Fresh off a run to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs and having added some talented pieces to their roster this summer and early into the 2025-26 season, the Golden State Warriors were expecting to compete for homecourt advantage and a possible return to the Conference Finals for the first time since 2022.
Instead, new signings Al Horford, Seth Curry and De’Anthony Melton haven’t had quite the impact Golden State had hoped to see. Re-signed power forward Jonathan Kuminga has been toggled in and out of Warriors head coach Steve Kerr’s lineups.
At 13-15 on the season, the Warriors occupy just the ninth seed in the West. They’ve lost three straight games, and have gone just 4-6 across their last 10 contests.
Per Chris Haynes of NBA on Prime, Golden State appears to at least be aware of what it needs to improve: the center position.
“The Warriors, I would say, are buyers in a similar way [to the Milwaukee Bucks],” Haynes told Rooks. “I was told they’re looking for size and athleticism. You look at the Warriors’ rebounding and blocked shots, they’re in the bottom half of the league, and points in the paint, they are dead last. So they are looking for an athletic center, so sources have relayed to me that a list of targets [includes] Daniel Gafford in Dallas; Brooklyn, Nicolas Claxton; in Portland, Robert Williams. Those are three names that are on the Golden State Warriors’ list of targets to try to bring in a rim-running, block-shot defender.”
Those three bigs could have wildly different costs in terms of matching salaries and draft capital.
“And listen, I was told that they are really serious, they’re trying to do everything they can to try to get the team back to being the caliber of a championship-contending-type [squad],” Haynes added.
Claiming a team thinks it can become championship-caliber by just adding one of those pieces feels ambitious. All of the Warriors’ three best players are 35 or older, and Golden State positionally is just far too thin up front. Bringing in a single center who can get out in transition for lobs and clean up putbacks on offense while protecting the rim on defense simply doesn’t feel like enough for this mismatched roster.
Mavericks center Daniel Gafford and Nets big man Nicolas Claxton would represent significant upgrades at the five spot for the Warriors. For a while, 6-foot-6 vet Draymond Green was installed as Kerr’s primary starting center. During the team’s most recent contest, a 99-98 defeat against the Phoenix Suns, 7-foot floor spacer Quinten Post jumped at the position to kick off the game, with Green shifted to a starting power forward role. Post is a solid 3-point shooter (he’s making 34.6 percent of his 4.5 triple tries this year), but offers little interior resistance defensively.
In a conference boasting All-Star big men at the caliber of Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama, Alperen Sengun, and Anthony Davis, it’s pretty clear that the Warriors need a serious size upgrade in the post.