Al Horford is headed back to the bench he sat on for 32 games last season

Steve Kerr took Al Horford out of Golden State's starting lineup on Tuesday, and then a bruised knee kept him out of the game altogether. Gui Santos started in his place against the Lakers. Draymond Green moved to center.

Kerr said Horford will most likely come off the bench when the regular season opens on October 21. Anthony Slater of ESPN and Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area both reported it before the game.

That sounds like a demotion for a five-time All-Star. Check the address, though.

Horford played 45 games for Golden State last season. He started 13 of them.

The job he had last season#

He came off the bench in 32 of his 45 games in 2025-26, per Basketball Reference. He played more than 25 minutes in 14 of them, per ESPN's game log, and averaged a little under 22. He turned 40 in June. (Forty is not the age at which the minutes go up.)

Kerr had opened the preseason with Horford at center in a five of Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Yaxel Lendeborg, Green and Horford. On Saturday he said Curry, Green and Horford would play the first half only, "probably between 12 and 16 minutes," per Johnson. That five lasted one game. Tuesday's change puts Horford back in the role he had for most of last season.

Then he did not play in it. Luca Evans of the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing a team source, that Horford was scratched with a left knee contusion and that the move was largely precautionary. Slater reported that Horford will not travel to Portland for Wednesday's game. ESPN's box score lists him as a coach's decision, which is technically true of anybody who sits.

What replaced him#

Santos to the wing, Lendeborg to power forward, Green to the middle. Joey Akeley of Sports Illustrated laid out the shuffle before tip.

The new five played the first 4:54 of the game together and outscored the Lakers 23-13 in that stretch, per ESPN's play-by-play. It did not share the floor again. Curry and Green played the first half only, again: 14 minutes for Curry, 15 for Green, who was plus-25 with eight assists and one made shot, a corner three.

Lendeborg led everybody with 17 points. Golden State won 124-98.

Now for the bad news about the good news. The Lakers had played in Sacramento the night before. Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler did not play, and ESPN's box score lists all three as coach's decisions. The 23-13 was Golden State's new starters against a Lakers team on its second night in two days, missing its best player.

Who plays center#

Green at center is what the move costs, and it is also most of what the roster has. Kristaps Porzingis has not been with the team since camp opened, with what general manager Mike Dunleavy has called a health issue. Evans reported that Porzingis was again not on the bench Tuesday, and quoted Kerr: "We want him back. He's a very talented player, and so, we thought that he was in a pretty good place. So, it's definitely concerning."

Behind Green on Tuesday, Charles Bassey played 14 minutes and Graham Ike, on a two-way contract, played 12. Horford joins that list from the bench when the knee allows.

Anyway. Three preseason games remain after Portland: Sacramento on Saturday, the Lakers on October 13 and Portland on October 16. Then the Lakers again on October 21, for real. The knee is precautionary, by a team source's account, and the job waiting for Horford when it heals is the one he had for 32 games last season.

He knows where the chair is.

Sources: ESPN box scores and play-by-play, Golden State vs. LA Lakers, October 6, and Golden State at LA Clippers, October 4, for starters, minutes, points, assists, plus-minus, substitutions, and the players who did not play; ESPN's Lakers and Warriors preseason schedules for the dates and the Sacramento game on October 5; Anthony Slater, ESPN, October 6, as relayed by RotoWire and by Joey Akeley of Sports Illustrated, for the lineup change, Kerr's regular-season expectation and the Portland trip; Dalton Johnson, NBC Sports Bay Area, October 3 for the first-half minutes quotation and October 6 for the starting five and, as relayed by Blue Man Hoop, Kerr's "most likely"; Luca Evans, San Francisco Chronicle, October 6, for the knee contusion, the team source and the Kerr quotation on Porzingis; Basketball Reference for Horford's 2025-26 games and starts; ESPN's player game log for his minutes.