Kerr leans toward a small-ball opener while the Warriors wait on Porzingis and his two-year, $40 million deal
Steve Kerr said Monday that he is "leaning toward" opening the regular season on Oct. 21 against the Lakers with Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos, Yaxel Lendeborg and Draymond Green, Yahoo reported. It is a starting five with no traditional center, and it arrives while Kristaps Porzingis remains away from the team.
The Golden State Warriors have been without Porzingis since general manager Mike Dunleavy announced on Sept. 28 that he would be out indefinitely with a health issue. Kerr said Porzingis is expected at the team's San Francisco facility on Tuesday to meet with director of performance Rick Celebrini and the medical staff. The nature of the issue and any timeline have not been disclosed.
Asked whether Porzingis could play in the regular season, Kerr did not offer a forecast: "All that will be determined once we get him back here, and have discussions, and figure out where he is, all that stuff."
The lineup itself has a basketball case, and Kerr was careful about how much of one. "It's a little different look than having a traditional big," he said after Saturday's preseason win over Sacramento. "So, I like it." He added that "we've only played it a handful of minutes."
The mechanism, as Yahoo described it, is connective playmaking. The Santos, Lendeborg and Green frontcourt has opened the paint this October for back-cuts from Podziemski and Lendeborg, and its collective length could ease some of the defensive load on Green. The open question sits at the other end: Green is 36 and would be guarding opposing centers nightly.
Part of the choice is forced. Kerr said the Warriors plan to keep the 40-year-old Al Horford to around 20 minutes a game this season, and Yahoo reported that the team is encouraged by Charles Bassey but wants more evidence that he can share the floor with Green offensively. That leaves a center rotation stitched together from Green, Horford, Bassey, two-way rookie Graham Ike and any active version of Porzingis.
This is where the contract matters. ESPN's Anthony Slater reported that Porzingis was limited to 34 games last season, split between Atlanta and Golden State, which traded Jonathan Kuminga for him in February, and that the Warriors re-signed him this summer to a two-year, $40 million deal.
According to ESPN, the deal was structured so the Warriors could trade Porzingis at any point and limit their long-term downside: only $3 million of the $20 million next season is guaranteed. I'd argue that structure is the clearest money signal in this story. The Warriors kept their exposure beyond this season small on a player coming off 34 games.
That hedge sits on top of a bill that was already heavy. Last season the Warriors carried the league's 2nd-highest Effective Payroll, $272.7 million, and won 37 games, per WAGE. The money ran well ahead of the results.
That return earned a team WAGE Score of 19 in 2025-26, against 61 the season before, which places last season's roster Under Water. These figures describe what last season's money bought; they say nothing about Porzingis's health or about what this season's group will produce.
A large share of that bill was tax. Golden State paid $67.9 million in luxury tax last season at the repeater rate, a quarter of its Effective Payroll, so part of what made each of those wins expensive was money that went to no player on the floor.
So the question this season is narrower than it looks. The payroll is being asked to buy wins from a starting group that has played together for a handful of preseason minutes, built around a 36-year-old at center and a rookie forward, with the one center the team traded for and re-signed unavailable for now.
There is a real other side. Preseason samples are small in both directions, and a five that creates layups through passing could hold up better than its size suggests. Kerr's own wording, a lean and not a decision, leaves room for the rotation to change once Tuesday's meeting produces an answer.
Until then, the biggest open question on the roster is not how this five plays. It is whether Porzingis is on the floor at all, and on that the Warriors have no answer yet.