SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The first true starting lineup that Steve Kerr was publicly committed to this season had De’Anthony Melton at shooting guard. That lasted less than a week before Melton tore his ACL and sent Kerr’s rotation into a November spiral that never really resolved until the February trade deadline.
Jimmy Butler’s arrival in a four-for-one consolidation trade has simplified Kerr’s menu of choices, knocked secondary players into more comfortable roles and — on Friday night as the Warriors exited the All-Star break with a 132-108 blowout road win over the Kings — has Kerr finally stating that his 33rd starting lineup is his permanent one.
“I imagine we will stay with this lineup,” Kerr said. “I hope so. Because we’ve had a million different starting lineups this year. It’d be nice to stick with this for the rest of the season.”
The five-man group: Steph Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Butler, Moses Moody and Draymond Green.
“I think it’s the best two-way starting group we can put on the floor,” Kerr said. “You get Moses’ shooting, you get BP’s playmaking to go with Steph and Jimmy. Then Draymond and Jimmy at the five and four defensively behind the play. We lack size, but we have a lot of brainpower back there.”
Butler said it is “definitely” the smallest lineup he can remember as a starting unit in his career. At 6 foot 7, he is the tallest player in the group. But Green handles the centers, and those two together are a defensive terror on the help side. Their internal hope is that’ll help mask some of their point-of-attack deficiencies.
“I like it,” Butler said. “I do. You’ve just got some feisty individuals out there that’s fighting, scrapping on both sides of the ball, sharing the ball, scoring, getting stops. Small or not, we’re getting it done.”
On Friday night, the Warriors turned the Kings over 21 times for 38 points as part of a blowout road win. They also protected the ball, turning it over only 12 times, a major improvement against a Sacramento team that turned them over 21 times in both head-to-head wins over the Warriors prior to Butler’s arrival.
That is one of Butler’s specialties. He’s a low-turnover playmaker with “claws for hands,” as Kerr called it, able to protect against the steal in traffic, dribble at a methodical pace and slow the game down when necessary. He called it a “shot on goal” mindset.
“As long as we don’t turn the ball over, we’re always in a great position to win,” Butler said. “We know we’re going to score. It’s when we get careless with the ball, that’s when we — since I’ve been here and from what they’ve told me (before) — that’s when teams come back in the game and everybody’s body language changes.”
Jimmy Butler details his no-turnover mindset: “Get a shot on goal.” pic.twitter.com/MwKM8XgySz
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) February 22, 2025
The Warriors had four 20-point scorers against the Kings: Curry, Buddy Hield, Podziemski and Moody. Hield said at shootaround he felt refreshed after a strong 3-point contest at All-Star Saturday night and then a trip to the Bahamas, where he dipped in the ocean. He came out and hit five 3s in his new bench role.
Hield has ceded his starting lineup spot to Podziemski. Kerr said he is committed to giving Podziemski around 30 minutes per night for the foreseeable future. Podziemski has developed an early connection with Butler and, since returning from an abdominal injury, has been scoring much better than earlier in the season.
“BP shot 20 shots tonight,” Green said. “That’s incredible. We always talk to him about shooting the ball, be aggressive, be decisive. Those two guys playing well has elevated all of our lineups.”
The second of those players Green is mentioning is Moody. He had 11 points in the first half, giving him double digits in 14 of the last 16 games. He finished with 22 points in one of the louder games of the strongest stretch of his career. Moody, more than probably anyone else, has benefited from the consolidation trade that has taken away a few of Kerr’s options to play ahead of him.
“The confidence that’s coming from playing consistent minutes,” Kerr said. “He’s a good fit playing next to BP, Steph, Jimmy, Draymond. Those guys are playmakers. He can play the role he is more comfortable — space the floor, let it fly, play hard, compete. Moses is in a really good place and has really established himself as a starter.”
Jonathan Kuminga’s return isn’t too far away. Kuminga competed in some two-on-two, full-speed workouts Thursday, his hardest workout since badly spraining his right ankle in early January. He took Friday off to let the body recover. There’s still some residual swelling as he tries to get the ankle back to full health.
Kuminga is expected to miss this two-game homestand and probably at least a chunk of this upcoming five-game road trip. But he will arrive on the scene at some point in the next handful of games and is expected to return to a high-usage role, even if it is off the bench behind this solidifying starting lineup.
“JK was coming off the bench before he got injured and was playing really well, playing 30-plus minutes,” Kerr said. “We’re playing well right now. Hopefully, that continues. I’m never going to commit to anything because it’s dependent on how we’re playing. But if we keep playing like this, we’ll keep starting this way.”
(Photo of Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
