Coming into the season, Golden State Warriors' explicitly stated goals was to cut down on the turnovers.
Last season, especially when the rotation got depleted, turnover issues were a major cause of the volatile play that plagued Golden State on the offensive end of the court. Teams simply got too many opportunities to capitalize on the Warriors' mistakes on a nightly basis—and with Stephen Curry out for much of the back half of the campaign, it was a trend Golden State frankly couldn't afford.
There's been some positive developments on that front in 2026-27. Yaxel Lendeborg has emerged as a true secondary ball-handler, taking over playmaking duties when Curry's been off the court essentially from the first game of the season. That's led to a relative improvement in that category—the Warriors are now 17th in the league in turnovers compared to a finish of 27th last season.
But by pure numbers, Golden State is actually averaging more turnovers than they did over the duration of 2025-26. Even if you isolate that to their winning streak, which started on Oct. 26, that statement still holds true.
To this point, it hasn't been a major concern—because the Warriors have been finding a way to win games. But with Curry out for what seems to be close to a month, that emphasis needs to return to the forefront.
The Warriors can find some wins while Curry is out—but they can't afford to make mistakes
The most impressive part of Golden State's win streak, hands down, was that the team very rarely required Curry to put games on his shoulders in order to come away with a victory.
Of course, Curry had his superstar performances. He put up 41 points in the overtime victory over the Orlando Magic, and his 44 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves were what allowed the Warriors to overcome one of the West's best defensive teams. But Curry, at times, was a luxury—and that was a refreshing feeling for a Golden State team that's done nothing but shackle Curry with the burden of keeping them competitive over the past two seasons.
There's enough of a structure here, with the continued emergence of Lendeborg and Brandin Podziemski as real offensive contributors, to survive a month-long absence from Curry. It's certainly not going to look pretty at times, but it's doable.
There isn't, though, enough room to consistently make mistakes and expect results close to what they've found so far this season.
Lendeborg is currently averaging 3.3 turnovers to accompany his 3.7 assists on the season. Green, despite his effectiveness as a playmaker in his new, crystallized role in the offense, is averaging 2.9. The bench unit as a whole is averaging 6.9 per game—good for 21st in the league among other team's reserves.
Steve Kerr himself admitted that a large part of the turnover issues last year were a result of how lax he became on certain issues in his coaching. If there's a time for the team to truly dial in on this aspect of its game, it's almost certainly right now—and one of the first major tests of this new era for Kerr as head coach will be his ability to keep the team's momentum even relatively intact for the next month.
And with looming matchups against the San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, and Boston Celtics (three of which are in the top half of the league in average turnovers forced), turnovers are going to be one of the deciding factors for Golden State.
If the Warriors can start to improve in that category even with Curry out, it will be an excellent sign for the trajectory this team can take over the remainder of the season. If they can't, things may quickly start look a lot rougher than they have to this point in the campaign.
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