Warriors guards Brandon Williams, left, and Miles Kelly celebrate after a play during a preseason game against the Trail Blazers on Wednesday in Portland, Ore.
Ali Gradischer/Associated Press
The Golden State Warriors’ identity last season was complex. They cycled through three versions, pre-deadline and post-deadline and post-injury. Head coach Steve Kerr chalked all of it up to a “transition year,” as he put it Thursday.
The identity this season is simpler. Hold out for winter, it is coming. And with it, hopefully, reinforcements.
“What makes this year different is — we kinda know, we’re getting Jimmy (Butler) and Moses (Moody) back in February,” Kerr said. “We have Yaxel (Lendeborg). That changes our team quite a bit. We feel, I think, better about the puzzle, and putting it together.”
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Still, in mid-October plenty of holes remain. Stephen Curry hasn’t seen a net he hasn’t torched this past week, running mate Draymond Green looked plenty spry in an eight-assist first half against the Lakers on Tuesday, and Lendeborg flashed difference-making offensive instincts in his first taste of NBA action. Beyond those three, though, the rest of Kerr’s rotation remains a question mark through three games. (And the status of Kristaps Porzingis’ is nothing but question marks.)
From a week of training camp in Hawaii, a week of preseason and weeks of conversation with players and staffers, here’s the Chronicle’s take on who’s playing themselves in and out of regular-season minutes in Golden State:
Current starting lineup No. 1 (big): Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Yaxel Lendeborg, Draymond Green, Al Horford.
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Current starting lineup No. 2 (small): Curry, Podziemski, Lendeborg, Gui Santos, Green
This is, of course, assuming Porzingis won’t be ready by the Warriors’ Oct. 21 opener against the Lakers, an increasingly likely possibility with less than two weeks left to ramp up and Porzingis missing Golden State’s last couple of weeks of camp and preseason games. Porzingis still wasn’t at the Warriors’ facility Friday, Kerr said, although the center spoke Thursday with Golden State’s director of sports performance Rick Celebrini.
In the meantime, Kerr laid out these two situations plainly Friday.
“If Kristaps isn’t here, the question would be — do we start big with Al or Charles (Bassey), or do we start Draymond at the 5 and Yaxel at the 4, maybe Gui, to give us some size and playmaking?” Kerr said.
Such decisions center primarily on Horford’s status (perhaps not a great sign when one’s starting lineup hinges on the maintenance plan for a 40-year-old center), and the matchups Golden State will face. Horford played just 45 games last season, and likely won’t play back-to-backs this season. One of Kerr’s many challenges this season will be balancing Horford’s workload with Green’s as a center in non-Horford lineups; the Warriors would like Green to play alongside Porzingis or Horford, and “have to see” if Green can play next to backups Bassey or Graham Ike, as Kerr said.
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The major help, here, is the presence of the 6-foot-9, 241-pound Lendeborg, who suddenly gives Golden State some actual size as a multidimensional wing next to the 6-6 Green and the 6-7 Santos.
“All of a sudden, you got three good-sized guys at their positions, and it doesn’t feel as small in the past couple years,” Kerr said.
Rotational risers
Warriors guard Brandon Williams is pushing himself into contention for a rotation spot with his speed.
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Brandon Williams: The dude is fast. That’s obvious to anyone with eyes. In training camp, Georges Niang, who is in a slightly different class of speed, compared Williams’ ability to hit the gas to the Road Runner.
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This is the surface level. Deeper, at his best, Williams plays with a kind of open-gym joy as a ballhandler who otherwise doesn’t exist on Golden State’s best. He can conjure a driving lane where there isn’t one. He can break a play down at his will. He flips fingertip layups from any arm angle, and attacks shot-blockers, and has been plus-6 in his preseason minutes for a reason.
After signing a non-guaranteed deal in free agency, Williams has clearly wedged his way into ballhandling minutes in non-Curry lineups. His ability to stick, now, will depend on his ability to control the ball and hit jumpers when defenders duck under screens.
“I’m just taking what the defense gives,” Williams said after the Warriors’ preseason opener in Hawaii last Sunday. “There was a few times where I turned it down, and Steve told me to let it go.”
Charles Bassey and Graham Ike: Kerr needs his reserve bigs. Probably more than he’d like. Fortunately, the development of Bassey and Ike is a legitimate bright spot. People inside the building have pointed to both as preseason standouts.
The 6-10 Bassey might be Golden State’s best pure shot-blocker on the roster, and he has flashed a lethal push-shot floater from 8-12 feet this preseason. Ike’s touch around the rim has been somewhat spotty, but he’s gaining confidence in a lefty above-the-break jumper and has earned high marks for his IQ and motor as a rookie.
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Rotational fallers
Warriors guard Will Richard, entering his second season, could have an uphill battle to find regular minutes.
Ali Gradischer/Associated Press
Will Richard: Richard played well in a short-handed loss to Portland on Wednesday, with 15 points and a trio of threes. At the moment, though, he’s on the outside looking in from a crowded mix of reserve guards and forwards. He is a system fit, as he showed as a rookie last year; the issue is he has no standout trait that necessitates a consistent rotational spot.
Williams is a better ballhandler, and creates more rim pressure. De’Anthony Melton (who needs to show more offensive consistency in his own right) is a better point-of-attack defender. Two-way guard LJ Cryer is a better off-the-bounce shooter. Richard, for now, will be fighting for situational minutes.
Cryer: He has shown enough to believe the jumper is real; he shot 39% from deep in a cup of coffee late last season and shot 41% in summer league. He just simply hasn’t been healthy. Cryer was rehabbing an ankle injury for much of the summer, and has struggled with an illness since the Warriors went to Hawaii; he’s made just one of nine threes this preseason.
Cryer still needs to put together a good stretch of minutes this preseason, a marked contrast from training-camp invitee Miles Kelly, who dropped 24 points and six threes against Portland on Wednesday.