San Francisco — Golden State left media day with a thinner frontcourt than expected and a much different camp conversation than the old championship-or-bust soundtrack. The Warriors flew to Hawaii on Monday afternoon for Tuesday’s opening training-camp session, with Kristaps Porziņģis ruled out indefinitely by an unspecified health matter and both Jimmy Butler III and Moses Moody still rehabbing knee surgeries.
Porziņģis absence reshapes the opening camp rotation
General manager Mike Dunleavy said Porziņģis learned of the issue Sunday and will not travel with the club to Hawaii. Porziņģis had recently worked at the Warriors’ facility and had been cleared to participate, but Dunleavy said there is no timetable for his return.
Dunleavy declined to connect the current situation to the postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, that Porziņģis has managed previously. The veteran big man has dealt with several health interruptions since the end of his Boston run, through a short stay in Atlanta and after joining Golden State at February’s trade deadline.
“We only found out yesterday,” Dunleavy said, noting that Porziņģis finished last season and looked well during his work at the facility last week. “I don’t have a timetable. We’re hopeful he can get back soon, but it’s very recent news.”
Al Horford, Porziņģis’ former Boston teammate and now another veteran in Golden State’s frontcourt, said the immediate priority is allowing him time to recover.
“It is hard and frustrating to deal with,” Horford said. “He wants to compete and be on the floor. But patience is what matters right now. He has overcome things before, and I hope he gets healthy, gets in a good place and can join us.”
- Porziņģis will miss the opening portion of camp in Hawaii.
- No return date has been announced.
- Horford and Draymond Green are positioned for heavier early frontcourt responsibility.
- Rookie forward Yaxel Lendeborg could see a larger camp workload with the big-man group short-handed.
Butler and Moody travel, but neither has a return date
Butler, recovering from ACL surgery, and Moody, coming back from a patella procedure, will make the Hawaii trip and continue their rehabilitation around the team. Dunleavy said both are progressing well and have reached light on-court work, but neither is expected to be available at the start of the 2026-27 season.
That leaves Golden State without two important wings while it tries to establish its opening units. Dunleavy called the dual absence difficult because of the value of productive wing players, but said the front office believes it has assembled enough depth to survive the early stretch and receive a lift when the two return.
Butler has remained involved despite the injury. He recently held a multi-day, players-only minicamp at his San Diego home for Warriors teammates, offering an early chance for the group to share the floor before camp.
Stephen Curry said Butler and Moody can still shape the club’s daily environment before they are cleared.
“They’re part of this team, and their energy matters before they’re back playing,” Curry said. “We don’t know how many games will pass before either one returns. Our responsibility is to make sure they come back to a team where that return means something.”
Butler said he has begun running and can dunk again, a milestone he mentioned while joking about the extra piercings he added during rehab. He expects to regain his high-level play, but made clear that the separation from competition has been the difficult part.
“I want to hoop now,” Butler said. “I wanted to play two or three months ago. I miss competing with my guys, being with Dray and being Robin to Steph’s Batman. I know I’ll get back to that at a really high level. Until then, every chance to be around the group, laugh, joke and compete however I can is a positive.”
Curry extension keeps the franchise anchor in place
Curry signed a two-year, $116 million extension Friday, continuing a career that began with Golden State in 2009. The league’s all-time leader in 3-pointers accepted $10 million below the maximum available to him, preserving some future roster flexibility.
Dunleavy said Curry’s willingness to remain with the organization never created summer anxiety.
“I’ve lost sleep over plenty of things, but not that,” Dunleavy said. “He is committed here. He wants to stay, and he believes we can build a very good team.”
Curry said the agreement developed collaboratively after he became extension-eligible in late August. He acknowledged that the maximum offer was available, but said he weighed both his personal position and what could help the roster.
“It was my way of preparing without knowing the answers ahead of time,” Curry said. “The focus now is basketball. Everybody has a job to do if we want to win, and for me that includes being healthy and available.”
The deal puts Curry on course to join a tiny group of players who have spent two decades with one franchise: Kobe Bryant with the Los Angeles Lakers, Dirk Nowitzki with the Dallas Mavericks and Udonis Haslem with the Miami Heat.
For Curry, the decision was tied to the Bay Area as much as the contract mechanics.
“This is home,” he said. “This is what we have built, the community I’ve played in front of for my whole career. Being able to finish the story the right way is important to me. There’s pride in representing the Bay and this franchise. What we achieved was never only about me; it has always been about us.”
Process talk replaces the usual title forecast
The Warriors won four championships from 2015 through 2022, and remain the most recent NBA team to repeat as champion. But after a decade-plus of annual title expectations, they enter this season undermanned and outside the Western Conference’s clearest contender tier.
Coach Steve Kerr did not push back against the lower expectations. He said the group’s work in Hawaii must center on details: fewer turnovers, better execution in close margins, an established identity and a daily standard that can hold through an uneven start.
“I’m fine with people picking us to miss the playoffs,” Kerr said. “That can be a good place for a team and a coach. We can concentrate on the process from the first day. We’ll lay out the vision when we meet Tuesday morning, but none of this happens because we talk about it. It takes a strong process every day.”
Curry drew laughs with his reaction to Kerr’s suggestion that everybody had Golden State outside the postseason picture, but Green echoed his coach’s larger point. Green said the team cannot define a successful year only through the final result.
- Kerr wants the club to build its identity through daily work rather than preseason declarations.
- Green pointed to the 2022 title team as an example of a group that grew into a champion rather than entering the year with a guaranteed outcome.
- The Warriors’ early challenge is to stay afloat without Porziņģis, Butler and Moody while establishing lineups that can improve as reinforcements return.
“Everybody in this league wants a chance,” Green said. “If your process is right, you give yourself one. The best years are about the journey — what you overcome and how you grow through it. In 2022, nobody walked in saying it was automatically a championship season. Our process let us become that team.”
Lendeborg earns early veteran approval
Lendeborg arrives from Michigan after leading the Wolverines to the NCAA championship in April, and he has already impressed coaches and teammates with his questions, passing and overall feel. Kerr said the rookie’s approach has stood out as much as his physical tools.
“He does a lot of things well,” Kerr said. “He passes, he understands the game, and he asked me a couple of months ago what he could do to earn the veterans’ respect. That question alone was an excellent beginning.”
Green, a Michigan State product, joked that he spent Lendeborg’s Michigan games rooting against him. Once Lendeborg became his teammate, Green said the talent was impossible to miss.
“I was hoping he missed every shot when he played Michigan State,” Green said. “Now, obviously, that has changed. He is really good. I hate admitting he was that good at Michigan, but I was extremely impressed.”
At Butler’s San Diego minicamp, Green described an out-of-bounds sequence in which Curry set a back screen and Lendeborg broke free for a dunk. Green said the play looked unusually natural for a new combination, and predicted it will become a recurring action.
Lendeborg said Curry and Green loudly told him, “All year,” after the finish.
“I had a wide-open dunk, and they were both yelling right away,” Lendeborg said. “I thought, ‘All right, this is going to be fun.’”
Kerr has not decided whether Lendeborg will begin in the starting group or off the bench. With the roster’s early injuries, that camp competition has added weight. Horford believes Lendeborg’s deep NCAA Tournament experience should help him handle the pressure and pace of his first NBA season.
“You cannot truly recreate a Sweet 16 or Elite Eight setting in the NBA,” Horford said. “The stakes and pressure are different. But that experience gives him something valuable, and I think he can handle a lot of what gets thrown at him.”
