Golden State’s options came down to cutting Casspi or waiving someone from its center-by-committee sextet of Zaza Pachulia, Jordan Bell, David West, JaVale McGee, Kevon Looney and Damian Jones. A stubborn ankle injury that held Casspi out of his final 11 games as a Warrior, following an earlier back issue, proved to be the clincher.

“It was difficult to sit with him and tell him we were going to do this,” Kerr told reporters Sunday night in Phoenix. “But it was the only decision we could make under the circumstances.”

This is the second consecutive season in which the Warriors have been forced to make such an unkind cut. In February 2017, after promising to sign the savvy Spanish playmaker Jose Calderon in the wake of Calderon’s release by the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State had to abruptly let Calderon go without granting him a single second in uniform. In Calderon’s case, it was a similarly severe knee sprain sustained by Durant which necessitated the addition of a forward (Matt Barnes) as opposed to a guard.

Waiving Casspi at this juncture is painful in its own way, since the Warriors are well aware he took less money than he could have earned elsewhere on the open market and, worse, is ineligible to appear in the playoffs for another team this spring because he was not released by March 1. But the loss of Curry — as well as Kerr’s belief that he will need every big man he can muster to get to a fourth successive N.B.A. finals — left little alternative.

Even though Casspi has been healthy enough to log 10 or more minutes only five times since January, his detractors would argue that he might have convinced the Warriors to keep him had he shown a greater willingness to shoot 3-pointers. Despite its freewheeling reputation, Golden State is actually sorely lacking when it comes to trusty floor-spacers off the bench.

Casspi, though, attempted only 22 3-pointers in his 53 games as a Warrior. This naturally puzzled local observers who will never forget the sight of Casspi, then a member of the Sacramento Kings, tying a franchise record by hitting nine 3-pointers en route to 36 points in a breathtaking shooting duel with Curry at Oracle Arena on Dec. 28, 2015.