Steph Curry Gets Brutally Honest After Warriors Miss Out on LeBron James

The chase is over in Golden State.

LeBron James announced his intention to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers for his 24th NBA season, ending weeks of talk that the 41-year-old might finish his career next to Stephen Curry.

The Warriors were among the teams hoping to land him, and it was easy to picture the two stars sharing the floor in Golden State.

Instead, Curry is left explaining what comes next for a roster that spent its summer waiting on an answer that went the other way.

Curry, now 38, talked about the outcome with The Athletic's Marcus Thompson II.

"That's why you don't envision anything until it happens," Curry said. "There's a lot of moving parts."

It was a short answer that covered a long summer, and it matched the way Curry has talked all offseason with so much out of his hands.

The bigger worry in Golden State is the players already on the roster.

Jimmy Butler is recovering from a torn ACL and Moses Moody is recovering from a torn patellar tendon, and Curry talked about the team's outlook through those injuries rather than the star who got away.

"The through line, which is hard on anybody in this situation, especially with us keeping this thing together, is knowing that when Jimmy got hurt and Moses got hurt, the whole calculus of everything changes," Curry said.

"How do you get through their absence and still stay at a certain level?"

Curry did not dress it up.

"So, I'm a realist on that," he said. "But that is the situation. We don't live in any alternative universe."

He did not sound bitter as much as clear about the roster, and his own play is not the problem, since he averaged 26.6 points across 43 games last season while shooting 39.3 percent from three.

James, for his part, averaged 20.9 points in 60 games in his final season with the Los Angeles Lakers before choosing Philadelphia.

A team whose top scorer is still playing at that level does not need to start over, it needs its injured players back on the floor.

That is the whole bet for next season, and it is a fair one to make.

The plan now looks a lot like the plan before.

Golden State needs Butler and Moody healthy, needs Curry to stay Curry, and needs its young players to grow up fast.

The front office watched its confidence in the LeBron pursuit fade in the days before the decision, so the outcome hurt but did not shock anyone.

There is still good news around the team.

Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg took home Summer League MVP honors after a standout July, and Curry just got a dedicated exhibit in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The superteam dream ended in Philadelphia, but the standard in Golden State has not changed, and Curry sounds like a player who plans to keep it.