We don’t envy the social media departments for NBA teams. Not only do these underpaid peons have to edit videos, create graphics, and track players’ birthdays, anniversaries, and personal bests, but they also have to chase online trends, memorize acronyms, stockpile reactions gifs, and decide which players have “rizz” and occasionally type out the word “dunkmaxxing.”
So when the Golden State Warriors participate in the NBA’s extremely forced Schedule Release Day, they have a tough task. It has to be high-concept, inoffensive, and somehow make describing a basketball schedule interesting, even after the league leaks all the important dates days earlier. This year, the Warriors went with a Scooby-Doo theme.
It’s fine. Would we have had Jimmy Butler trip the Grim Reaper with a basketball and presumably tear his ACL, only to reveal the Reaper has the head of a Philadelphia 76ers logo and the body of cartoon Joel Embiid? Probably not. Is depicting the date of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ visit to the Chase Center as a line of ants, because of Anthony “Ant” Edwards lame? A little bit.
At least Draymond Green just shines a flashlight on a window with (OKC) Thunder in it while Butler and Steph Curry assault the disturbing logo-headed ghosts. But in a way, this video is a perfect introduction to the 2026-27 team. The construction isn’t all that creative, it centers on some old, slow dudes, and it relies on nostalgia for something that hasn’t been relevant for years.
And as befits this year’s schedule, the video just kind of peters out at the end. That’s just like the season, where the Warriors’s last nine games include a five-game cross-country road trip and back-to-back on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
They’ll play their home opener Friday, Oct. 23 against the Memphis Grizzlies after opening on the road against the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s a gentle start to the season, with a six-game homestand early on and only two games outside their own time zone in three weeks.
January is the kindest schedule month, with 10 home games versus five on the road, though it ends with a home contest against the San Antonio Spurs Jan. 30 and an immediate rematch Feb. 1. That’s followed by their longest road trip of the season, where they’ll play six games in 11 nights and go from Los Angeles to Chicago to the East Coast.
The team has 15 back-to-backs next season, with six at home, five on the road, and four where the first game is at home and the second comes on the road. The Phoenix Suns will be the beneficiaries of two such contests, and will play three of their four games against the Warriors with Golden State on the second night of a back-to-back. That’s slightly above the NBA average of 14.2 back-to-backs, which will force Steve Kerr to choose his spots for Al Horford carefully, as well as Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody if/when they return.
The two toughest B2Bs are probably a road game against the Boston Celtics Feb. 10 after flying from Chicago and the aforementioned duel with the Thunder, who might at least have already clinched their playoff position by then and be ready to rest players.
OKC will be featured in one of the Warriors’ most high-profile contests, when NBC’s “Sunday Night Basketball” returns Jan. 24. They will be playing on NBC 11 times next season, which is the maximum allowed.
They’re on two prime-time Prime Video games during the NBA Cup, hosting the Lakers Oct, 30 and visiting the Spurs Nov. 13. The Warriors also get the Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings in West Group C, which feels slightly easier than Groups A and B. You may not care about the Emirates NBA Cup, but it may be the Warriors’ best chance at a trophy this season.
Where is the NBA Cup title game happening? The league has left Las Vegas for glamorous Indianapolis, Indiana and Butler University’s Hinkle Fiedhouse, the place they filmed the final game in the movie “Hoosiers.” You know Steve Kerr is excited to finally have the Warriors run the picket fence play, now that Jonathan Kuminga won’t get caught watching the paint dry.
