The Warriors Are Going Deeper Than Any Team in NBA History

Getty Images/Ringer illustration Golden State is boldly going where no NBA team has gone before: a 12-man rotation. Can Steve Kerr's experiment give one last gasp to the Dubs' dynasty? Lindy Waters III has been plying his trade as a professional basketball player for four years now, and, like any veteran, he's become a creature of habit. NBA players like predictability, a consistent routine, especially on game nights. So Waters, a reserve guard for the Golden State Warriors, was a tad perturbed a few weeks back when that routine was scuttled. "I usually eat chicken and rice, every time," Waters recalled in a recent phone conversation. "One time they didn't have chicken—and I was mad, man." It's generally best not to mess with a player's pregame meal. Or, for that matter, their pregame warm-ups, their minutes, their rotation spot, or their overall role. But Waters and the Warriors are adapting to a new reality this season: Unless your name is Stephen Curry or Draymond Green, almost nothing is assured. Blessed with an uncommonly deep roster (albeit with many more supporting players than stars), coach Steve Kerr is doing the unthinkable: He's playing them all, defying decades of conventional wisdom. Coaches generally pick seven or eight players they trust the most and give them the bulk of the minutes. Occasionally, a team might go nine deep on a regular basis. Ten is pushing it. Eleven? Gasp. Twelve? Borderline insanity. Which makes Kerr a mad scientist of sorts. "We had so many guys who I just felt like deserved to play," Kerr told The Ringer, recalling his thought process in training camp. "And then as camp went on, we just started thinking about, What if we just played 12? You're not supposed to do that. But maybe that could be the strength of our team." So far it is, with the über-deep Warriors powering their way to a surprising 11-3 record, atop the Western Conference. As of this writing, Kerr's crew ranks top five in offense, defense, and net rating, all vast leaps from last season and all without adding a single certified star over the summer. They're projecting a familiar dominance and swagger, except now with a 36-year-old Curry, a 34-year-old Green, and an ever-revolving cast of shooters, defenders, leapers, and playmakers. Through 14 games, the Warriors have 13 players averaging at least 11 minutes per game, from Curry (29.2 minutes) down to Gary Payton II (11.4). If that all holds for the full season, it would be a historic feat. Per Stathead, just four teams have had at least 11 players average 10 or more minutes per game (minimum 65 games played): the 1980-81 Milwaukee Bucks, the 1986-87 Utah Jazz, the 2000-01 Orlando Magic, and the 2017-18 Toronto Raptors. (Lower the threshold to 60 games, and you find 19 teams that used at least 11 players for 10-plus minutes, including the 2016-17 San Antonio Spurs, the only team to deploy 12 guys with double-digit minutes. But 65 games feels like the right standard since it's also the NBA's cutoff for award eligibility.) Kerr's scheme did take a small hit Wednesday, when the Warriors announced that De'Anthony Melton (who had been averaging 20 minutes) would undergo season-ending ACL surgery. But that still leaves 12 players in double-digit minutes—and would anyone be surprised if Kerr started giving 10 minutes a game to Gui Santos? One bit of historical context: Until 2005, NBA teams could carry only 12 players (plus an injured reserve list), whereas today, they can carry up to 15. Teams are also permitted to use all 15 players in a game now, a wrinkle instituted in 2021. So Kerr has more latitude to expand and tinker than most of his predecessors did. Still, what Kerr is now attempting has, quite literally, never been done over a full season. Injuries could change things, of course. A midseason trade could alter the rotation. Someone could slump, slip, or pout and spoil the good vibes. The rotation could certainly shrink along the way. But for now, Kerr is enjoying his experiment—and the results. "We can play shorter stints," Kerr said. "We can play harder within those stints. Our number one objective coming in this year was to get our defense back in the top echelon. And it seemed like a good way to pursue that by really playing a lot of people and playing harder for shorter stints." Sure enough, the Warriors have leaped from a middling defensive team (15th last season) to elite (fourth as of this writing). And their bench output—55 points per game—leads the league by a considerable margin. One other minor caveat to Kerr's 13-man experiment: Not every player has appeared in every game. But most of them are playing most nights. The game-to-game variance is part of the challenge. Take Waters, for example. He arrived in camp as a relative afterthought—an undrafted prospect who spent time in the G League and three years as a part-time player for the Thunder, who in June traded him to the Warriors for a second-round pick. With Klay Thompson's departure to Dallas, the Warriors had a vacancy in the rotation. But Waters landed with no expectations or promises of playing time, joining a crowded guard corps featuring Curry, veterans Buddy Hield and Melton, and Warriors holdovers Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, and Payton. Under normal circumstances, Waters's personal stat page would likely just be a long, sad string of DNPs. But he's averaging 15.4 minutes over 12 games, providing a little bit of everything: scoring, energy, defense, and timely 3-pointers. "I'm thankful for giving me just an opportunity to even be here in the first place," said the 27-year-old Waters, who went undrafted in 2020 after playing four years at Oklahoma State. "It's just so much fun to be out here. The fans are amazing. The city is amazing. And I'm really happy to be here." It's been a gratifying run, to be sure, albeit a bit dizzying. Sometimes Waters starts (four games), and sometimes he doesn't play at all (two DNPs). He's played 31 minutes (in an October 29 victory over New Orleans), and he's played 32 seconds (in an October 27 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers). So much for set minutes, set roles, and set routines. A little frustration in this case would be understandable. "I think for a lot of players, it can be that way," Waters said. "But for me, coming into the league, my role was so sporadic—going on a two-way , playing two games in a day, getting called the day before, and flying in the day of the game. Things like that have always kept me ready, no matter what the rotation looks like. But yeah, it can be tough for some guys." Added Payton: "The biggest thing is, just stay ready. If Steve trusts you, then you know he has no problem throwing you in there for any situation. So me, I just stay ready wherever it is." The Warriors know how delicate these things can be. They've navigated multiple flare-ups over playing time and roles in recent seasons, mostly with their younger prospects, from James Wiseman to Moody to, most notably, Jonathan Kuminga. It's the emergence of those last two—along with the rapid rise of 2023 draft picks Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis—that made a short rotation nearly impossible and inadvisable. To be clear, the Warriors front office didn't necessarily plan things this way. It just sort of happened. In July, they lost a franchise legend when Thompson decided to join the Dallas Mavericks. That left a hole in the lineup—but gave them an opportunity to reconfigure the roster. Through a complicated six-team trade, the Warriors sent Thompson to Dallas and acquired two valued vets, Hield and Kyle Anderson. They also signed Melton to a one-year deal. (Somewhere along the way, Andrew Wiggins—a driving force in the Warriors' 2022 championship—also started to find his game again.) And suddenly, boom, a logjam—and a potential headache. "If people are gonna accuse me of getting too many good players on the roster, I'll happily accept that criticism," general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said, chuckling. The truth is, the Warriors had other plans this summer. They tried hard to pry Lauri Markkanen from Utah. They made aggressive bids to acquire Paul George from the Los Angeles Clippers before he ultimately joined the Philadelphia 76ers. They'd hoped to place a third star next to Curry and Green and place themselves back in title contention before the window shuts on their aging core. But those attempts failed, leaving the Warriors with a more egalitarian roster. "I'm of the belief that if you got a lot of good players, you should play them," Dunleavy said. "It's a long season; this stuff will work itself out." Kerr and Dunleavy both had long careers as NBA role players, so they know the risk-reward axis well when it comes to playing time. Dunleavy also saw up close, as he was growing up, how difficult it can be to manage a super-deep roster. His father, Mike Dunleavy Sr., was the head coach of the 1999-2000 Portland Trail Blazers: a talent-rich powerhouse that featured two complete five-man units. (The Warriors' depth, by contrast, is based mostly on interchangeable role players.) The Blazers made the Western Conference finals (losing to the Lakers in seven games), but the surplus of talent proved ultimately unwieldy, and Portland began reshuffling the roster that summer. "For sure, it's something I gave a lot of thought to, that I saw firsthand," Dunleavy said. " was a tremendously successful group, and that's what we're going for. The only downside is, if you're not winning, it can create some people grumbling, and I think we all recognize that. So that's why it's important to bring in guys with high character and mostly win. I think winning cures everything. And as long as we continue to do that, I don't see any issues." There are more recent examples, including the 2013-14 Spurs, who won the championship with a deep rotation designed to lessen the burden on aging stars Tim Duncan (then 37), Manu Ginóbili (36), and Tony Parker (31). By then, coach Gregg Popovich had been ratcheting down Duncan's playing time for years, hoping to extend his career. But Kerr said he's not necessarily trying to do the same for Curry, whose minutes (29 per game) are down right now mostly due to happenstance (i.e., blowouts); Kerr expects Curry to be back in the 32-minute range, the same as last season. And though Kerr, a former Spurs reserve, counts Popovich as a key influence, it's another longtime mentor whose approach he cites in opting to play a deep rotation. "My coaching style has always been impacted by Phil Jackson and his willingness to use guys at any time," Kerr said. "I always think about Game 6 against the Blazers, before I got there, and he starts the fourth quarter with Bobby Hansen and Stacey King, and they're down like 14, and they came back and won." (FWIW: Jackson used 10 players that game; the Blazers used seven.) That philosophy infused Kerr's coaching from the moment he joined the Warriors in 2014-15, piloting them to the championship under a "strength in numbers" mantra. Two years later, the Warriors pivoted to a "strength in superstars" approach, signing Kevin Durant and winning two more titles behind overwhelming talent. They added a fourth title in 2022 with just one elite player, Curry, supported by a strong ensemble. "My sort of 'strength in numbers' philosophy really comes from Phil," Kerr said, "because he was a guy who really understood the power of each and every player on the roster and how unifying it is when everyone gets a chance and everyone makes an impact at some point." So now, whether by preference or necessity (or both), Kerr is taking that philosophy to its logical extreme. Can a 12-man rotation with one aging star challenge the sheer wealth of young talent in Oklahoma City? Or dethrone the Luka Doncic–Kyrie Irving juggernaut in Dallas? Or the Nikola Jokic–led Denver Nuggets? Or the Durant-led Phoenix Suns? Could the Warriors, who defeated a greener version of the Boston Celtics in the 2022 Finals, repeat the feat against the talent-rich (and now-defending-champion) Celtics? At a glance, perhaps it's unlikely. But what if Wiggins reclaims his 2022 form? Or Podziemski and Kuminga take another leap? Or Moody? Or Jackson-Davis? It's probably too soon to contemplate any of that. There's a lot of season left, and potentially a lot of land mines for the Warriors to navigate between now and next spring. It would surprise no one if they abandoned the 12-deep approach and made a two-for-one or three-for-one trade to land another star. A lot of rival execs covet Kuminga and Podziemski. And the Warriors have several plug-and-play vets to dangle, from Hield to Payton to Kevon Looney. But for now, Kerr is enjoying the challenge of rekindling the Warriors' magic with yet another new approach: strength in even bigger numbers. "I'm not getting ahead of myself, but it is fun," Kerr said. "Every year is different, and circumstances are different, and it's fun to kind of find your way through a season trying some different things. When those things work, it's very gratifying." So far, no players have grumbled about their minutes. Waters said everyone in the locker room is "buying into this system and buying into each other. We all have one common goal, and every single day we remind each other of that." Personally, Waters said he's good with 30 minutes or 30 seconds, as long as the Warriors are winning. Whatever the Warriors ask of him, he'll roll with it. But, well, just one small request. "I'm not a guy that asks for much," Waters said, chuckling, "but chicken and rice? Like, that's the least they could do."

The Warriors Are Going Deeper Than Any Team in NBA History

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