3 Observations from Al Horford’s Warriors debut

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3 Observations from Al Horford’s Warriors debut

Kenzo Fukuda, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Mon, Oct 6, 2025 ·

6 min read

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The post 3 Observations from Al Horford's Warriors debut appeared first on ClutchPoints .

SAN FRANCISCO– Warriors basketball is back at Chase Center as Golden State kicked off its preseason with a 111-103 win over the Los Angeles Lakers who did not play LeBron James or Luka Doncic . And while it's impossible to come away with any season-implicating revelations, Golden State looked balanced and smooth in their first outing of the season.

Warriors stars Stephen Curry , Draymond Green , and Jimmy Butler were limited to around 15 minutes. And while the veteran core tried to knock off some of their summer rust, they had moments reminiscent of what made them such a threat late last season. Not to mention Dub Nation got their first glimpse of free-agent acquisition Al Horford , who looked comfortable with his new team.

With the Warriors basketball season underway, here are three observations that point to how their season will transpire.

Al Horford flashes Warriors' ceiling

With the kind of basketball Horford's played his entire career, it's not a surprise he looked like he's been in Golden State for the past decade in his first look with the Warriors. In 14 minutes of preseason action, Horford finished with three points, four rebounds, three assists, three blocks, and a +13 plus/minus.

He did all the little things that make the Warriors who they are. Horford ran the floor, found his teammates slashing to the paint, was in all the right spots defensively as the anchoring rim protector, and gave Golden State the spacing it craved when they recruited him to the Bay. In his postgame press conference, Steve Kerr shared his impression of Horford's debut.

"Fun. To see the size and the shooting ability, passing ability, just the flow of the game, what an addition he is," Kerr said. He later talked about how impressed he was with Horford's IQ. "He's just always in the right spot. I think he had a couple of blocked shots. The two I remember he just rotated over perfectly, recognized the late shot clock, knew exactly where he was, what he needed to do."

While a lot rides on the Warriors maintaining the 39-year-old center's health throughout the season, Horford showed a flash of what this team can look like if they stay fully intact. Kerr said pregame that the Dubs will follow how Joe Mazzulla and the Boston Celtics managed Horford last season. That'll mean resting Horford in back-to-backs and "hectic" areas of the schedule.

Moses Moody 's shooting

For as important as he was last season during Golden State's 23-8 run to close the season, Moses Moody has flown under the radar as of late. Bouncing back from a torn UCL in his right thumb, the fifth-year player finished with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting and 5-of-7 from beyond the arc. After the game, he talked about how his shot feels after undergoing surgery this summer .

"Good," Moody said. "I think the surgery and everything ended up being a good thing for me because I was rehabbing and bringing my thumb back into my shot made me slow down and notice everything about my jump shot. That helped me a lot.

Moody was also incredibly stingy on the defensive end, which the Warriors will need as he projects to be their main point-of-attack defender this season. Kerr talked about how Moody boosts the Dubs' small-ball lineup.

"What I like about the small [ball] lineup is it really empowers Moses [Moody] to be that disruptor defensively, which he was right away," Kerr said. "I picked up a couple of fouls, but no, he had a couple deflections. You could feel his presence right away and, you know, and he had his great shooting line."

Moody was a part of the Warriors' highly efficient five-man lineup with Curry, Green, Butler, and Podziemski . He was in charge of hounding opposing guards and spacing the floor with his shooting. After the game, Curry talked about how Moody has evolved over the past year to become an important part of Golden State.

"It's his confidence. For a young guy, when you don't know when your minutes, that's the biggest challenge," Curry said. He emphasized how Moody going through all these different scenarios has prepared him mentally for high-pressure spots.

Charting out Steve Kerr's rotation for Warriors

Preseason rotations mean about as much as the loose change in your thrifted blue jeans– not that much. But the Warriors feel confident they have a deep rotation and a lot of options depending on the matchup. In this preseason game, Kerr toggled with the tried and true Curry, Green, and Butler lineups, experimenting with Horford, Moody, Brandin Podziemski, and Jonathan Kuminga next to them. Those seven players are sure to be staples of Kerr's rotation.

But Kerr also threw out a Horford-Post double-big lineup, something he hinted at earlier this week. It gave Golden State an intriguing amount of size and shooting, albeit with some awkward defense as Post and Horford exchanged guarding the Lakers' power forwards. Postgame, Kerr talked about how the two stretch bigs played next to each other.

"It was fun to watch because you get two really big guys on the floor together. That kind of size and shooting at the same time is a really interesting combination," Kerr explained.

"We played some zone out with them. You could see the length there, and we made a good run at the end of the second quarter. Got three or four stops there with the zone, ran the floor well, and both guys see the game. Good passers. So that was a fun night to watch that combination."

Preseason's all about experimentation. The Warriors will do more of that Wednesday versus the Portland Trail Blazers .

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