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October 15, 2026
The trend

Gui Santos has 11 of the 30 turnovers in Kerr's likely starting five

Golden State has turned it over 104 times in five exhibitions, fewer than the 110 of last October, when the same club went on to average 15.7 a game. The count moved off Brandin Podziemski and Draymond Green and onto the forward Steve Kerr wants starting for his playmaking.

CE
Cam EllisOct 15, 20264 min read
Every call on this site goes on a public ledger and gets graded. The misses stay up.
Gui Santos in a studio headshot, wearing the Warriors' white home jersey with blue trim and a white headband, against a plain white background.

Steve Kerr put a number on the problem after Monday's practice. "We have, I think, 90 turnovers through four games," he said, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area, and much of Monday's film session was about "time and score, risk/reward type stuff." The box scores give 84, which Poole noted. On Tuesday in Las Vegas the Warriors added 20 more, nine of them in the second quarter, and Kerr called them "mindless turnovers that completely allowed the game to get away from us."

That makes 104 in five exhibitions, 20.8 a game. The five opponents committed 115 in the same games.

Last October, by the same count#

Last fall's exhibitions are the nearest comparison.

Golden State, team turnovers includedGamesTurnoversPer game
Preseason, October 2025511022.0
First five regular-season games, 2025-2658216.4
Full regular season, 2025-26821,28415.7
Preseason, October 2026510420.8

Through four exhibitions last fall the count was 87, three more than the 84 Kerr held a film session over this week. The same club then turned it over 19 times in the opener at the Lakers and nine times two nights later against Denver. Preseason turnovers run high on both benches, and last October's opponents had 101.

The table does not hold the offense, which is new this fall. Kerr said that is why he waited: "I haven't harped on them until now because I know we're really teaching a lot of things that are new for our guys. But now is the time."

Where the count moved#

The total is down six from last October, and it sits with different players.

PlayerOctober 2025 preseasonOctober 2026 preseason
Brandin Podziemski14 in 107 minutes, 5 games5 in 89 minutes, 4 games
Draymond Green14 in 74 minutes, 4 games3 in 52 minutes, 3 games
Stephen Curry8 in 88 minutes, 4 games6 in 64 minutes, 4 games
Gui Santos5 in 71 minutes, 4 games11 in 86 minutes, 4 games
Yaxel Lendeborgdid not play5 in 90 minutes, 4 games

Those are the five Kerr is leaning toward for October 21 at the Lakers, Anthony Slater of ESPN reported Monday. Together they have 30 turnovers this preseason. Santos has 11 of them. The other four have 19 in 295 minutes.

Podziemski and Green had 28 turnovers between them last October and have eight now. Santos went from the fewest of the four returning players to the most, five against Sacramento on Saturday and three in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Last season he averaged 1.5 a game in 20.5 minutes across 68 games, 30 of them starts, by ESPN's count. Four exhibitions have him near twice that.

Kerr has said what he wants from him in that lineup. For the case in which Kristaps Porzingis is not back, one option Kerr laid out was Green at center, Lendeborg at power forward and "maybe Gui" at small forward, "to give us some size and playmaking," Poole reported on October 9. A forward who is asked to make plays handles the ball more often, and a count of turnovers does not separate the passes he was asked to throw from the ones Kerr called mindless. The film session was about the second kind.

Santos is not where the roster's turnovers pile up. Brandon Williams has 15 in 84 minutes off the bench and Charles Bassey 12 in 89, the two highest counts on the team. Santos's are the ones inside the five Kerr is leaning toward.

The week in front of them#

Portland visits Chase Center on Friday night for the last exhibition. Lendeborg rolled his left ankle in the third quarter on Tuesday, left briefly and came back, Poole reported.

Then the Lakers on October 21. They forced 24 turnovers at Chase Center on October 6 and 20 in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Memphis comes in on October 23, and Golden State plays at Phoenix the next night, at Denver on October 26 and at Minnesota on October 28. Those are the first five games, the same window in which last year's club went from 22.0 a game in October exhibitions to 16.4.

Sources: ESPN box scores for Golden State's five 2026 preseason games, its five 2025 preseason games and its first five 2025-26 regular-season games, for every team and player turnover and minute; box scores for all 82 of Golden State's 2025-26 regular-season games, for the season total; ESPN's athlete page for Santos's 2025-26 averages; NBA.com box scores for the five 2026 preseason games, which agree on every player count; Monte Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area, October 13, 2026, for Kerr's quotations after Monday's practice and Tuesday's game, the second-quarter count and Lendeborg's ankle; Monte Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area, October 9, 2026, for Kerr on Santos; Anthony Slater, ESPN, October 12, 2026, for the leaning starting five; ESPN's Warriors schedule for the dates.

Filed under Warriors

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The Warriors announced Wednesday that Kristaps Porzingis, who missed training camp and the first five preseason games, met with general manager Mike Dunleavy and Dr. Rick Celebrini at the practice facility on Tuesday and will remain out indefinitely due to the same health-related matter, but will be around the team. The club said it will give an update on a potential resumption of practice, playing status or timeline when available and appropriate. ESPN's Anthony Slater reported he is not cleared to practice. With Green and Horford resting in Tuesday's preseason game against the Lakers in Las Vegas, Charles Bassey started at center beside Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos and Yaxel Lendeborg and played 27 minutes with 12 rebounds, and Graham Ike played 12, in a 101-89 win. The season opens October 21 at the Lakers, with a back-to-back on October 23 and 24.

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Steve Kerr said after Monday's practice that he is leaning toward starting Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos, Yaxel Lendeborg and Draymond Green on October 21, with Al Horford off the bench, as reported by Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area. His reason was Horford's minutes: about 20 a game is the limit, and he wants Green or Horford on the floor as often as possible to anchor the defense. Saturday against Sacramento was the only preseason game Horford has played as a reserve. By NBA.com's substitution log, Green or Horford was on the floor for 37:32 of 48 minutes, both for 6:10, and neither for 10:28, of which Charles Bassey covered the last 8:09. Horford averaged 21.6 minutes across 45 games last season by ESPN's game log, 20.0 across the first 30, and did not play both nights of any of Golden State's 16 back-to-backs. The second and third games of the season are a back-to-back. Kristaps Porzingis is expected at Chase Center on Tuesday to meet the performance staff, and Kerr could not say whether he will be available for the opener. Horford is not traveling to Tuesday's game in Las Vegas, which Kerr called planned maintenance.

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Steve Kerr moved Al Horford out of Golden State's starting lineup before Tuesday's preseason game against the Lakers and said Horford will most likely come off the bench when the regular season starts, as reported by Anthony Slater of ESPN and Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area. Gui Santos replaced him, Draymond Green moved to center and Yaxel Lendeborg to power forward. Horford then did not play at all: Luca Evans of the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing a team source, that he was scratched with a left knee contusion as a largely precautionary measure, and Slater reported he will not travel to Portland on Wednesday. The new five of Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Santos, Lendeborg and Green played 4:54 together at the start of the game and outscored the Lakers 23-13 in that stretch, per ESPN's play-by-play. Golden State won 124-98 against a Lakers team on the second night of a back-to-back that did not play Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves or Walker Kessler. Horford started 13 of his 45 games for Golden State in 2025-26 and played more than 25 minutes in 14 of them. Kristaps Porzingis remains away from the team with what general manager Mike Dunleavy has called a health issue.

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Golden State lost its preseason opener to the Clippers, 104-101, in Honolulu on Sunday, October 4. The five Steve Kerr named on October 1, Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Yaxel Lendeborg, Draymond Green and Al Horford, started and played three minutes and 14 seconds together before the first substitution, per the NBA's play-by-play. Curry, Green and Horford played the first half only, at 12:58, 13:52 and 15:42. Lendeborg played 18:44, the most minutes of the 18 Warriors who appeared, and started the second half with Podziemski, De'Anthony Melton, Gui Santos and Charles Bassey. He had four points on 1-of-6 shooting, a game-high nine rebounds and three assists. Kerr said afterward that Lendeborg was good and needs to be more aggressive. When Kerr named the five, he said he did not know whether it would start on opening night, and the reason he gave was Horford's age and minutes. Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody did not play. Five preseason games remain before the October 21 opener at the Lakers.

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Steve Kerr told NBC Sports Bay Area on September 3 that he would not predict a record, and in the same conversation named the lineup question he has to answer in camp: Yaxel Lendeborg at small forward, Draymond Green at power forward, Kristaps Porzingis or Al Horford at center. Kerr also said out loud that he cannot count on his older players for 82 games. Those four played 171 of a possible 328 last season, when Golden State went 37-45. Jimmy Butler, who turns 37 on September 14, is not expected back until the second half; Moses Moody is not expected back until 2027. Two takes filed, on Lendeborg's minutes and on how many games the four veterans reach.

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Golden State's 37-45 season splits four ways by who was available. With Curry and Butler both playing, the Warriors were 20-13 across 33 games. With neither, they were 10-24 across 34. The condition they open the 2026-27 season in, Curry available and Butler not, happened ten times last season and produced a 4-6 record. Butler is not expected back before early 2027 and Moody has no club timeline, which leaves 31.1 minutes a night at small forward and 25.7 at guard to be covered by Gui Santos, Will Richard, Brandin Podziemski, De'Anthony Melton and a rookie the club drafted eleventh. Two takes filed, on Yaxel Lendeborg's opening-night role and on how much of the season Butler plays.

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On the record

Called Shots →
Held upAug 21, 2026

In San Francisco's Week 1 game against the Rams on September 10, 2026, Jack Jones plays MORE defensive snaps than Nate Hobbs. A player absent from the game book's Playtime Percentage page counts as zero, whether he is inactive, on injured reserve, or no longer on the roster. The take is CORRECT only if Jones's defensive snap count is strictly greater than Hobbs's. It is WRONG if Hobbs's is equal to or greater than Jones's, and that includes the case where both are zero.

The board moved both men today, Jones from 5 to 7 and inside the projected 53 and Hobbs from 6 to 5 and outside it, off the August 20 game book. This call takes the same view forward to a game that counts rather than restating the roster projection. The case: Jones has played 37 preseason snaps across the two games, was credited with two of San Francisco's seven passes defensed at the Chargers with no other 49er credited with more than one, and played 91.5 percent of Miami's defensive snaps across all 17 games in 2025 per Over The Cap's participation table. Hobbs has played none, pulled a groin at the August 11 joint practice with Tennessee, and was given a few weeks by Kyle Shanahan on August 13, which lands between August 27 and September 3 against a roster deadline of August 30. The risk is real and is stated: a few weeks from August 13 clears a September 10 kickoff, so a healthy Hobbs is a corner San Francisco signed to play and Jones is a corner it signed in June. Renardo Green's hamstring, under imaging on August 21, can move this in either direction by changing how many corners dress at all. UPDATED August 22, 2026, by the beat sweep: the anchor agrees, independently and afterwards. Matt Maiocco's 53-man projection 3.0, published August 21, lists a cornerback six of Lenoir, Green, Stout, Jack Jones, Luter and Prysock and does not mention Nate Hobbs anywhere in the piece, writing that Jones 'is slotted to take over as the starter for as long as Green is out.' The desk moved both men at 3:20 p.m. PT on August 21 off the game book and Maiocco published the same day, so this is corroboration and not the source. The two pass breakups are now three-sourced: the game book's defensive column, PFF's charting (team-best coverage grade of 89.9, no catch allowed on two targets), and Kyle Shanahan. The falsifier now has dates: the club published a Raiders-week schedule with practices on August 22 at 1:50 p.m. PT, August 23 at 10:15 a.m. and August 25 at 10:15 a.m., all with media availability, so any Hobbs practice report has three scheduled chances before the August 30 cutdown. Renardo Green's imaging result was promised for Friday August 21 and had still not been published by anybody as of Saturday morning.

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Steve Kerr said after practice on Thursday, October 15, that the Warriors do not play Stephen Curry in back-to-backs and asked fans to be mindful of the schedule when buying tickets, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. The league has dated 80 of Golden State's 82 regular-season games, and those 80 include 15 back-to-backs by the schedules on ESPN and Basketball Reference, which agree date for date. Six end at Chase Center: Phoenix on November 2, Detroit on January 7, Charlotte on January 13, Milwaukee on January 22, Memphis on March 17 and Toronto on March 25. All six follow a home game the night before. Kerr announced a back-to-back limit for Curry once before, in January 2025. In 2025-26 the Warriors played 16 back-to-backs and Curry played both nights of five of them, the last on January 19 and 20.

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Golden State blocked 346 shots in 2025-26, 4.2 a game, 26th in the league, and pulled down 31.0 defensive rebounds a game, 25th. It also finished second in steals and sixth in turnovers forced. Three men who are still under contract blocked shots at better than 1.5 per 36 minutes last season: Charles Bassey at 2.52 on 100 minutes, Al Horford at 1.89, Kristaps Porzingis at 1.62. They played 1,425 of the team's 19,805 minutes, 7.2 percent, across 65 games. The next rate on the list is Draymond Green's 0.81. Quinten Post and Trayce Jackson-Davis, third and eighth on the team in blocks, are gone, and with the other departures go 75 of the 346 blocks and 578 of the 2,540 defensive rebounds. The three players added since are a rookie forward, a power forward and a guard. Frank Vogel was announced as associate head coach on September 17 and Steve Kerr says he is turning the defense over to him. Vogel's twelve seasons as a head coach produced three defenses that finished first in the league and two that finished third. Camp opens in Hawaii on September 29. Two takes filed.

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