The Golden State Warriors wasted little time making their stance clear to open the season: Draymond Green is starting at power forward, not center.
Steve Kerr’s first starting lineup of the year puts Green alongside rookie Yaxel Lendeborg and veteran Al Horford in the frontcourt, with Brandin Podziemski joining Stephen Curry in the backcourt. Even with Kristaps Porzingis out of training camp because of illness, Golden State chose not to slide Green to the five - a move that had been part of the early-season setup last year.
That decision says plenty about where the Warriors want to go. Horford will serve as the stand-in for Porzingis for now, giving Golden State a more conventional starting group while still keeping a floor-spacing big in the mix as the team leans further into a five-out style this season.
The real test, of course, comes if Porzingis is still unavailable when the Warriors open against the Los Angeles Lakers in a few weeks. For now, Thursday’s lineup reveal shows Kerr and the Warriors are more interested in keeping Green out of the center spot than forcing him there to patch a temporary hole.
There’s also a practical wrinkle with Horford. Golden State was cautious about starting him last season because he was, and presumably will remain, on a minutes restriction. If the 40-year-old is in the opening five and also in the conversation to finish games, that leaves a narrow window to use him in the middle stretches.
The player left out of the first five is Gui Santos, and that omission stands out. One path to putting Green at center would have opened the door for Santos, letting Golden State roll out a frontcourt built around both forwards and Lendeborg.
Santos made a strong case to be part of the opening group. He started 29 of the Warriors’ last 31 games last season and emerged as the most intriguing development during an injury-riddled stretch for the franchise.
After the All-Star break, the 24-year-old averaged 15.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists while shooting 48.7% from the field, then scored 20 points in the Warriors’ Play-In Tournament win over the L.A. Clippers.
Still, his absence from the first lineup also underscores how much Golden State likes what it has in Lendeborg. The 11th overall pick won Summer League MVP and helped the team win the championship in July.
It also points to a larger shift in how the Warriors may be thinking about the middle of the floor. With Porzingis still to return and Charles Bassey also in the mix as a real rotation option, Golden State appears ready to move away from using Green as its primary center option.
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With Golden State dealing with roster injuries and other needs, that kind of flexibility matters immediately. Kerr has said he is comfortable using Lendeborg at multiple forward spots, and even in a small-ball center role, which is a strong sign the rookie could be pushed into a significant part of the rotation sooner than expected. [Read more 🡒]