Everyone's talking about how the West is a battlefield this season and how the fight for the best playoff position will last until the very last game. While most people highlight the Oklahoma City Thunder , Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets , rightfully so, it feels like the Golden State Warriors are flying a bit under the radar.
Steve Kerr has entered his 11th season as the Warriors' head coach. Alongside Stephen Curry and Draymond Green , he'll attempt to win their fifth championship. On that journey, they'll have some veteran help.
Four of the five starters are over 35 years old, alongside the veteran duo, there are also Jimmy Butler and Al Horford . The former Miami Heat forward knows the end is near. Still, his motivation and hunger to finish his career with a Larry O'Brien trophy are greater than ever.
There's also the champion with the Boston Celtics , Horford, who has fit perfectly into Kerr's system. At the same time, Jonathan Kuminga , after all the offseason drama, has finally blossomed.
"Love how they're playing. I trust that five in the playoffs more than I trust any other five," O'Neal said on "NBA on ESPN." "Steph, Jimmy, Draymond, old man Al Horford, that experience alone will be very important. But then you got a young guy like Kuminga, who's mixing it up very well. When it comes to the postseason, having that experience and being able to slow the game down and make the right critical decisions, I like that lineup a lot."
Klay Thompson is long gone and so is Jordan Poole , once seen as Curry's successor. Still, Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski have proven to be great support for the veterans. Even though the starting lineup is quite old, they're not the oldest team in the league; that title belongs to the Los Angeles Clippers with an average age of 33.2, an NBA record.
They shouldn't be written off either, because just like the Warriors, they have championship experience with players like Kawhi Leonard and Brook Lopez , along with hungry veterans such as James Harden and Chris Paul .
Additionally, the Los Angeles Lakers , with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves alongside LeBron James , will be a formidable opponent, while the Minnesota Timberwolves , after two consecutive Western Conference Finals appearances, are looking to Anthony Edwards to take them a step further.
We've already listed eight Western teams with championship potential. Then there are the San Antonio Spurs , led by the phenomenal Victor Wembanyama , who weren't seen as contenders at all but opened the season 5-0, their best start in franchise history.
Teams like the Memphis Grizzlies , Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings will be lurking to spoil someone's plans, further proving that the West truly is a battlefield.
But Dub Nation is ready for everything this season and Green spoke on why he thinks the Warriors are legitimate title contenders this season .
"I want to win another championship this year, and I think we have the team to do that," Dray said on the first episode of the latest season of "The Draymond Green Show." "I always say one of the most important things you need when you're trying to compete for a championship is lineup versatility — being able to go small, go big, go defensive, or go shooting," he continued. "You need to have that variety in the lineups you can put on the floor, and we have that again. It's exciting."
And that's exactly what the Warriors have this season, if they can stay healthy. Butler can take the load off Curry's shoulders with his playmaking and scoring, while also helping Green defensively. Horford has also proven he's still got plenty left, as he showed in the season opener against the Denver Nuggets.
He held three-time MVP Nikola Jokic to just 3-of-14 shooting in a huge comeback win that went to overtime in the season opener. The Nuggets , who many see as Finals favorites, couldn't have played much better, as Jokic had a 20-point triple-double, Jamal Murray added a 25-point double-double and Aaron Gordon exploded for 50 points while shooting 10-of-11 from three, yet they still lost.
Even though it's just one regular-season game, in the West, no one can afford to take any matchup lightly since every win matters for playoff positioning, which brings us back to Shaq's point.
Related: "Just go out and kill him" - Young Shaquille O'Neal on his mindset of tyrannizing opponents
It's hard to find a team in the league that has what the Warriors have once they enter the playoffs, something they showed last year when they knocked out the second-seeded Rockets in the first round and looked like a legitimate contender until Steph got injured.
Even at 37, the two-time MVP remains one of the most dangerous players in the league, always key to the championship aspirations of the San Francisco squad. This season, he's averaging 27.0 points per game on 49.1 percent shooting from the field and 41.9 percent from deep, which means only one thing: nothing short of a title will satisfy them.
They currently stand at 4-2, but the feeling is that the best is yet to come. Once the playoffs start, we all know they turn into a different beast, one no team wants to face.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Nov 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
