If you only watched the Golden State Warriors’ first preseason game against the LA Clippers, a 104-101 loss for the Dubs, you could be forgiven for wondering what exactly had changed.
There were turnovers. There were possessions where the offense bogged down. One Wardell Stephen Curry II and Draymond Green were still throwing the ball either to the wrong team or out of bounds a few times, early. Brandin Podziemski only went 1-for-4 from deep and tried to score under the basket against the 6’11” Baba Miller, only to get snuffed out completely.
The Athletic’s beatwriter Nick Friedell tweeted out that the basketball looked like a “carbon copy” of last year’s performances and, well, he wasn’t wrong — although the main guys were limited to playing only the first half, so they didn’t really get an opportunity to right those wrongs.
And yet after spending the last week collecting all the little pieces from Hawaii — practices, scrimmages, player interviews, family footage, the luau, the preseason game itself — I actually thought the trip accomplished something that a box score was never going to measure:
The vibes were real.
It wasn’t manufactured social-media “vibes,” it was actual relationships forming in front of us. Considering the Warriors reportedly spent somewhere in the seven figures to transplant training camp to Hawaii, that matters. Kirk Lacob told Luca Evans of the San Francisco Chronicle that part of the reason for going was precisely to put players with long-established relationships into a different setting that could help create new ones.
We got to watch some of that happen.
If you followed our Day 1 behind-the-scenes (BTS), Steph’s 58-straight-threes Day 2, the Day 3 open scrimmage, the luau and Days 4–5 BTS, and finally the Clippers Game Day BTS, the larger story wasn’t any one practice or one possession.
It was all the little things accumulating.
Jimmy Butler, unable to play because of his ACL rehab, still became one of the loudest presences around the group. He took a liking to Malevy Leons, encouraged him to get his “swag” up, and suddenly Leons was appearing at practice outfitted in sleeves, a headband and enough accessories to look like someone had emptied the equipment locker onto him. Jimmy was also visibly rooting for him during the scrimmage.
Then there were all the other small moments:
• De’Anthony Melton fooling around with Charles Bassey during the anthem.
• Melton giving Yaxel a playful side-five after scoring over him in the scrimmage.
• Draymond sitting next to Yaxel and coaching him through a defensive rotation.
• Yax doing his rookie camcorder duties — and insisting, “I’m on top of mine.”
• Yaxel dancing.
• Gui Santos and Podziemski dancing with him at the luau.
• Curry making his ridiculous “super-scoop” during layup lines, then going through the ritual of jumping side-bumps with teammates — with even newer Warriors understanding that apparently this is simply what you do when Steph makes it.
• Curry and Gary Payton II competing one-on-one.
• Steph staying on the court after everyone else had finished practice, once again the last one out of the gym.
None of that guarantees a championship, doesn’t fix the turnovers nor make an old team younger, but chemistry is one of those things that everybody dismisses as fluff until a team doesn’t have it.
And from everything we were able to see in Hawaii, this group seems to genuinely enjoy one another.
Tweaked offense, same conductors
The more intellectually interesting question is whether the basketball itself is actually changing.
Steve Kerr has been very explicit about wanting to move toward five-out spacing. The basic idea is obvious enough: rather than having a traditional center occupying the paint or operating primarily as a hub around the elbow, all five players can threaten the defense from the perimeter.
That changes the geometry of the floor, and that is a meaningful departure from some of the visual language Warriors fans have watched for years.
Think about those classic possessions with Andrew Bogut or Kevon Looney around the high post, Steph and Klay Thompson running split cuts around them, defenders grabbing and chasing, the big man reading the action and delivering the ball.
With 5-out, Al Horford creates something different. He can simply stay outside. Because the defense has to respect his three-point shot, the paint can remain open without Golden State sacrificing a center-sized body. I showed a couple examples from the scrimmage, then also showed how that was different than when Klay was on the team, here at the 52:22 mark:
We saw that repeatedly in Hawaii. Horford knocked down catch-and-shoot threes. Yax spaced to the corners and wings. Podz kept trying to get two feet into the paint. Even Dray is being asked to change one of his longtime habits — instead of automatically trailing the break as a secondary ballhandler, Kerr said he wants him running ahead and filling space.
But this does not mean Steph and Draymond suddenly stop orchestrating the offense. One of my favorite possessions in the Clippers Game Day footage showed exactly that: Draymond had the ball. Yaxel was nearby. Steph was actively directing traffic, pointing to where he wanted Draymond and using Yaxel’s body and positioning to create the route he wanted before popping open. Green chose an entry pass to Lendeborg against a smaller defender. Yaxel kicked out to Al in the corner for a tree, which actually makes you wonder if Yax should’ve just powered over the smaller Max Strus. That happened at the 13:37 mark of our Game Day BTS video:
That may be the bridge between old Warriors basketball and whatever this new version becomes.
The system is changing, but conductors are not. Steph and Draymond don’t need another October to learn their two-man game, which helped them beat the Clippers back in the Play-in game. They’ve spent more than a decade solving defenses together. The challenge now is learning how to place three other bodies around that partnership differently and how to make those bodies more threatening.
So perhaps “five-out” shouldn’t be understood as replacing Warriors basketball. It may be more accurate to think of it as putting the Steph-Draymond operating system inside new geometry.
Which brings us back to Yaxel
This is where the Hawaii experiment gets interesting. Kerr’s expectations for Lendeborg go beyond asking a rookie to stand in the corner and make open threes.
After the Clippers game, Steve said Yaxel is capable of becoming Golden State’s “lead offensive threat” when Steph is off the floor. That is a very different assignment, especially when considering what I noticed during Summer League Watch Parties and even back to the Final Four at Michigan — to me, Yax with his skill set has looked like a big Scottie Pippen. I’ve even called him “Stockie Pippen” since then.
But the coaching staff wants more aggression from him, while Yaxel himself has tended to describe his job somewhat differently, controlling the offense, getting teammates involved and scoring when the opportunity presents itself.
That distinction may become one of the most important developmental stories of the preseason. Yaxel naturally wants to make the right play, which is very Pippen-like.
The Warriors are essentially telling him that sometimes the right play is for Lendeborg to attack. We already saw the tension in Hawaii. He made an open corner three almost immediately against the Clippers, moved the ball well, rebounded, created for others and also passed up opportunities where Kerr wanted him looking to score.
Curry’s message afterward was similar: they don’t want passivity, and they’re willing to live with mistakes if Yax keeps applying pressure, which is why Portland is suddenly fascinating.
The main veterans are not expected to make that second leg of the back-to-back. Whether that schedule was constructed with developmental opportunities like this in mind or simply emerged from all the logistical realities of preseason, arena availability and the Hawaii trip, the result is the same. The younger Warriors are going to have to play.
And Yaxel may not have the luxury of wondering whether it is too early in the shot clock to take an open three. Somebody has to initiate, pressure the defense and score.
So forget “Stockie Pippen.” I’m looking for Lendeborg to be more like, idk, young Sixers Charles Barkley?
“Sir Yax”!!! Let’s go!
Bonuses: Full postgame Q&A transcript for paid subscribers who want the source material behind some of the observations above, I’ve included the full Kerr/Draymond/Steph postgame transcript below.
And two more great recap reels of Steph from the game 👇
🫶💙💛
