Stephen Curry has been sidelined since January 30. He's now missed 15 consecutive games. And on Wednesday, the Warriors announced what most of the fan base feared — he'll be re-evaluated again in 10 more days, pushing his earliest possible return to around March 21 against the Atlanta Hawks.
The diagnosis hasn't changed: patellofemoral pain syndrome and bone bruising in the right knee, what the team is calling "runner's knee." There's no structural damage on the MRI — that's the good news. The problem is that the swelling and pain have been stubbornly persistent, and the knee has responded unpredictably to the recovery process. Curry himself has described it that way. He started individual court work in recent days and plans to intensify those sessions, but even clearing the next evaluation doesn't mean he walks directly into a game. There's a standard ramp-up process — more court work, full-speed scrimmages, medical clearance — before he can play. Realistically, Curry is looking at missing six or more additional games, which would leave him roughly 11 regular-season games to return and get into rhythm before the postseason.
Golden State is 32-33 without him, sitting ninth in the Western Conference — below the Clippers and above Portland by 1.5 games. The play-in tournament is essentially locked in as their destination. The question now is whether Curry can return healthy enough to be effective in that format, or whether the organization should be honest about the math and protect him for next season. Curry turns 38 on Saturday. This isn't a knee you rush.
What's made this stretch particularly grim is the compounding factor: Jimmy Butler tore his ACL in January and is done for the year. The Warriors traded Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to Atlanta for Kristaps Porzingis at the deadline, a reasonable swing for a team with a closing window. But without Curry on the floor, the experiment barely has a chance to reveal what it might actually look like.
Curry texted Draymond Green after a recent road win: "Keep going. I know it's tough, but promise you, I'm coming back." Whether the season is worth coming back to is a different question entirely.
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