Moore: Examining the Warriors’ options for rotating their high-profile centers

At times, Steve Kerr moves like a mad scientist masquerading as the Warriors’ head coach.

Last season, Kerr used 37 different starting lineups, experimenting with the roster top to bottom, searching for the right formula to give Golden State a shot down the stretch of the regular season and in the playoffs. The lineup of Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green was their most used (and most successful) lineup. It was that same lineup that helped the Warriors finish the regular season on a 20-7 run.

When Butler went down with a tailbone contusion in Game 2 of their first-round series against the Houston Rockets, Kerr leaned on his lineup tinkering and experimenting from the regular season to push them through the series, and it worked.

At the dawn of the 2025-26 NBA season, Kerr hinted that, given the age of Green and newly signed Al Horford, the starting lineup would be more fluid. Kerr also wants to keep Horford around 20 minutes per game.

To get through the season and the playoffs, staggering the minutes of Green and Horford is logical, even with Quintin Post picking up some center minutes. Horford will turn 40 next June and Green has a ton of miles on him from years of playing small-ball center. The “what” makes perfect sense, but the “how” is unknown and worth exploring. These potential lineup combos may offer some solutions coming into the new season.

Curry-Podziemski-Butler-Kuminga-Green

This lineup is a possibility tonight when the Warriors open the season Tuesday against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena, since Moses Moody has been ruled out with a calf injury. This lineup is heavy on playmaking and facilitating since everyone here can make plays. With Jonathan Kuminga at one of the wings instead of Moody, it gives the Warriors some much-needed frontcourt size. The opportunities are there for Kuminga to get downhill and in the paint and get easy baskets off cuts.

In addition to the cuts, there are opportunities to push the pace and score buckets in transition as Butler and Green will look for Kuminga for easy dunks.

While Podziemsk’s shot is inconsistent, he brings value to this lineup with his hustle. Green and Horford getting six minutes apiece in the first quarter, for example, works as Green would be fresher down the stretch of games to defend the opposition’s bigs. Horford brings a stretch presence that can knock down open shots and score to help navigate the non-Curry minutes more comfortably.

Curry-Podziemski-Butler-Kuminga-Horford

If Kerr were to start Horford Tuesday night, it wouldn’t surprise me. If is were the lineup in the opener and in select games during the season when Green isn’t even available, it can work and be formidable.

This works because in Horford, there is some size and physicality to put in the post. Plus, he can keep defenses honest with his shooting. On a hot night, the Warriors will have this lineup on the floor where they have opportunities to build early leads and Green coming in the last six minutes to roam and shut opponents’ water off defensively and set up the second unit to maintain a lead.

Curry-Podziemski-Butler-Moody-Green/Horford

One of these combos would be the opening-night lineup if Moody were playing, and rightly so. This group is proven. Adding Moody into the lineup gives the Warriors more length defensively and also someone capable of making shots. During this preseason, there have been some flashes indicative of improvement from Moody. His preseason opener against the Lakers, where he scored 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting (77%), showed he can provide auxiliary scoring when he’s out there.

I like this look defensively because of Moody’s capabilities as a perimeter defender and Green can be free to roam without having to compensate for blown rotations.

Placing Moody on the court with Horford adds more offensive firepower as well as solid defense. This is a lineup that has more size and length than some of the other combinations – starting or otherwise – that can be used this year.

For the Warriors and Kerr, the hypothesis is that staggering Green and Horford is the move to make. He may not stagger in the opener, as he may start both to see how it looks. However, they have to survive attrition and win enough games to avoid having to hustle just to avoid the play-in. With the age of this core, and the depth of the roster that’s constructed, there are a plethora of options to experiment with, but it starts with these combinations and what will complement the two aging bigs the best.