{"id":951165,"date":"2026-11-03T14:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T14:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951165\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T14:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T14:30:16","slug":"is-the-warriors-ceiling-higher-than-everyone-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951165\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Warriors\u2019 ceiling higher than everyone thought?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Warriors didn\u2019t win five straight games all last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just two weeks into 2026-27, they\u2019re already going streaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since falling to 0-3, the Warriors have ripped off five straight wins, capped by Monday\u2019s 116-113 comeback over the Suns at Chase Center. Golden State trailed by 17 points early, then Steph Curry erupted for 25 second-half points to will the Warriors to victory. Charles Bassey, playing heavy minutes after Draymond Green\u2019s third-quarter ejection, flew around for 19 points and eight rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By beating the Suns, the Warriors swept a back-to-back \u2014 something they did just twice last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Warriors are doing this while still getting comfortable with offensive adjustments, with Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody in street clothes, and presumptive starting center Kristaps Porzingis<\/a> MIA.<\/p>\n

After Sunday\u2019s victory, one Warriors veteran reveled in the locker room \u2014 \u201cHow \u2018bout them Warriors! They were ready to write us off!\u201d \u2014 referencing outside prognosticators circling like vultures after their 0-3 start. Most pundits have been down on Golden State\u2019s outlook since the start of the season. A hot week in the Fall won\u2019t necessarily have everyone making a 180-degree turn, some of the most bullish internal preseason projections are starting to look prescient.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels very real,\u201d coach Steve Kerr said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been focused on the process of just trying to get better and we\u2019ve been doing a good job of that. Our guys are locked in. Winning those two games on the road, in Denver and Minnesota, kind of righted the ship. And now we\u2019ve carried the momentum forward. So we turned a bad start into a good start, and now we\u2019ve got to keep it going.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The optimistic case for the Warriors heading into the season went something like this: A healthy Curry remains elite, Brandin Podziemski makes strides in his fourth year, rookie Yaxel Lendeborg makes an immediate impact, and a re-energized coaching staff implements productive tweaks.<\/p>\n

Check, check, major check, check.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The key for Golden State is to at least tread water while Butler and Moody recover. The meltdown against the Grizzlies<\/a> was a painful flashback to the Warriors\u2019 late-game woes of recent seasons, but the team recovered as well as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys are understanding their roles, we\u2019re playing hard, and you\u2019re happy to be rewarded for that effort,\u201d Curry said. \u201cAnd again, nobody was panicking, and also we haven\u2019t done anything. So we\u2019re just living in the moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The present moment is one of earned optimism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So much of that stems from Lendeborg, who has transformed what\u2019s possible for this team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today<\/p>\n

\"Four<\/a><\/p>\n

5 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

6 days ago<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s typically fair to expect rookies to be up and down. Maybe they have 20 great games, 25 so-so ones, and 20 where they\u2019re basically unplayable. Through eight games \u2014 roughly 10% of the season \u2014 the 24-year-old has eclipsed 30 points twice and had just one stinker. Lendeborg never quite found his rhythm against the Suns but still finished with 16 points, five rebounds, five assists, and a key late block on Jalen Green.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Warriors are already trusting Lendeborg to run a heavy dose of high pick-and-rolls and are running plays to isolate him at the elbows against mismatches. He has been one of the most efficient isolation scorers in the league through eight games, a stunning development for a prospect many analysts viewed as a defense-first connector.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a lot like playing with Jimmy [Butler],\u201d Podziemski said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lendeborg has scored more points than Kevin Durant, made more 3s than Paul George and James Harden, and grabbed more rebounds than Joel Embiid. In Denver, the Warriors ran their fourth-quarter offense through him. Against the Clippers, he hit stepback 3s he rarely practices. In Minneapolis, he dropped 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s changed us dramatically,\u201d Kerr said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Curry leads the league in Player Efficiency Rating and Box Plus-Minus \u2014 catch-all advanced metrics. At 38, he\u2019s averaging 30 points in 28.8 minutes per game. He\u2019s still as powerful an offensive engine as anyone in the league.<\/p>\n

Podziemski has emerged as a reliable second-side creator and has improved defensively. He\u2019s averaging 17 points, 5.0 assists, and 4.8 rebounds while frequently wrecking opposing offenses\u2019 drives in help defense. If he continues to play as he has to start the season, his five-year, $110 million extension will be a bargain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrandin\u2019s a great competitor,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t get down. I think he\u2019s really made improvements since his first couple years in terms of after a slow start, not getting down on himself and fighting through a slow start. He\u2019s got a lot of confidence now, more than he\u2019s ever had, and he\u2019s playing at a high level.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With help from a focused coaching staff, the Warriors have bought in and approached every game since the opener with tenacity. The front office can take early victory laps for landing role players Georges Niang, Brandon Williams, and Bassey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What feels different about this group from last year\u2019s?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYax,\u201d Curry said. \u201cBP taking another step forward. B-Will\u2019s been great for us off the bench, giving us something different that we haven\u2019t had in a while. I think we\u2019ve had some individual production that\u2019s been pretty cool, some standout guys have made their presence felt night after night. I think collectively \u2026 we\u2019re probably a little more prepared on the details of what we\u2019re trying to do, and not just taking for granted that you can play like the Warriors of old and just expect good things to happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sportsbooks pegged the Warriors as a 37-win team before the season. They\u2019re 5-3 and would be 6-2 if they hadn\u2019t choked against Memphis. It hasn\u2019t been an easy schedule, either: The Grizzlies have been hot, the Lakers are in win-now mode around MVP candidate Luka Doncic, and Golden State has already had a pair of back-to-backs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around the West, the Thunder have been decimated by injuries; the Clippers, Kings, and Jazz are messes; and the Nuggets have real issues to sort through. One or two top-six seeds look up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Maybe some folks were too quick to write off the Warriors. Maybe age will eventually catch up to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Golden State\u2019s early-season turnaround is at least cause for rethinking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Warriors didn\u2019t win five straight games all last season.\u00a0 Just two weeks into 2026-27, they\u2019re already going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,7899,7901,5552,7902,58047,354030,590,85,17205,58049,275299],"class_list":["post-951165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brandin-podziemski","tag-draymond-green","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-joe-lacob","tag-mike-dunleavy","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-steph-curry","tag-steve-kerr","tag-yaxel-lendeborg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}