The Golden State Warriors opened preseason play Sunday night in Hawaii against the Los Angeles Clippers, and the first look came with some expected rust. Stephen Curry was on the floor, which mattered after the knee injury that bothered him last season, but the early signs also pointed to a familiar issue that is not disappearing quickly: turnovers.
Luca Evans of the San Francisco Chronicle noted Curry’s sloppy stretches this way: "Stephen Curry still in preseason mode. Has thrown a couple passes out on drives in first half here that have had no chance. Just miscommunicated with Gui Santos on a back-cut."
Curry’s line was still solid enough on paper. He finished with 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting and hit two of his three tries from beyond the arc. But he also committed two turnovers in just 13 minutes, and that stands out because head coach Steve Kerr has made it clear that Curry and Draymond Green will not keep getting the same leash they’ve had in the past when it comes to ball security.
That’s the real shift here. Kerr is trying to install a different offensive approach, one that puts more value on protecting the ball. For players like Curry and Green, that means changing habits that have been baked in for years.
At Golden State’s peak, turnovers were easier to live with because the offense could overwhelm teams anyway. That version of the Warriors could afford some messiness. This group doesn’t have that same firepower, which makes the adjustment more demanding.
The big question is how bumpy this becomes. The ideal path would be for the Warriors to smooth things out during the preseason and enter the regular season cleanly, but that might be asking too much. The more realistic outcome is that the growing pains continue once the games count.
That matters because Golden State’s path to contention this season depends on getting out fast enough to push the front office toward a trade deadline move. A slow start makes that much harder.
Still, contention is not the only thing Kerr has in mind. He wants to leave the franchise in a better place for what comes next, and if that means spending the season teaching this new style and trimming the turnovers along the way, he may be willing to take that longer view.
Curry, for his part, has the talent, the work ethic, and the selflessness to clean it up. But this has been part of his game for his whole career, and changing it is going to take time.
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