Warriors hoping unorthodox starting lineup sticks beyond opening night
PORTLAND, Ore. — After tinkering with a myriad of lineup configurations during the preseason, Steve Kerr settled on a starting-five for the team’s first game of the 2024-25 regular season.
Against the Blazers, the Warriors went with Steph Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis.
“I’m looking to see if that group can set a tone defensively, obviously very athletic group, lot of size,” Kerr said pregame at the Moda Center. “We have rim protection with Draymond and Trayce. Those two were really good defensively together last year. It’s going to require us to execute offensively and play downhill, play fast.”
Kerr said that he hopes the starting lineup he appointed opening night is the one he’ll go with all year. It doesn’t sound like Golden State plans to adjust its starting lineup on a matchup basis, at least to start the season. The preference is for this group to be effective enough to force opponents to adjust to them.
Starting Wiggins at shooting guard and Kuminga at the three along with two non-shooting bigs means the group is light on floor spacing. But they aim to counteract that by amping up their defense and running in transition.
Kuminga in particular is dangerous on fast breaks. Although the Warriors struggled in transition in both directions last year, Kuminga individually ranked in the 79.7th percentile in fast-break scoring efficiency.
“We’re really pushing him to run the floor,” Kerr said of Kuminga earlier this week. “That’s his gift — his athleticism and his speed. He has a tendency at times to kind of get into a home run trot instead of going Usain Bolt and sprinting as fast as he can.”
Because Wiggins is playing the two, Curry is the only player in the lineup shorter than 6-foot-6. That mirrored Portland’s starting unit of Anfernee Simons (6-foot-4), Toumani Camara (6-foot-8), Deni Avdija (6-foot-9), Jerami Grant (6-foot-8) and Deandre Ayton (7 feet).
In his career, Wiggins has played an estimated 18% of his minutes as a shooting guard, per Basketball-Reference — but most of that came early in his career in Minnesota. He didn’t play a minute at shooting guard last season.
The five of Curry, Wiggins, Kuminga, Green and Jackson-Davis played just one preseason game together. They would’ve started another, but Curry’s sprained right index finger sidelined him for Golden State’s preseason finale.
Last season, that exact combination didn’t play a single minute together. Wiggins and Kuminga quelled some concerns about their ability to share the court, but they did so either with extra shooting next to them (Curry and Klay Thompson, Curry and Brandin Podziemski or a shooting big like Dario Saric) or with Kuminga playing the power forward in small-ball units.
But this season is not last season, as the Warriors look to reimagine their identity. Part of that will be their new starting-five.
“They did a good job in the two preseason games we played (them),” Kerr said. “So hopefully it continues to look good and we’ll give it a shot.”
Notable
— Fourteen Warriors showed up to the team’s optional shootaround in Portland on Wednesday, including Draymond Green, Buddy Hield, Kyle Anderson and Moses Moody.
“Super excited,” Anderson said. “It always feels like the first day of school but like 100 times better when you’ve got the opening day, first game of the season.”
— The Warriors traded for the G League rights to Kevin Knox, who impressed during Summer League and in preseason. Knox could have pursued opportunities elsewhere, including overseas, but the Warriors organization made a good impression on the former ninth overall pick as he tries to work his way back into the NBA.
— The Warriors are fully healthy to start the season, with Wiggins still ramping up to a normal, 30-plus minute workload (though Kerr said he’s close). Portland had Shaedon Sharpe, Robert Williams III and Matisse Thybulle unavailable.
— Golden State opens its season with matchups with the Blazers, Jazz and Clippers. Those teams are possibly the worst three in the West, with San Antonio also projected to be in the mix. ESPN’s Basketball Power Index gives projects them to finish with 34, 32 and 41 wins, respectively. For what it’s worth, the same model pegs the Warriors as a 42-40 club.