Steve Kerr had not seen Kristaps Porziņģis. He used the word anyway. Concerning. The Warriors are thirteen days from a roster deadline, and the big man the frontcourt was built around is not in the building.
Golden State is 0-1 in the exhibition schedule. Stephen Curry is on a minutes cap. Two starters are out until 2027. Preseason is supposed to be a dress rehearsal. This one is an absence report.
The only completed game was Sunday, October 4, in Honolulu. The Clippers won 104-101 at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Curry scored 10 points in 14 minutes. Draymond Green also played 14 minutes. Yaxel Lendeborg started. A three-point loss with the stars on a short leash is not a verdict. It is a sample.
Tuesday’s game against the Lakers at Chase Center was scheduled for 7 p.m. PT on NBA TV. As of this writing that game is on the clock, so there is no final here. Luka Dončić was ruled out on the second night of a back-to-back after 21 points in 16 minutes in Monday’s 127-103 Lakers win at Sacramento. Curry, Green, and Al Horford were expected to play about 20 minutes. Curry is not scheduled to travel for Wednesday at Portland. That game is October 7, 7 p.m. PT, NBA TV.
The rest of the exhibition slate is Sacramento at home on Saturday, October 10, at 5:30 p.m. PT, at the Lakers on October 13, and Portland at home on October 16. The opening-night roster has to be set by 2 p.m. on Monday, October 19.
Porziņģis did not travel to Hawaii for training camp. Anthony Slater reported the health absence and the timetable are indefinite. Kerr said Tuesday he had not seen him, thought he would be around, and called the situation definitely concerning. He said the team wants him back, that he is a talented player, that they thought he was in a good place, and that the response is medical help and support. The condition has not been disclosed. A report of a two-year, $40 million re-signing this summer is not confirmed in a team release cited here. Treat the figure as reported.
The other absences are not mysterious. Jimmy Butler III is rehabbing a torn right ACL and is cleared only for light on-court work. Moses Moody is recovering from a ruptured left patellar tendon. Both have been described as out until 2027. The knee that cost Curry 27 games last season is why the minutes cap exists. Twenty minutes on Tuesday. No Portland flight on Wednesday. That is the plan, not a tweak.
The storyline that matters next is the frontcourt without Porziņģis and without Butler. Lendeborg started the Hawaii opener. Horford is on an exhibition limit. Kerr has not been given a return window for the 7-foot-2 big the roster was built to use. Wednesday in Portland is another night without Curry, by design, and another night without Porziņģis, by absence.
The film note from Honolulu is small because the minutes were small. A 104-101 loss, with Curry and Green at 14 minutes each, does not grade the offense Kerr and Green have said they are changing. It grades the second unit, and it introduces Lendeborg’s first start. Anything louder than that is a projection.
If Porziņģis is still out on October 19, who starts next to Horford, and how many of those minutes are Lendeborg’s?
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