The wings will get most of the attention when camp opens in Hawaii, but the real problem for Golden State is in the middle of the floor.
In a little over three weeks the Golden State Warriors will be practicing on the campus of BYU-Hawaii, and the question hanging over every one of those sessions is who is going to protect the rim.
Most of the offseason talk has been about the wings, because Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody will both miss the Oct. 21 opener against the Lakers while they rehab serious knee injuries, but the wing problem has an end date and the problem in the middle of the floor does not.
The Numbers Under the Basket
Last season Golden State finished 17th in defensive rating and gave up .562 shooting on two-point shots, which ranked 22nd in the league, and the 4.2 blocks a game the team averaged ranked 26th.
The defense tied for second in the league in steals, so this was not a lazy group, just one that could not make anyone miss once the ball got inside, and 31.0 defensive rebounds a game is what happens when a team spends long stretches with Draymond Green as the biggest player on the floor.
Center Rotation
The plan to fix that starts with Kristaps Porzingis, who agreed to a two-year, $40 million deal at the end of June even though he played only 15 games for Golden State after the trade deadline and has not played both ends of a back-to-back since January of 2024.
Behind him is Al Horford, who is 40 years old and played 45 games last season while averaging 1.1 blocks in 21.5 minutes, and then Charles Bassey, who suited up for four teams last season and signed a one-year deal in July.
Quinten Post is gone to Memphis after the front office chose not to match his offer sheet, so if Porzingis misses a stretch the choice comes down to a 40-year-old, a journeyman and a 36-year-old Green sliding to center again.
Mike Dunleavy told reporters last month, "The most important thing right now is we got to get off to a good start. We can't get in a hole because of the guys that we have out."
Those words were about Butler and Moody, but the same logic applies to the bigs, because the Warriors cannot afford to spend October and November giving up layups.
Butler's rehab has reportedly gone well and Moody is expected to make a full recovery, so the wing depth is a temporary issue, which is more than anyone can say about the center group.
What Camp Has to Answer
Yaxel Lendeborg, the 11th pick out of Michigan, gives Steve Kerr a 6-foot-9 forward who blocked more than a shot a game in college and already has people talking about him as a Rookie of the Year candidate, so some of the rim protection may have to come from him in smaller lineups.
Stephen Curry is 38 and has said he wants to finish his career with the Warriors, and a team built around a 38-year-old does not get many more chances to get the roster right.
Camp cannot make Porzingis healthier or Horford younger, but it can show whether Kerr trusts Bassey with real minutes and whether the front office needs to spend a trade chip on a center.
