Steve Kerr is ‘leaning towards’ Curry, Podziemski, Santos, Lendeborg and Green as the Warriors’ opening-night five

SAN FRANCISCO — Oct. 15, 2026 — The Golden State Warriors have one exhibition left and less than a week until opening night, and Steve Kerr has a working answer to his biggest lineup question. Asked after practice at Chase Center whether the group of Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos, Yaxel Lendeborg and Draymond Green — the five he has started twice this preseason, after opening the exhibition slate in Hawaii with Horford in the frontcourt instead of Santos — is the one he will take into the regular season, Kerr barely hedged.

“I’m leaning towards it,” he said. “Al could be in there, but just given where he is minutes-wise per game, if a guy’s going to play 20, which is probably about the limit or where we’d like him to average, it’s just a lot easier to bring him off the bench. I also like the idea of having Draymond or Al on the court as often as possible to anchor our defense. So yeah, I’m leaning that way.”

Why Horford comes off the bench

The call is about minutes as much as fit. Al Horford is 40, and Kerr has said the team will be “extra careful” with him and its other experienced players all season after Horford was a late scratch against the Lakers on Oct. 6. He did not make the trip to Las Vegas this week either, which Kerr described as “just part of his regular kind of maintenance program.” A center who is being held to roughly 20 minutes a night is hard to pencil in as a starter, and bringing him in behind Green staggers Golden State’s two defensive anchors so one of them is on the floor for most of the game.

That leaves Green, 36, at center with the first unit, a job the Warriors have tried to limit in past seasons because of the physical toll. Kristaps Porziņģis is the reason the options are so thin. He remains out indefinitely and has not practiced, and Kerr said Monday that the big man would be in the building the next day to meet with the team’s medical and performance staff. Kerr would not get into where Porziņģis has been. “That’s all private,” he said.

Size without a true center

Kerr laid out the thinking behind the frontcourt trio last week. “With the fact that we have Yaxel now, you’d get a 6-10 guy next to [Green],” he said, in comments relayed by NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole. “If we go that route, it makes it a little more palatable. And if we pair them with Gui, now all of a sudden, you got three good-sized guys at their positions, and it doesn’t feel as small as in the past couple years. But it’s not ideal.”

The two looks the group has had went well. In the 124-98 win over the Lakers at Chase Center on Oct. 6, all five starters finished plus-12 or better: Curry was plus-26 with 16 points in 14 minutes, Green plus-25 with eight assists, and Lendeborg plus-21 with 17 points and nine rebounds. In the 111-106 win over Sacramento on Oct. 10, the rookie had 23 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, Podziemski added 14 points and seven rebounds, and Green, Lendeborg and Podziemski were each plus-18. Santos scored 15 that night but also had five turnovers, which is the one thing Kerr is no longer willing to wave off.

Decisions, not formations

Monday’s practice was built around it. Kerr said the Warriors had about 90 turnovers through four games and that he had held off on harping on them while the staff installed new concepts, formations and spacing. “But now is the time,” he said. “Most of them have not actually been Steph and Dray. They’ve had a few, but it’s team-wide.” He said the players took the film session to heart and did “a great job” in the scrimmage that followed.

The bench has its own shape. Brandon Williams is the backup point guard, and Kerr said a big part of that responsibility is ball security, and Horford leads a center group Kerr wants to use widely. “I think Graham and Charles are both going to be featured at times,” Kerr said last week of Graham Ike and Charles Bassey. “Given injuries, age, depth, all that stuff, we’re going to need all of our centers.” Bassey got the start in Tuesday’s 101-89 win over the Lakers in Las Vegas with Green and Horford resting, and finished with eight points, 12 rebounds and a plus-11 in 27 minutes.

Kerr also framed the early season as a bridge. He has floated February as a rough target for the returns of Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody, while saying the exact timing will have to play out. “Our job is to get this team clicking, building momentum so that when Jimmy and Moses do return, we’re in a good place,” he said.

Whether the projected five plays together again in Friday’s preseason finale is still open. “You always want to kind of have a dress rehearsal in that last one, but we’re in a different place now,” Kerr said. “We have to manage guys a little differently, so we’ll just take it day by day.” Golden State hosts the Portland Trail Blazers at Chase Center on Friday at 7 p.m. PT, then opens the regular season Wednesday, Oct. 21, against the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.