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October 15, 2026
The trend

Gui Santos has 11 of the 30 turnovers in Kerr's likely starting five

Golden State has turned it over 104 times in five exhibitions, fewer than the 110 of last October, when the same club went on to average 15.7 a game. The count moved off Brandin Podziemski and Draymond Green and onto the forward Steve Kerr wants starting for his playmaking.

CE
Cam EllisOct 15, 20264 min read
Every call on this site goes on a public ledger and gets graded. The misses stay up.
Gui Santos in a studio headshot, wearing the Warriors' white home jersey with blue trim and a white headband, against a plain white background.

Steve Kerr put a number on the problem after Monday's practice. "We have, I think, 90 turnovers through four games," he said, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area, and much of Monday's film session was about "time and score, risk/reward type stuff." The box scores give 84, which Poole noted. On Tuesday in Las Vegas the Warriors added 20 more, nine of them in the second quarter, and Kerr called them "mindless turnovers that completely allowed the game to get away from us."

That makes 104 in five exhibitions, 20.8 a game. The five opponents committed 115 in the same games.

Last October, by the same count#

Last fall's exhibitions are the nearest comparison.

Golden State, team turnovers includedGamesTurnoversPer game
Preseason, October 2025511022.0
First five regular-season games, 2025-2658216.4
Full regular season, 2025-26821,28415.7
Preseason, October 2026510420.8

Through four exhibitions last fall the count was 87, three more than the 84 Kerr held a film session over this week. The same club then turned it over 19 times in the opener at the Lakers and nine times two nights later against Denver. Preseason turnovers run high on both benches, and last October's opponents had 101.

The table does not hold the offense, which is new this fall. Kerr said that is why he waited: "I haven't harped on them until now because I know we're really teaching a lot of things that are new for our guys. But now is the time."

Where the count moved#

The total is down six from last October, and it sits with different players.

PlayerOctober 2025 preseasonOctober 2026 preseason
Brandin Podziemski14 in 107 minutes, 5 games5 in 89 minutes, 4 games
Draymond Green14 in 74 minutes, 4 games3 in 52 minutes, 3 games
Stephen Curry8 in 88 minutes, 4 games6 in 64 minutes, 4 games
Gui Santos5 in 71 minutes, 4 games11 in 86 minutes, 4 games
Yaxel Lendeborgdid not play5 in 90 minutes, 4 games

Those are the five Kerr is leaning toward for October 21 at the Lakers, Anthony Slater of ESPN reported Monday. Together they have 30 turnovers this preseason. Santos has 11 of them. The other four have 19 in 295 minutes.

Podziemski and Green had 28 turnovers between them last October and have eight now. Santos went from the fewest of the four returning players to the most, five against Sacramento on Saturday and three in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Last season he averaged 1.5 a game in 20.5 minutes across 68 games, 30 of them starts, by ESPN's count. Four exhibitions have him near twice that.

Kerr has said what he wants from him in that lineup. For the case in which Kristaps Porzingis is not back, one option Kerr laid out was Green at center, Lendeborg at power forward and "maybe Gui" at small forward, "to give us some size and playmaking," Poole reported on October 9. A forward who is asked to make plays handles the ball more often, and a count of turnovers does not separate the passes he was asked to throw from the ones Kerr called mindless. The film session was about the second kind.

Santos is not where the roster's turnovers pile up. Brandon Williams has 15 in 84 minutes off the bench and Charles Bassey 12 in 89, the two highest counts on the team. Santos's are the ones inside the five Kerr is leaning toward.

The week in front of them#

Portland visits Chase Center on Friday night for the last exhibition. Lendeborg rolled his left ankle in the third quarter on Tuesday, left briefly and came back, Poole reported.

Then the Lakers on October 21. They forced 24 turnovers at Chase Center on October 6 and 20 in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Memphis comes in on October 23, and Golden State plays at Phoenix the next night, at Denver on October 26 and at Minnesota on October 28. Those are the first five games, the same window in which last year's club went from 22.0 a game in October exhibitions to 16.4.

Sources: ESPN box scores for Golden State's five 2026 preseason games, its five 2025 preseason games and its first five 2025-26 regular-season games, for every team and player turnover and minute; box scores for all 82 of Golden State's 2025-26 regular-season games, for the season total; ESPN's athlete page for Santos's 2025-26 averages; NBA.com box scores for the five 2026 preseason games, which agree on every player count; Monte Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area, October 13, 2026, for Kerr's quotations after Monday's practice and Tuesday's game, the second-quarter count and Lendeborg's ankle; Monte Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area, October 9, 2026, for Kerr on Santos; Anthony Slater, ESPN, October 12, 2026, for the leaning starting five; ESPN's Warriors schedule for the dates.

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