Golden State’s start to the season has already forced an uncomfortable choice, and Seth Curry did not hide what he thought of it. After the Warriors started two-way player Graham Ike at center against the Grizzlies in game 2, Curry wrote on Threads: “With all due respect to Ike. A 2-way starting for the dubs in game 2 is tough.”
The comment landed because it came after Golden State opened with back-to-back losses and because the search for answers at center has already become the story. The Warriors spent the offseason extending Kristaps Porzingis to a two-year, $40 million deal to secure their primary big man, but he is now out indefinitely with an undisclosed health issue.
That absence would have been enough to test the roster on its own. Instead, Golden State is also without Charles Bassey, while Al Horford is managing back issues. Put together, the missing size has left the Warriors scrambling for a frontcourt answer before the season has settled into any kind of rhythm.
Curry’s criticism carries extra weight because he knows what the season looked like up close. He spent the 2025-26 season with the Warriors, but ongoing injuries limited him to 10 games, and Golden State missed the playoffs last year. That makes the opening stretch even harder to dismiss as a one-off. The uncomfortable truth is that the Warriors are already being forced into emergency lineups, and there is no clear timeline for when the center spot stops being a nightly problem.
For now, Golden State is left with the same unanswered question that followed the lineup choice into the second game of the season: how long can the Warriors keep patching the middle before the shortage starts deciding games for them?
