The Warriors Changed Their Offense — and Draymond Green Has the Biggest Adjustment
GOATIFYGolden State did not use its first preseason game to polish the old offense. It used the night to begin replacing it. In a 104-101 loss to the Clippers in Honolulu, Steve Kerr's Warriors opened possessions with all five players spread around the perimeter, asked big men to initiate actions, and moved Draymond Green away from the familiar trailing-playmaker role that helped define the dynasty.
The first look was messy. Golden State shot 33 percent in the first half, committed 10 turnovers before halftime and finished 6-of-33 from three. But the score mattered less than the structural change underneath it. After a 37-45 season, Kerr is trying to create cleaner driving lanes, more natural touches and less dependence on the same split-action reads opponents have studied for years. The question is whether an aging core can learn a new geometry quickly enough for it to matter.
Golden State's Five-Out Offense Is a Real Structural Change
The clearest change was visible before the ball even moved. Golden State repeatedly began possessions with five players outside the paint, stretching defenders toward the perimeter and creating space for cuts, drives and inverted pick-and-rolls. That is a significant departure from the Warriors' familiar flow, where Green often trailed the play, received the ball near the top and became the traffic controller for Curry's off-ball movement.
The idea is not simply to shoot more threes. Five-out spacing is valuable because it changes where help defenders can stand. When every offensive player begins high or wide, a defender who tags a cutter or steps toward a driver has farther to recover. The Warriors showed one version immediately: Al Horford brought the ball up and flowed into an inverted screen with Curry, creating a clean three for the best shooter ever. It was a modern action built around an old Golden State truth — Curry is most dangerous when the defense has to make two decisions at once.
The problem was execution. The first six Warriors shots were threes, but open space did not automatically produce rhythm. Passes arrived late, players occupied the same lanes and several possessions stalled after the first action. Golden State finished at 18.2 percent from deep and turned the ball over 16 times. Those numbers are ugly, but they also explain why Kerr is treating preseason as a laboratory. A system designed to reduce chaos will look contradictory if players are still thinking about where to stand.
Curry remains the stabilizer. He scored 10 points in only 13 minutes on 3-of-4 shooting, including 2-of-3 from three, and looked physically comfortable after last season's knee problems. That gives Kerr room to experiment. The Warriors do not need to reinvent Curry. They need the other four players to create a cleaner floor around him.
Draymond Green Is the Player Being Asked to Change the Most
No veteran has a bigger adjustment than Green. For years, one of Golden State's signature sequences was Green trailing a transition possession, taking the return pass and directing cutters while Curry and teammates moved around him. Kerr now wants Green to run ahead more often, occupy space earlier and function more as a finisher or connector than as the automatic organizer of every possession.
That sounds subtle, but it changes the rhythm of a player who has spent more than a decade reading the floor from the same areas. Against the Clippers, Green often moved from corner to wing without touching the ball. At one point Horford threw a pass where he expected Green to be, only for the ball to sail out of bounds. Those are preseason mistakes in the literal sense: the reads are not yet synchronized.
The potential payoff is significant. Green's playmaking has always been amplified by Curry's gravity, but opponents increasingly know where those actions are coming from. Moving Green earlier can force him to screen, cut and attack gaps before the defense is organized. It can also put other players in decision-making roles, which matters for a roster trying to avoid becoming Curry-dependent every time a possession gets tight.
Horford is useful in that transition because he can shoot, pass and handle enough to initiate from unusual spots. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg offers a younger version of that versatility. Golden State can put the ball in a frontcourt player's hands without automatically sacrificing spacing. The preseason opener showed how awkward that redistribution can be, but it also showed why Kerr is willing to live with mistakes now. If Green remains the only connective hub, the offense risks becoming predictable. If several players can trigger the same actions, Curry's movement becomes harder to load up against.
The New System Needs Drivers, Not Just Spacing
The most encouraging moments came from players who do not carry the muscle memory of the old system. Lendeborg started, grabbed nine rebounds in 19 minutes and moved the ball willingly even while shooting 1-of-6. Brandon Williams gave the bench a different kind of pressure, attacking off the dribble and finishing with 11 points and a plus-16 mark in 15½ minutes. Green said Williams gives Golden State a downhill creator it has lacked for a long time.
That matters because five-out spacing only works if somebody can punish the open lane. Spreading five players around the arc without credible penetration simply gives the defense more room to ignore weak shooters. Williams' speed, Lendeborg's handling and Horford's ability to pull a big away from the rim are not side details; they are the mechanisms that can make the alignment functional.
The first half also showed the danger. Brandin Podziemski went 2-of-10, the starting group struggled to generate consistent paint pressure, and the Clippers were comfortable when Golden State's movement became horizontal rather than threatening. The Warriors cannot treat five-out as a diagram. They need decisive cuts, real drives and quick second actions after the defense shifts.
That is why the 104-101 result is less important than the discomfort. Kerr said after last season that Golden State could no longer live out of chaos. This offense is an attempt to give the team repeatable spacing rules without stripping away the improvisation that has always made Curry dangerous. The veterans have to surrender some familiar habits, while the younger players have to prove they can make decisions at NBA speed. If both happen, the Warriors may look less like the dynasty offense people remember — and more difficult to guard because of it.
There is another reason the experiment deserves patience: Golden State is trying to solve a personnel problem as much as a tactical one. Jimmy Butler is rehabbing a torn ACL, Moses Moody is also unavailable, and Kristaps Porzingis did not open camp with the group. That removes several players who would normally absorb possessions or provide size. Kerr therefore has to discover which healthy players can create advantages instead of simply preserving a system designed for a different rotation.
The opener offered two useful clues. Lendeborg's nine rebounds showed that he can affect a game without scoring, while Williams' burst gave Golden State a direct route into the paint. Neither answer is complete. Lendeborg still has to become more decisive when a gap opens, and Williams has to prove his attacking style can hold up against regular-season scouting. But those are exactly the kinds of questions preseason should answer. If the Warriors emerge with two or three additional decision-makers, five-out spacing becomes more than cosmetic. It becomes a way to distribute responsibility across a roster that cannot ask Curry and Green to solve every possession forever.
One preseason loss does not prove the experiment will work, and Golden State's 6-of-33 three-point night offered plenty of evidence that the learning curve is real. But the important development is that Kerr is not pretending last year's structure only needs minor repairs. The Warriors are changing where possessions begin, who initiates them and what Green is asked to do inside them.
Curry can still rescue possessions when the system breaks. The 2026-27 Warriors will be more interesting if he does not have to. Five-out spacing gives Golden State a chance to create cleaner lanes for a roster that now includes more size, more frontcourt skill and a few younger downhill options. Honolulu was the rough draft. The next several preseason games will show whether the new geometry becomes an identity or just another experiment the Warriors abandon when the regular season starts.
