Starting center Kristaps Porzingis appears all but certain to miss the Golden State Warriors’ season opener against the Los Angeles Lakers next week, having continued to deal with an illness that’s kept him away from the team over training camp and to this point of preseason.
Without their starting center, Steve Kerr and the Warriors are clearly leaning back into a small-ball approach as evidenced in Saturday night’s 111-106 victory over the Sacramento Kings.
Warriors are going small again without Kristaps Porzingis
Golden State signed Charles Bassey, and even the two-way contracted Graham Ike, seemingly for this kind of scenario, yet that pair appear on the outside of the rotation even in Porzingis’ absence.
Bassey has impressed and once again been quite productive in preseason, but the 26-year-old didn’t enter Saturday night’s game until the fourth quarter where he recorded five points and three rebounds in just over eight minutes. Ike, meanwhile, didn’t play a single second after appearing in Golden State’s first three preseason games.
Instead of utilizing Bassey and/or Ike, the Warriors had Al Horford as their sole big man off the bench. For the second time in a row, excluding Wednesday’s game in Portland where essentially the entire rotation was out, the Warriors started small with Gui Santos, Yaxel Lendeborg and Draymond Green in the frontcourt.
As Golden State wind down their preseason, the more they’ll be focusing on a proper dress rehearsal for the games with meaning. Saturday may have been the biggest indicator to date that without Porzingis, the Warriors will lean on Green and Lendeborg as small-ball five options, and Horford playing 20-24 minutes off the bench.
Warriors’ new small-ball lineup is still unproven
There’s optimism this could work, largely because of the addition of Lendeborg as a nearly 6’10”, 240lb forward who brings legitimate size as well as skill. Santos is also 6’8” and Green is well known for playing above his size.
There are still boxes to be ticked in terms of its viability. The two games they’ve played have looked good, but they’ve come against a Lakers team without 7’2” Walker Kessler dominating the paint, and against a lowly Kings team missing Domantas Sabonis and with little interior presence.
Will the Warriors be able to continue down this path come opening night against Kessler and the Lakers? Only time will tell and there remains a chance that Bassey will have to be called upon for minutes off the bench.
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