By the start of the second quarter, Moses Moody was in, meaning 12 players had seen the floor.
Throughout training camp, the Warriors had boasted about their depth. Warriors coach Steve Kerr repeatedly said there were 13 players he thought deserved rotational minutes and stressed the difficult decisions he would have to make to shrink his rotation.
“This is as deep of a team as I’ve ever coached, and we’ve got to lean into that,” Kerr said after the Warriors’ 139-104 win. “I’ve never played 12 before, but we’re going to do it.
“I was thinking, well, maybe I’ll just play 10 and we’ll have to tell two of these guys that they’re going to sit. But I just couldn’t justify that.”
Golden State started a lineup of Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis, a group Kerr said he’d like to be the starting five this season.
Buddy Hield was the first off the bench, followed by Kevon Looney and Brandin Podziemski. Next were Melton and Anderson and then Moody.
“It’s the identity of this team right now,” Curry said. “We’re going to rely on our depth.”
Curry said the only team he could think of that had comparable depth was the 2014-15 Warriors, whose slogan was “strength in numbers.” But even that team had just an 11-man rotation.
“This is the deepest team I’ve ever been on,” Wiggins said.
On Wednesday, seven players scored in double figures, led by Hield’s 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including five 3-pointers, in 15 minutes. That’s the most points scored by a Warriors player in 15 or fewer minutes since 1984, according to ESPN Research.
