Are the Golden State Warriors Too Low in Bleacher Report's NBA Power Rankings?

The Golden State Warriors could be a boom or bust team this season. If everyone stays healthy and things click, they could be in the mix for the 2026 NBA championship. If just one of their stars goes down or their young guys don’t take their expected leaps, they could be at risk of missing the playoffs completely. 

Bleacher Report just released their NBA Power Rankings in anticipation of the 2025–26 season, and they put the Warriors as 9th on the list. 

“The Golden State Warriors have had one of the strangest offseasons in recent memory, and their lack of urgency feels all the weirder given Stephen Curry's age (38 in March).

There may be another year or two, at most, in which Curry can provide All-NBA, "best player on a title team" level contributions, and the Warriors have spent the overwhelming majority of the summer with nine players on the roster.

They've allowed Jonathan Kuminga's restricted free agency to essentially hold their entire offseason hostage. He doesn't have a single season with an above-average box plus/minus.

Still, the additions of Al Horford, Seth Curry and De'Anthony Melton feel like foregone conclusions. All three can still be positive contributors.

And last season, when Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green were all on the floor, Golden State was plus-8.7 points per 100 possessions.

This team may not be on quite the same level as other Western Conference contenders, like the Oklahoma City Thunder or Denver Nuggets, but they have unrivaled experience and institutional know-how and the greatest shooter of all time.

They're a bona fide "if things break right" contender.”

The issue with this ranking is that while it does factor in the Warriors' boom or bust potential, there are some teams ahead of them on the list who have yet to prove themselves as real contenders. 

For example, the Orlando Magic sit one spot ahead of the Warriors. The Magic are an exciting young team, but they haven’t even been out of the first round of the playoffs since 2010. The Warriors, at a minimum, should be higher than them, and if they start the season playing like they ended last season, they should be in the top five or six.