Months of negotiations and being in contact came to an end for the Golden State Warriors. With just 9 contracted players, something had to give. Now they have announced commitments of back-to-back players, starting with superstar center Al Horford. But signing him raises the same question that was asked of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler.

Yes, the age issue is still a problem for the Warriors. Trevor Lane, a respected analyst, stated bluntly, “So, from a skill set perspective, I think Al Horford is a fantastic fit on the offensive end. And defensively, is he going to be great during the regular season?” The question is valid since Steph Curry’s 37, Jimmy Butler’s 36, Draymond Green’s 35, and now Al Horford at 39. Lane even sarcastically suggested that the team should stock up on ‘Icy Hot’ to deal with muscle issues.

He added, “But overall, the main pieces of this team  — Curry, Butler, Draymond, now Al Horford  — these guys are all over the hill. Let’s face it. Now, they’re still very talented, still can be productive, but these are guys that don’t have a whole lot of time left in the NBA.” The average of their 4 starters comes to 36.75, so it’s natural to ask these questions. Lane feels the Warriors have a strategy in place: “Warriors are just keeping their fingers crossed and saying, ‘Hey, look, these guys might play 55, 60, 65 games, something like that during the regular season, but if we can get them healthy come playoff time, that’s where that’s where we will really be a threat.’”

After Jimmy Butler joined Golden State in that blockbuster trade last February, the Warriors stormed to a 23-7 finish to close out the season. Their defense jumped from ninth to first. But Stephen Curry’s injury in the second round led to Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves winning 4 straight games. Let’s now add the Al Horford factor into the mix. Draymond Green has resisted playing the five full-time, and the options behind him are young and unproven. This makes the potential signing of Al Horford so important.

Less than two years ago, he helped the Celtics win a championship, averaging 26.8 minutes per game in 65 contests (33 starts). Sounds good, right?

However, last season, he didn’t play in back-to-back games for the Celtics, finishing with 60 games (42 starts), averaging 27.7 minutes per game. The Boston outfit had enough depth with Kristaps Porziņģis and Luke Kornet to manage the workload, which was fruitful. Because in the playoffs, Al Horford would play in all 11 games, start 9 with a healthy 31.6 minutes. Although his production will raise the same issue, as he had just 8 points and 6 rebounds per contest.

So, Lane and other critics are not wrong in questioning the ageing roster: “But they’re not going to worry too much about exactly where they fall. It’s going to be, ‘Can we get all these guys healthy and then let playoff Jimmy, play off Al Horford, Steph Curry, Draymond, and let these guys do what they’re going to do. Can we just get them to the postseason in one piece?’ That’s going to be the big challenge for the Golden State Warriors.”

While the analysts are voicing their concerns, it’s not like the age factor is something that is lost on the GSW players.

Before Al Horford’s addition, Stephen Curry spoke about the age of the roster

Entering the 2025–26 season, the Warriors already have a massive $139.63 million committed—about 90.2% of the salary cap—just to Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green, as reported by NBC Sports. But the latter seems confident in their title pursuit. Recently, Green, while working out, was very vocal: “We getting that b____ this year.” His eyes are set on another championship for the Dub Nation. Previously, Curry even spoke about their chances this year.

“We’re gonna find out, I think we can,” Curry answered. It wasn’t as confident or brash as Green, but Steph is majorly measured with his answer. “Obviously, we have to stay healthy, get through the regular season on a high level. But I like the identity that we have, [the] foundation of knowing how to play together towards the end of last season.” Talking to Michael Eaves from ABC7 News Bay Area, the 4x NBA champion was very pragmatic in his thought process.

He said, “I know we get that asked a lot because of the age, and it’s something that we haven’t really seen before. That’s the beautiful challenge of this game.” While answering these questions, there were just three players over the age of 35; now add Al Horford in the mix. With the championship window for Stephen Curry shrinking, the bet from the front office is on experience.