PORTLAND, Ore. – Gary Payton II and Kyle Anderson crouched at the scorer’s table with three minutes left in the first quarter of the Golden State Warriors’ season opener against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.

Just nine minutes into the game, the Warriors’ 10th and 11th men were about to check in. At the start of the second quarter, Moses Moody was inside, meaning twelve players had seen the floor.

Throughout training camp, the Warriors had bragged about their depth. Warriors coach Steve Kerr repeatedly said there were 13 players he thought deserved rotation minutes and emphasized the tough decisions he would have to make to narrow his rotation.

But the night before the team’s opening game, Kerr decided not to limit the number of players.

“This is the deepest team I’ve ever coached, and we have to lean on that,” Kerr said after the Warriors’ 139-104 victory. “I’ve never played 12 before, but we’re going to do it.

“I thought, maybe I’ll just play 10 and we’ll have to tell two of these guys to sit down. 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 would like to be the starting five this season.

Buddy Hield came off the bench first, followed by Kevon Looney and Brandin Podziemski. Next up 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 with comparable depth was the 2014-15 Warriors, whose slogan was “strength in numbers.” But even that team only had an eleven-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-for-12 shooting, including five 3-pointers, in 15 minutes. That’s the most points scored by a Warriors player in 15 minutes or less since 1984, according to ESPN Research.

“Without Klay, we had to shoot. Well, we had to shoot anyway,” Curry said. “We know what his skills are. We know what he is capable of. The transition has been very seamless so far.

Wiggins added 20 points and Curry nearly achieved a triple-double with 17 points, 10 assists and 9 rebounds.

The Warriors made 20 three-pointers and no player surpassed Curry’s team-high of 25 minutes.

While the Warriors emphasize playing at a fast pace — they scored 30 points in transition against Portland — they believe their depth and ability to execute an almost hockey-like rotation will allow them to be “overwhelming.” are for opponents. Hield called it an ongoing “surge” of players.

On some nights the rotation may decrease depending on the matchup. And there is also an agreement that on evenings when a player is not available, he or she will sit on the bench.

“You have to have a commitment – ​​no agendas, no egos or healthy egos, that you know you’re supposed to be there, but if it’s not a night, don’t bring down the team with your energy,” Currie said. “I I didn’t see any red flags about that.”

Curry defined having a healthy ego as always maintaining the belief that you are an impactful player, but at the same time having enough humility to know when it’s not your night and, most importantly, not letting that affect your attitude. The Warriors believe there has been a mutual understanding on this since the team headed to Hawaii for training camp early this month, when Kerr said there would be healthy competition for playing time.

At the time, he hoped that competition would produce their identity. That is the case for the time being.