Warriors schedule: Steph Curry & Co. are looking at an easy 3-0 start to the 2024-25 NBA season

Despite notching 46 wins a season ago, the Golden State Warriors failed to make the NBA Playoffs for the first time in three years, finishing 10th in the Western Conference before losing to the ninth-seeded Sacramento Kings in the Play-In Tournament.

Steve Kerr's squad, of course, will have a bit of a different look this season. While franchise cornerstones Stephen Curry and Draymond Green remain, Klay Thompson now dons a Dallas Mavericks uniform. Golden State also opted not to bring back future Hall of Famer Chris Paul, who's now with the San Antonio Spurs, as it would have cost the Warriors $30 million to bring him back.

While youngsters Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, and Trayce Jackson-Davis will be expected to step up, Golden State also added plenty of veteran experience to the roster, bringing in Buddy Hield, De'Anthony Melton, and Kyle Anderson, all of whom played significant minutes during the Warriors' 6-0 run during the preseason.

From an overall standpoint, this is a much deeper team than it was a year ago. But while having plenty of solid players is never a bad thing, it does make Kerr's job difficult, as he'll have to find the right combinations to put on the floor as the Warriors attempt to compete in a loaded Western Conference.

And make no mistake about it; this team, as it did a year ago, will have to fight to get into the postseason. But with this deeper roster, we're predicting that Curry & Co. will do just that, as we're projecting more victories for the Dubs than they had last season.

And given Golden State's schedule over the first few days of this new campaign, the Warriors should be able to notch a few of those victories. While their first two games are on the road, their opponents in those matchups went just a combined 52-112 last season. And their home opener on Sunday should result in a victory as well.

Here's a quick look at how the Warriors schedule looks to open the 2024-25 NBA season.

The Warriors open the 2024-25 NBA season on the road against the Portland Trail Blazers

The Warriors kick off their 2024-25 campaign on the road on Wednesday against the Portland Trail Blazers, who finished dead last in the Western Conference last season at 21-61. And things don't look much better for the Blazers this year.

To be fair, Portland dealt with a plethora of injuries in 2023-24. And without Damian Lillard there to carry the load, the losses obviously piled up quickly.

There's a lot of young talent on this team, most notably Anfernee Simons, who led the team in scoring last year with 22.6 points per game. Shaedon Sharpe is an intriguing player and was the team's third-leading scorer behind Simons and Jerami Grant, However, he only appeared in 32 games and is already dealing with injuries again, as he'll miss the first few weeks of the season with a labral tear in his left shoulder.

DeAndre Ayton, who leads a deep center corps, dealt with some injury issues during the preseason as well but should be ready to go against the Warriors.

Overall, though, Portland simply doesn't have enough to keep up with the Warriors. Twenty-year-old Scoot Henderson has no chance of stopping Curry. And even when No. 30 needs a break, Buddy Hield will step in and pick up some of the scoring load.

This should be an easy double-digit win for the Warriors.

Golden State faces the Utah Jazz on Friday night

It's no secret that the Warriors were targeting Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen in a trade over the summer. Things obviously didn't work out, as Utah opted to extend its best player, coming to terms on a renegotiation and extension worth $238 million that will keep him in Salt Lake City through the 2028-29 season.

The Warriors will hope to show the one-time All-Star what he's missing out on when they visit the Jazz on Friday night.

Like Portland, Utah has some young talent and will feature a roster with seven players aged 23 or under. But like the Blazers, the Jazz, who went 31-51 a season ago, are not built to win now, and Golden State should feast on Friday.

A season ago, the Jazz allowed opponents to shoot 39.5% from the three-point line, not only the worst in the league but the worst by any NBA team since 2010-11. And what do the Warriors like to do? Yep, they shoot threes. And this team will shoot a lot of them.

But even if the triples aren't falling, Golden State will have more than enough to get this victory. Go ahead and book the 2-0 start.

The Warriors host the LA Clippers in their home opener on Sunday

With Paul George now with the Philadelphia 76ers and Kawhi Leonard unshockingly injured to start the season, the Los Angeles Clippers will be forced to rely on James Harden to carry the offensive load.

Ivica Zubac, Norman Powell, and new addition Kevin Porter Jr. will help in that department, but this is not the deepest team in the league by any stretch of the imagination. The Clippers should be good defensively, however, and bringing in Derrick Jones Jr. will only help in that regard.

But this is obviously not the same team that won 51 games last season. And they won't have enough to keep up when the Warriors welcome them to the Chase Center for their home opener on Sunday night.

Curry and Harden will likely just end up canceling one another out. But again, this is where depth comes into play. When Harden sits down, who's picking up the slack?

When Curry sits down, here comes Buddy Hield, who's made the second-most three-pointers in the NBA since he entered the league, trailing only his new teammate. Moses Moody looked like a completely new player during the preseason, leading the team in scoring. And those are just guys off the bench.

Kuminga was the Warriors' third-leading scorer a year ago. Andrew Wiggins has regressed in recent years but can still put up points. Podziemski will undoubtedly play a more significant role in the offense. Steve Kerr has options, and it'll be these other options that get the Warriors off to a 3-0 start.