The Golden State Warriors have released their schedule for the 2026-27 season and there is a lot to take in. One underrated aspect of the schedule may be the fact that the Warriors have 15 back-to-backs which is tied for the second-most in the NBA next season.
Back-to-backs are tough on every team. Without a rest day between games, that means a higher chance of injury or fatigue without adequate recovery. It forces a lot of teams to rest their older or star players to ensure they don’t get hurt.
The main problem for the Warriors is that they have a ton of old players. They're going to have to rest their guys quite a bit next season and head coach Steve Kerr will have to decide which side of the back-to-back he’d rather have his veterans play.
Warriors will have to get creative to deal with schedule quirk
We saw him have to make these decisions last season. In fact, the Warriors essentially forfeited a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder last season by resting their stars because Kerr knew they would have a better chance of beating the Utah Jazz the following night.
It’s a far cry from the days when there was no way Stephen Curry would sit for a marquee matchup like that, but this is a different iteration of the Warriors and decisions like that just make sense at this point.
The Warriors may just have to have two separate starting lineups for those back-to-backs. Maybe the vets play one night and they have a starting five of Curry, Draymond Green, Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis and De’Anthony Melton. Then the other night they go with Brandin Podziemski, Yaxel Lendeborg, Will Richard, Gui Santos and Charles Bassey.
Sure, they would lose some of those games where they play their young guys, but at least Kerr would be getting them more playing time and giving his veterans a rest in the process.
It’s just a tough break and it has to feel like the NBA is picking on Golden State. Obviously the league is not, but couldn’t the Dubs have just gotten a little lucky and drawn one of the fewest number of back-to-backs?
Oh well, they can't complain about it no. The team will just have to deal with it and try to make plans to combat it. Kerr needs to make sure his guys are rested and that may cost the team games, but that's the only logical choice to make when the roster is constructed the way it currently is.
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