SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Golden State Warriors head into the offseason following a second-round playoff exit having already made their biggest move to boost the roster for 2025-26.
A midseason trade for Jimmy Butler sparked a late-season surge that carried the Warriors on a successful run that came to an abrupt end after star Stephen Curry's injured hamstring led to four straight losses to Minnesota.
The hope for Golden State now is that a full season with Butler alongside Curry and Draymond Green will give coach Steve Kerr the core he needs to compete in the ultra-tough Western Conference.
“I think we made a big jump adding Jimmy Butler,” general manager Mike Dunleavy said Friday. “This time last year I was probably concerned about our ability to have like a No. 2 guy. We went out this year, we got that, and now I feel better going into next season having a guy like Jimmy on our roster. ... I just overall feel like we’re in much better shape right now than we were a year ago. We’ll keep chipping away at this thing. As long as Steph, Draymond, Steve as well as our coach, as long as they’ve still got their fastball, we’re going to keep pursuing titles.”
The addition of Butler from Miami made an immediate impact for the Warriors. They were 25-26 when he made his debut in February and the team posted a 27-8 record overall in the regular season, play-in tournament and playoffs when both Butler and Curry were in the lineup.
That had the Warriors believing they could make another title run before Curry went down with a hamstring injury in a Game 1 win against the Timberwolves.
Golden State then lost the next four games and couldn't extend the series long enough for Curry to return as the team lacked enough options on offense without its best player.
“He’s our sun. This is the solar system, he’s our sun. You’re not going to duplicate Steph any time soon,” Kerr said. “So any talk of do we need to change our offensive system, to me is kind of laughable. ... It’s like what we’ve done has been incredibly powerful. Steph is, again, one of the all time greatest players, playing at the peak of his power still, I think, or very close to it. We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing. Anything else would be a disservice to our team.”
The big questions this offseason are filling out the roster around the big three stars with the biggest unknown being the status of Jonathan Kuminga.
Kuminga had a promising start to the season before being sidelined by an ankle injury for 31 games. The team added Butler during his absence and Kuminga struggled to fit in when he returned and played only sparingly — if at all — in the playoffs before Curry got hurt.
Kuminga averaged 24.3 points in the final four games, showing the ability that could make him an attractive target for other teams when he becomes a restricted free agent this summer.
The Warriors have the right to match any offer sheet he signs but could opt to seek a sign and trade and use Kuminga as a chip to fill other holes with players who fit in better with Curry, Butler and Green. Kerr described Kuminga's situation late in the season as “square peg, round hole.”
“All in all, he’s a guy who’s got a lot of talent and a lot of ability,” Kerr said. “Still growing, still raw in many ways, but a lot of what we have to figure out is roster construction and the combination. Basketball is always a five-man game, and combinations were tricky. They just were.”
The other major need for the Warriors is adding more shooters to space the floor and more size throughout the lineup both to be better against bigger perimeter players and to have a bigger defensive presence that allows Green to play power forward rather than center like he did late in the season.
“I don’t want to start next season with Draymond as our starting 5,” Kerr said. “I think it’s doable for the last 30 games like we did this year, but you see the toll it takes on him. He’s talked about it too.”
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Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga speaks during a news conference at the NBA basketball team's facility in San Francisco, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green (23) talks with head coach Steve Kerr after he fouled out during Game 3 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in San Francisco, Saturday, May 10, 2025. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr gestures during the first half of Game 3 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Saturday, May 10, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler III vie for rebound position against Minnesota Timberwolves' Rudy Gobert in NBA Western Conference Semifinals' Game 5 at Target Center in Minneapolis on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department and FBI are struggling to contain the fallout and appease the demands of far-right conservative personalities and influential members of President Donald Trump’s base after the administration's decision this week to withhold records from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.
The move, which included the acknowledgment that one particular sought-after document never existed in the first place, sparked a contentious conversation between Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino at the White House earlier this week that threatened to permanently shatter relations between the two officials and centered in part on a news story that described divisions between the FBI and the Justice Department.
The cascade of disappointment and disbelief arising from the refusal to disclose additional, much-hyped records from the Epstein investigation underscores the struggles of FBI and Justice Department leaders to resolve the conspiracy theories and amped-up expectations that they themselves had stoked with claims of a cover-up and hidden evidence. Infuriated by the failure of officials to unlock, as promised, the secrets of the so-called “deep state,” Trump supporters on the far right have grown restless and even demanded change at the top.
Tensions that simmered for months boiled over on Monday when the Justice Department and FBI issued a two-page statement saying that they had concluded that Epstein did not possess a “client list,” even though Bondi had intimated in February that such a document was sitting on her desk, and had decided against releasing any additional records from the investigation.
The department did disclose a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself in jail, but even that raised the eyebrows of conspiracy theorists because of a missing minute in the recording.
It was hardly the first time that Trump administration officials have failed to fulfill their pledge to deliver the evidence that supporters had come to expect.
In February, conservative influencers were invited to the White House and provided with binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified." But the binders contained information that had largely already been in the public domain.
Afterward, Bondi said an FBI “source” informed her of the existence of thousands of pages of previously undisclosed documents and ordered the bureau to provide the “full and complete Epstein files.” She later said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI.
But after a months-long review of evidence in the government’s possession, the Justice Department determined in the memo Monday that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims, and “only a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”
The Trump administration had hoped that that statement would be the final word on the saga, with Trump chiding a reporter who asked Bondi about the Epstein case at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
But Bondi and Bongino had a tense exchange the following day at the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.
Part of the clash centered on a story from the news organization NewsNation that cited a “source close to the White House” as saying the FBI would have released the Epstein files months ago if it could have done so on its own. The story included statements from Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel refuting the premise, but not Bongino.
The news publication Axios was first to describe the conversation.
Blanche sought to stem the fallout Friday with a social media post in which he said he had worked closely with Patel and Bongino on the Epstein matter and the joint memo.
“All of us signed off on the contents of the memo and the conclusions stated in the memo. The suggestion by anyone that there was any daylight between the FBI and DOJ leadership on this memo’s composition and release is patently false,” he wrote on X.
Also Friday, far-right activist Laura Loomer, who is close to Trump, posted on X that she was told that Bongino was “seriously thinking about resigning” and had taken the day off to contemplate his future. Bongino is normally an active presence on social media but has been silent since Wednesday.
The FBI did not respond to a request seeking comment, and the White House sought in a statement to minimize any tensions.
“President Trump has assembled a highly qualified and experienced law and order team dedicated to protecting Americans, holding criminals accountable, and delivering justice to victims,” said spokesman Harrison Fields. “This work is being carried out seamlessly and with unity. Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made in restoring public safety and pursuing justice for all.”
Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - Daniel Bongino speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, June 10, 2020, in Washington. (Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP, File)
