SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors’ quest for a fifth title of the Steph Curry era, or perhaps just a trip to the postseason, begins on the beaches of Oahu on Tuesday.
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Warriors training camp stretches from Tuesday all the way to Oct. 5, and even though it is his 18th preseason primer, Curry still feel a few butterflies with the season just around the corner.
“Me and Draymond (Green) were talking about it yesterday,” Curry said on Wednesday. “There’s still the anxiety and nerves around.”
There are also plenty of questions before the Warriors open the regular season Oct. 21 against the LeBron-less Lakers.
Here is what you need to know.
The core remains the same
Curry, Green and coach Steve Kerr remain the faces of the franchise, even if their status as such looked shaky this summer.
Green opted out of his player option during the offseason, but re-signed for a one-year deal after the Warriors struck out on LeBron James. Kerr weighed retiring from coaching for three weeks before re-upping on a new two-year deal.
Curry’s contract, knee still take spotlight
Curry, 38, has been eligible to sign a $136.7 million two-year contract extension since Aug. 29, but he told reporters this week that he is in no hurry to ink a new contract.
Curry, who also added he is not looking to leave the Bay Area, noted that he has followed a new routine in an attempt to manage the sore right knee that kept him out of 27 games last season.
Starting forwards are hurt
Moses Moody and Jimmy Butler might be around the team during training camp, but do not expect them to participate in on-court drills.
Moody is still recovering from a torn patellar tendon, Butler is rehabbing a torn ACL, and both are expected to not return to action until the calendar turns to 2027.
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An exciting rookie
Although Moody and Butler are sidelined, the Warriors‘ prospects are not totally bare on the wing.
After being bounced in the play-in last season, the Warriors secured a lottery pick that ended up being the No. 11 overall selection. They chose Yaxel Lendeborg, the 6-foot-9 star of Michigan’s national championship team.
He made an immediate impression, averaging 14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.5 steals per game and winning the Las Vegas Summer League MVP. He is expected to receive every opportunity to play.
Who else is back?
In addition to Green and the injured forwards, the Warriors also opted to bring back centers All Horford and Kristaps Porzingis on two-year deals. They also inked guard De’Anthony Melton to a two-year contract. All three dealt with injuries last season.
If the Warriors are to outperform their play-in prognostication, they need those players to buck multi-year trends and remain relatively healthy for 82 games.
Brandin Podziemski and Gui Santos also return and should receive major minutes.
Who are the new guys?
The Warriors opted to run it back, a move branded as maintaining continuity, by retaining almost every player from last season’s roster.
Their two non-draft additions are a pair of backups on veteran minimum contracts: guard Brandon Williams and forward Georges Niang. Williams is a score-first ballhandler who gets to the rim, while Niang is a career 40% shooter from behind the arc.
When is the first preseason game?
The Warriors cap their stay in Hawaii with a game against the Clippers at the University of Hawaii’s gymnasium on Oct. 4. The team then will take the five and a half hour flight back to San Francisco on Oct. 5, and play the Lakers the next day at Chase Center.
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