive in a basketball sense. Even at a fraction of his prime, he gives the Dubs more than the big, fat zero Kerr is so content to get from Kuminga.

More importantly, this pivots the franchise strategy from “delusional contention” to “honorable discharge.” If the Warriors are going to stink, let them stink with dignity. Let the Big Three ride out the final years of this glorious era together, with Kerr looking on, exasperated but content in the final year of his contract.

Maybe he’ll stick around for another — all three players’ deals expire at the end of the 2026-27 season.

There is value in the vibes. And, let’s be honest, there is revenue in the reunion.

The two-timeline plan was a nice dream, but it’s years too late to salvage it. The Dubs made a last-ditch effort to cover up their error last year by acquiring Jimmy Butler, but it’s the kids who have taken over the league.

You can either fight a losing war with mercenaries and confused prospects, or you can get the band back together for the encore they deserve.

Bring Klay back. It’s the best thing the Warriors can do.

Because if this ship is going down, let it go down with the captain and his first mates on the deck, playing the hits.

The Mavs dwell among the Western Conference’s bottom-feeders, but no team in either conference presents the sheer volume of storylines as the outfit from Texas’ largest city.

From beloved Bay Area icons returning home to the best rookie in the league to a possible trade target and more, there is plenty for Warriors fans to be excited about. 

Klay is back

Although it has now been almost two years since Klay Thompson starred as one half of the game-changing “Splash Bros.” duo, he remains a franchise icon.

Thompson helped the franchise win four titles while making five All-Star teams and earning four All-NBA selections. He missed two full years with injuries, but returned in the back half of the 2022 season to help the Warriors win the NBA title. 

Thompson left for the Mavericks in free agency in the summer of 2024.

Thompson, now 35, is not the terrifying flame-thrower he once was, but he has remained a credible outside threat by shooting 35.3% from 3-point land. 

The Warriors gave Thompson a lavish welcome home last November, and he should receive another thunderous ovation from the Chase Center crowd on Christmas Day.  

Jason Kidd returns

When discussing the greatest hoopers to come out of the Bay Area, Jason Kidd is a lock for that Mt. Rushmore. The Mavericks coach was once a basketball prodigy from the East Bay. 

He was the 1992 Oakland Tribune boys high school player of the year after averaging 25.3 points, 9.8 assists, 7.3 rebounds and 7.1 steals per game as a senior at St. Joseph-Notre Dame in Alameda. 

Kidd was the driving force of the Pilots’ march to back-to-back CIF Division I championships as a junior and senior, defeating Fremont-Los Angeles and Mater Dei-Santa Ana in those title contests. 

He then went on to a stellar two-year stay at Cal before embarking on a Hall of Fame NBA career as a player. 

Kidd coached the 2022 Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals, which saw Thompson and the Warriors eliminate the Mavs in five games. Two years later, Dallas reached the NBA Finals before being knocked out by Boston. 

Davis possible trade target

The Warriors are expected to be active in the trade market once Jonathan Kuminga’s Jan. 15 trade barrier is passed. 

The 23-year-old is currently out of the rotation but is expected to be a movable trade chip as the centerpiece of a move that will take the athletic wing to a new team and a fresh start. ESPN’s Kevin Pelton opined that Dallas could be that place. 

In a recent column, the salary cap expert theorized that Kuminga, Hield and the embattled Draymond Green could be moved as part of a multi-team trade that would net the Warriors Davis and fellow backup center Mason Plumlee. 

Davis, as he has for much of his career, has struggled with injuries during his stint in Dallas ever since being traded for Luka Doncic in last February’s ultra-blockbuster trade with the Lakers. 

But at his best, Davis, 32, brings 21 points and 11.6 rebounds a night while providing the kind of rim protection and offensive production the Warriors have not had from a traditional center in decades.  

Flagg makes Bay Area debut

It almost feels like blasphemy to wait this long to mention the crown jewel of Dallas’ rebuild, the teenager who is performing statistical feats that have put him in conversations with LeBron James. 

Cooper Flagg just turned 19 and is already averaging 18.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game as a do-it-all forward. Flagg’s 42 points against the Jazz broke James’ record for the most points by an 18-year-old in NBA history. 

Since being selected No. 1 overall out of Duke by a front office led by former Warriors president Rick Welts, Flagg has become the front-runner for Rookie of the Year.

Green and Kerr once again became the center of the NBA news sphere after a heated argument during the third quarter of the Warriors’ victory over Orlando led to Green – who was ejected from the previous game against Phoenix – walking back to the locker room. 

Green returned to the bench for the fourth quarter, but he did not step back onto the court as the Warriors improved to 15-15. 

Kerr said it was Green’s decision to leave the bench, and the coach’s choice not to play Green again, but both parties emphasized that they would “move forward” from the ugly episode. 

“Tempers spilled over,” Green said. “We play basketball. It’s an emotional game. People lose their emotions sometimes. It happens. It is what it is. We’ve been at this for a long time. Sometimes when you’re with people for a long time, there’s a level of comfort and (expletive) happens. We move forward.”

History suggests that they will. 

In the 2016 NBA Finals, Green was suspended for Game 5 after he punched LeBron James in the crotch. Kerr had his player’s back after the suspension, which was caused by Green accruing his fourth flagrant foul point.

“I approached him before he approached me,” Kerr said. “I told him, ‘You don’t owe anybody an apology. Without you, we’re not even here. We’re all on vacation at this point.’”

Kerr has also had Green’s back when the Warriors star stomped on Domantas Sabonis’ chest in the 2023 postseason, struck Jusuf Nurkic and choked Rudy Gobert in 2024, and accrued five technical fouls in the first round of the 2025 playoffs against Houston. 

But the coach has also given Green his unwavering support during internal conflicts. 

In March of 2019 during a tumultuous season, Kerr was caught on a broadcast by lip readers saying “I’m so (expletive) tired of Draymond’s (expletive).” When asked by reporters what he said to Green following that, Kerr cryptically said, “That’s private.” Green was more talkative.

“It don’t bother me. [Stuff] happens,” Green said. “I’m sure there are plenty of times coaches are tired of players. There’s times players are tired of coaches. That’s the nature of the game we play. I don’t take it personally.”

During that same year, Green was caught arguing with then-teammate Kevin Durant after not passing Durant the ball during crunch time of a game against the Clippers. Durant later said that incident was one of the reasons he decided to leave the team. Kerr declined to blame either player for the blow-up in an interview with Bill Simmons.

“If this had happened at a practice, you can cover it up,” Kerr told the podcaster in November 2019. “Actually, we had several things over the past few years that have happened that never made it out, and we’re really proud of that.”

As it turned out, not everything that happens in practice stays under wraps.

When Green was caught on video punching then-teammate Jordan Poole during a practice before the 2022-23 season, the coach focused on how the video was leaked, rather than Green’s punch. 

“In 32 years, I’ve probably seen 20-plus fistfights at practice,” Kerr said. “That should not make it out beyond the walls of our practice facility. And it did. That’s the problem. We have to get better as an organization.”

After Green was suspended indefinitely – eventually 12 games – for his actions against Gobert and Nurkic, Kerr defended Green’s character in a conference call. 

“The No. 1 thing I would say is, if we decided he wasn’t worth it, you know, then we would have moved off of him years ago,” Kerr said. “But he’s worth it and he’s worth it not only because of the banners that are hanging out there, because he really is a wonderful human being.”

“He is somebody who I love deeply, who I care for, and in some ways I love him because of his flaws, because he’s so human.”

That mentality has defined their relationship. The two have had their fair share of incidents, both on the court and in the locker room, during 11 years together. 

If history has shown one thing, it is that both Kerr and Green were serious on Monday night: They will move forward.

“We move forward,” Green said, repeating the line five times over the course of his postgame news conference following Golden State’s 120-97 win over the Orlando Magic on Monday night. He spent almost the entire third quarter in the locker room and all of the fourth on the bench in sweats after getting into a back-and-forth with coach Steve Kerr early in the second half.

Then he got behind a microphone to explain the situation. The only surprise was that it wasn’t a “Draymond Green Show” exclusive.

“Tempers spilled over,” he continued. “We play basketball. It’s an emotional game. People lose their emotions sometimes. It happens. It is what it is. We’ve been at this for a long time. Sometimes when you’re with people for a long time, there’s a level of comfort and (expletive) happens. We move forward.”

Kerr, in many fewer words, expressed the same sentiment.

“We need Draymond. He’s a champion. We’ve been together for a long time,” Kerr said. “It’s unfortunate what happened, but it happened.”

Green was ejected in animated fashion Saturday night, picking up his fifth and sixth technicals of the season, when he took issue with the Phoenix Suns, and then the officiating crew. On Monday, he directed friendly fire toward Kerr, his coach for the past 12 seasons, during a timeout three-and-a-half minutes into the second half.

Kerr called timeout after the Magic converted their first five possessions into points. At last, the Warriors forced a stop on Orlando’s sixth time down the floor, and Green threw the ball away — his first and only turnover — leading to a take foul on Quinten Post and a free throw that quickly flipped Golden State’s 58-57 halftime advantage into a 71-66 deficit.

“I just thought we lost our focus there a little bit,” Kerr said. “We had it out a little bit. He made his decision to go back to the locker room to cool off. That’s all I’m going to say about it.”

In the huddle, the duo that has been a part of four championships exchanged heated words. Nothing new, especially for a player as passionate and outspoken as Green, or a coach as accustomed to it as Kerr. What was novel was what happened thereafter.

Green stood up and walked away, ushered by team security personnel into the locker room. He wasn’t seen again until the beginning of the fourth quarter, when he emerged from the tunnel in a track suit and took a seat at the end of the bench.

“I don’t think it was a situation where it was going to get better,” Green said. “It was just best to remove myself. That’s it.”

Kerr confirmed that it was Green’s decision to go to the locker room; he didn’t banish him. It was, however, Kerr’s call to keep Green out for the entirety of the fourth quarter once he rejoined his teammates on the bench. “I’m never going to quit on my teammates,” Green said. “But it’s also not my decision if I go back in the game or not.” The coach reiterated: “He wasn’t going back in the game.”

By then, Golden State had recovered from its stumble to start the half to claim a 89-83 advantage heading into the fourth. The lead only grew larger from there, in an eerily similar pattern to the Warriors’ win two nights earlier. They were trailing by 10 when Green was tossed and went on to win 119-116. Altogether, the Warriors have outscored their opponents 145-104 in the final 55:10 of the past two games — without their defensive leader and court general.

“There’s a sense of urgency when he’s not out there, because our margin of error goes down without his presence,” said Stephen Curry, who scored 18 of his team-best 26 points after halftime. “Being able to respond like we have these past two games, does it mean anything long-term? I don’t know. But it makes it fun. You have adversity, whether it’s from the other team or some self-inflicted, and you’re able to respond the way that you need to to get a win.”

Curry had not had a chance to speak with Green after the game before he addressed the media, but he echoed the same message when asked if he believed the incident would lead to bigger problems. “I’m pretty sure we know how to be professional,” he said.

Upon returning to the bench, Green was vocal and engaged, said Brandin Podziemski, who subbed in for him and went on to post a team-high plus-36.

“As a leader, there’s different ways to get the guys around you going,” Podziemski said. “Obviously our record is not what we want it to be. So there’s different ways to motivate a team as a leader. He’s won four championships, so we trust what he does. Tonight, when he came back, he was extremely vocal and positive on the bench for the rest of us.”

Kerr was asked if he believed the incident would linger over the team, as Green himself and others in the organization have acknowledged happened after he punched then-teammate Jordan Poole before the 2022-23 season. “No,” Kerr responded.

Curry, however, couldn’t help but notice the tone of his postgame news conference following a 23-point win. It was their second in a row and improved their record to .500, at 15-15, a position Curry and others deemed “frustrating” but also, Green said, signaled they were trending in the right direction.

“It’s unfortunate … considering where we’ve been, (now) on a two-game win streak, that the vibes of the questions are a little bit more negative than they should be,” Curry said. “I get why you’re asking them, but downstairs right now, the DJ’s got a good playlist going, guys are getting their work in. We’re having a good time because we’re winning.”