Warriors smack shorthanded Lakers to continue elite preseason performances

WELCOME TO THE MOSES MOODY + DOUBLE STRETCH BIGS ERA!

The Golden State Warriors remain on fire in preseason play, and it’s becoming a pattern that’s impossible to ignore. They’ve now opened 2025-26 with a 1-0 record after dismantling the Los Angeles Lakers 111-103, extending a preseason dominance that has been built this organization for half a decade.

Since 2020-21, Golden State has gone 21-4 in exhibition games. That’s an 85.7% winning percentage in games that supposedly don’t matter. They went 5-0 in preseason during 2021-22 and won the championship. This isn’t coincidence. This is organizational infrastructure that treats October like a laboratory where championship habits get reinforced, where young talent gets validated, where winning becomes a reflex rather than a choice.

Sure it helps that L.A.’s superweapons Luka Doncic and LeBron James sat the contest out. But here’s what makes this particular victory more significant than just another preseason tally: it gave us a stark clue as to which young players are ready to shoulder the load when aging veterans need rest, and which ones are still searching for consistency.

We know what we’re getting from the starters. Steph Curry dropped 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting in 15 minutes, reminding everyone that excellence doesn’t need volume to leave scars. Draymond Green orchestrated with five assists in 14 minutes, keeping the motion offense rolling with the kind of basketball IQ refined over 13 years of championship basketball. Jimmy Butler terrorized defenders. These are veterans who’ve built Hall of Fame resumes by understanding their roles and showing up when it matters most.

But here’s the reality that defines this season: Steph is 37 years old. Draymond is 35. Jimmy is 35. Al Horford is 38. These aren’t players who can log 35 minutes a night for 82 games and still have anything left when June arrives. The question isn’t whether the veterans can still contribute at an elite level. The question is whether the younger players have developed enough to take the load off aging legends who’ve already given everything to this franchise.

This is the year when supplementary minutes have to count, when potential transforms into production, when the Warriors find out if their developmental process has built the foundation for sustained excellence.

Moody is soaking up the Klay Thompson blueprint

Moses Moody just delivered an emphatic answer to that question in 15 minutes of basketball with nineteen points on 7-of-9 shooting. He hit five three-pointers on seven attempts and was a game high +21 plus/minus in a game decided by eight points. These numbers don’t just represent efficient scoring. They represent complete understanding of what Steve Kerr has been preaching since the day Moody arrived: make shots, don’t be selfish, play defense. It’s the Klay Thompson blueprint, the shooting guard archetype that powered a dynasty, and Moody is emerging as the latest player to embrace it.

Watch how Moody operated and you see a player who’s internalized every principle that made Klay Thompson one of the most devastating two-way players in NBA history. He stayed in his spots, didn’t stall out the offense in isolation, moved without the ball with relentless purpose, and when his number got called, he rose into his shot with complete confidence.

This is what Kerr’s system demands from shooting guards. You need to understand spacing, recognize when defenses lose track of you, and punish every mistake with ruthless efficiency. You need to knock down catch-and-shoot opportunities when Steph’s gravity collapses defenses. You need to attack closeouts decisively, cut at the right angles, and make the extra pass when the defense recovers.

And you need to play defense. Real, committed, high-effort defense. Klay built his reputation as much on his ability to lock down opposing guards as on his shooting prowess. The willingness to fight through screens, stay attached to primary scorers, communicate on switches? That’s what separates good shooters from championship pieces.

Moody has spent four years absorbing this philosophy, both from being a teammate of Klay’s and watching film, learning how to play within a system that rewards selflessness. His college experience at Arkansas gave him a developmental head start. He’s older than Kuminga, more mentally prepared to accept that his path to impact runs through making shots, not being selfish, and playing defense. The Warriors generated 35 assists as a team, and Moody’s scoring came entirely within that framework. When the ball swung to him with a defender closing out late, he either rose into his jumper with textbook mechanics or attacked the paint and finished with authority.

Kuminga still searching for his time

While Moody is demonstrating an understanding of how to thrive as a shooting guard, Jonathan Kuminga—his fellow 2021 lottery pick—is still searching for consistency in a position that has been cursed with drama since the dynasty began.

And isn’t that perfect? The entire league is supposedly going positionless, where positions don’t matter and everyone’s a switchy, versatile defender who can handle and shoot. Yet somehow, the Warriors’ small forward spot remains the most position-specific, drama-generating roster slot in modern basketball.

Harrison Barnes wanted max money while taking a starting spot from the legend Andre Iguodala, who had to swallow his pride and accept a bench role. Then Kevin Durant arrived after Barnes was jettisoned, creating the most dominant roster in NBA history alongside some of the most dramatic NBA television we’ve ever witnessed. Then after KD left, Andrew Wiggins transformed from one of the worst contracts in basketball into an All-Star champion in 2022. Now Kuminga flashes brilliance but struggles with consistency, while Jimmy Butler was liberated from his Miami drama to join the Dubs.

That three spot is the de facto second or third scoring option in a system built around Steph’s gravity. It’s where you need someone who can capitalize on the attention Steph commands, attack closeouts, knock down open threes, and defend multiple positions without giving up easy baskets.

Kuminga logged the same 15 minutes as Moody and finished with five points, a team high six rebounds, and four assists with a +7 plus/,inus. Those assist numbers show growth, evidence that he’s learning to read the floor and make the right pass instead of hunting his own shot. The potential remains sky-high!

So now we’re in four years since the Warriors drafted both players with lottery picks. They already won a championship in their rookie year during 2021-22, watching from the margins as the core reclaimed the throne. That was their education and now the runway is effectively over. The veterans need help shouldering the load, and these two guys have to make their names by stepping up.

Al Horford’s Impact: Reimagining the Warriors’ Frontcourt

And here’s what should accelerate everyone’s development: the frontcourt spacing has been completely reimagined in ways this franchise has never experienced.

Al Horford isn’t just another veteran addition filling minutes. He represents a structural transformation of what the Warriors’ offense can become. Paired with Quinten Post, the Warriors now have two legitimate floor-spacing bigs who can shoot, pass, set screens, and force traditional frontcourts into impossible decisions about whether to protect the rim or contest perimeter jumpers.

Throughout the dynasty era, Golden State has always operated with at least one traditional big who couldn’t stretch the floor consistently. What Horford and Post provide is genuine five-out offense while maintaining the size and defensive presence needed to survive against elite frontcourts in playoff settings. Horford contributed three points, four rebounds, and three assists in his 14 minutes, but the impact goes beyond counting stats. He’s a former Defensive Player of the Year finalist who can still protect the rim and switch onto perimeter players. Post brings legitimate size at 6’11” with modern mobility, adding seven points in 16 minutes with a plus-20.

You can put any three guys alongside Horford and Post, and the floor will be spread to the point where help defense becomes nearly impossible without giving up wide-open looks. For Moody, this spacing means even more catch-and-shoot opportunities, cleaner looks when he relocates off the ball. For Kuminga, it means wider driving lanes to weaponize his athleticism, with help defense slower to arrive and more room to finish through contact.

The math is devastating for opposing defenses. Steph running off screens with two shooting bigs setting picks and popping to the three-point line? That’s a geometry problem with no solution. This isn’t just incremental improvement. This is the kind of roster construction that extends championship windows, that creates margin for error when younger players are still figuring out their roles, that takes pressure off aging veterans who need their minutes managed carefully. TRUST ME, this double stretch big lineup is going to be a problem.

Only One Preseason Game, But There’s a Lot to Like

It’s only one preseason game with non existing stakes and experimental rotations. Nobody’s hanging banners for October victories. But there’s a lot to sit back and enjoy about what the Warriors showed in this 2025-26 season opener.

It’s great to see the Dubs use exhibition games to build championship habits and validate developmental progress. One game doesn’t define a season, but it can reveal which players are ready to answer the call when their names get called.

If the Warriors can find the consistency from Kuminga and Moody that their tools suggest is possible, and if the veterans can stay healthy while the young players shoulder meaningful minutes, then this Warriors team might have more left in the tank than anyone outside the Bay Area believes.

Last night in Chase Center was a damn good start if you ask me.