The Warriors are heading into media day and training camp next week, and a few roster battles are about to get real.
Not every preseason question is up for grabs, though. The starting shooting guard spot, for instance, feels like something that’s probably already been settled between Brandin Podziemski and De’Anthony Melton. But there are three players whose preseason work could genuinely swing their situation in a meaningful way.
Brandon Williams is one of them. He signed a one-year, $2.4 million non-guaranteed deal, and if he’s still on the roster on opening night, $1.4 million of that becomes guaranteed.
On paper, that makes him look fairly safe. Golden State needed a point guard with real ball-handling and downhill ability, and Williams fits that ask.
Still, there are two paths that could make things interesting. One is a huge preseason from Dalen Terry. The 2022 first-round pick isn’t eligible for a two-way deal, and while he’s expected to spend this season with the Santa Cruz Warriors, he’d take a standard NBA contract from any team that offered one.
The other is LJ Cryer flashing enough that Williams looks shaky. Cryer is on a two-way contract, which gives Golden State some flexibility, but if he blows past Williams in camp and preseason, the Warriors would at least have to think hard about cutting Williams and opening a standard roster spot for Cryer now rather than dealing with that decision later in the season.
The other position battle is on the wing, where the Warriors are thin enough - and injured enough - at small forward that one of Gui Santos or Yaxel Lendeborg is likely to start alongside Draymond Green. Green, for what it’s worth, probably isn’t in danger of losing his place anytime soon. That may become a bigger conversation later in the season, but for now Steve Kerr is expected to stick with the 15th-year veteran.
Santos already showed what he can do down the stretch last season, starting 27 of his final 29 regular-season games and putting up 15.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists over that stretch. Even if Lendeborg wins the preseason head-to-head, Santos still looks locked into a major role.
But Lendeborg has a real shot. Kerr told him he could start right away, and that tracks with the kind of summer he just had. Lendeborg was excellent in summer league and came away with MVP and Championship Game MVP honors.
Cryer, meanwhile, has a separate fight on his hands even if Williams keeps the backup point guard job. He already proved he belongs in the league last season, appearing in 18 games for Golden State and averaging 8.2 points while hitting 39.4 percent from three. His net rating was +1.4, according to Cleaning the Glass, and his Offensive EPM landed in the 70th percentile.
The issue is opportunity. The Warriors already have Stephen Curry, Williams, Melton, Podziemski and others in the guard mix, so minutes won’t come easy. Cryer doesn’t need to reinvent himself into a flashy table-setter, either; he’s likely to remain more of a combo guard than a pure point guard.
But if he keeps bombing away from deep and keeps getting better defensively on the ball, he could force Kerr’s hand and carve out steady minutes anyway.
In Other News...
Steve Kerr Is Pushing Draymond Green Into A Different Warriors Role
Draymond Green says the Warriors are already thinking ahead to a different version of his game, one that would ask him to lean more into scoring than the playmaking-heavy role he has long held under Steve Kerr. Speaking on his podcast, Green said Kerr has signaled a shift for the 2026-27 season, with more of an emphasis on putting the ball in the basket and stretching the floor rather than functioning mostly as a connector for everyone else.
It is a notable wrinkle for a player whose value in Golden State has often come from reading the floor, making quick decisions and living with the occasional turnover because of how much the offense ran through him. If the plan really is to nudge Green toward a more aggressive scoring profile, it would mark a meaningful change in how Kerr imagines the late-career version of one of the Warriors most important voices and most unconventional weapons. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Finally Tighten One Standard Around Curry And Draymond
For years, the Warriors have built their identity around Stephen Curry and Draymond Green carrying an enormous share of the responsibility, and that has sometimes meant a little extra leeway when the game got messy. But Steve Kerrs approach has reportedly shifted, with the coach no longer treating turnovers from his biggest names as something to simply absorb as part of the deal. It fits a broader expectation inside the organization that accountability has to apply to everyone, even the players who helped define the franchises championship era.
The timing matters because Golden States issues go well beyond sloppy possessions, and the roster has not been meaningfully reshaped to ease the burden on Kerrs core. The front office has largely stood pat, leaving the team to make do with what it has while trying to squeeze cleaner play out of an imperfect group. In that sense, the turnover message is less a cure than a reminder of how little margin the Warriors have left when the supporting cast is thin and the standard around Curry and Green is finally getting stricter. [Read more 🡒]
Buddy Hields Latest Move Says A Lot About His Post-Warriors Slide
Buddy Hields latest stop underscores how quickly a veteran shooter can slide from a meaningful role into a much thinner lane. After a reduced stint with the Hawks following his time with Golden State, Hield has now been moved again, this time as part of a deal that sent him and Ryan Nembhard to Charlotte in exchange for Dorian Finney-Smith.
The move leaves Hield heading into a situation that does not appear especially friendly for his playing time, with the Hornets already stocked on the wing. Charlotte is also reportedly waiving Nembhard, another sign that this trade was more about reshaping the roster than carving out a clear lane for everyone involved, and it puts Hield in a spot where he will have to fight just to find steady minutes. [Read more 🡒]