Cole: Horford’s time on the bench is better allocated. Without him and Dream Chasing on the court, the defense is too fragile.

The Warriors faced the Nuggets at home. Before the game, head coach Cole accepted an interview and talked about the inside combination of Dream Chaser and Horford.

Reporter: Although we can probably guess some situations, I still want to ask, from a defensive point of view, how is this combination (Horford and Dream Chaser) different from when Looney was on the court before? What can both of them do particularly well?

Cole: You can clearly feel the impact of Al's (Horford) size and wingspan. You know, the few rebounds he grabbed that night, two of them were almost - he just had to put his hand up and look a foot higher than others without taking off. His positioning and frame protection awareness in the penalty area are very good.

The trickier thing is - I've mentioned it to you before - if his playing time is limited to 22 minutes and we start him, then yes, we can enjoy the benefits of Al and Dream chasing being on the court at the same time for the first six minutes, but after that he can only play about 16 more minutes. That way there will be a lot of time later when Dream Chasing is not present. So if I start them both at the same time, that means there's going to be a big chunk of the game without both of them, and that leaves us pretty vulnerable defensively. So now I'm more inclined to start Al off the bench, and if he doesn't start those six minutes, I can more easily allocate his 22 minutes.

Reporter: Steve, you always said that you don’t want Chai Meng to play center in all 82 games. So is there a range of appearances that you think is more suitable?

Cole: It mainly depends on the number of games. I mean, I know it's a long season and he does have to play some minutes at center, but I don't want to overtax him. We played Jimmy at the five position for the last 30 games after we got him, and it worked well, but it was really tiring. So we have to find a way to balance that. I don’t think there’s an easy answer to this, but we have to figure it out. And I may have to "protect him from himself" in that regard too. So - about 81 games, (laughs) Hey!