SAN FRANCISCO — Kristaps Porzingis has yet to be seen around the Warriors’ facilities, but the absence of his 7-foot-3 frame looms large as the regular season creeps ever closer.

Head coach Steve Kerr said after Thursday’s practice that he has texted Porzingis and that the Latvian big man “seems to be doing OK,” but that Kerr has no knowledge of what exactly Porzingis is dealing with.

Kerr also pointed out that there is no timeline for his return to the team.

“We’d rather have KP be here and a part of it, but he’s got to take care of his health, and again, we’ll support that and keep moving forward with the team,” Kerr said.

Al Horford has played with Porzingis in Boston and now Golden State, but he also said he had not spoken to Porzingis at all recently, nor had he seen him around the Warriors’ facility.

Horford missed preseason games Tuesday and Wednesday with a left knee contusion suffered in practice, but both he and Kerr said the 40-year-old is expected to play on Saturday.

Center depth remains a concern regardless. Horford has not played a back-to-back set in years, and no amount of his increased sprint-based workouts will completely decrease the natural injury risk that comes with playing basketball into his fourth decade.

Porzingis remains a perpetual uncertainty. Behind them are Draymond Green — who the Warriors hope to play primarily at power forward — two-way contract Graham Ike and career journeyman Charles Bassey.

Well, those three and one other unorthodox option.

Rookie forward Yaxel Lendeborg is 6-9 and a solid 250 pounds, lauded for a well-rounded skill set and often asked to shoot more. Could he be a candidate to play the five during the regular season, especially after he dabbled there against the Lakers on Tuesday?

Kerr neither ruled it out nor committed to it.

“It’s too early to make that assessment; we’re literally a week into this,” Kerr said.

Lendeborg started the third quarter of the win over the Lakers playing the five next to Georges Niang, defending the 6-9 Sandro Mamukelashvili for a stretch.

After making a point during his introductory press conference in June that he was not comfortable playing inside, Lendeborg looked at ease jostling for position against the Lakers’ reserves.

For Lendeborg, the upside of playing center came on the offensive side of the ball.

“Offensively, I feel like it’ll be an easier blow-by for me if they decide to put the five on me, which will give me more opportunities to get to the basket,” Lendeborg said.

Despite being larger than most college centers, Lendeborg played almost exclusively on the wing at Michigan. Having 7-3 Aday Mara and 6-10 Morez Johnson share the frontcourt meant that Michigan nearly always had two larger and equally talented options occupying the middle.

The Warriors are different.

Though Bassey and Ike have the dimensions of a traditional center, neither has much pedigree beyond being a backup (Bassey, Malevy Leons) or an incoming rookie out of a mid-major college (Ike). In the Warriors’ new five-out offense, Lendeborg should have driving lanes to work with.

In his 17-point performance against the Lakers, Lendeborg took eight of his 11 shots in the paint, heeding his veterans’ advice to attack the rim rather than look for a pass. He also grabbed nine rebounds, giving him 18 boards in just 40 preseason minutes.

Lendeborg later explained why dominating the glass, something he would have to do as a center, is easier at the pro level.

The Warriors, who ranked in the bottom third of the league last season in rebounds per game, would welcome someone who can reliably grab loose balls.

“I feel like it’s a lot easier to grab rebounds here,” Lendeborg said. “In college, the paint was always packed and somebody is coming out of nowhere to rebound. These guys, I feel like they’re more lazy.”

Perhaps his mind will change once he plays real starting centers and has to bang inside against contenders. And nobody expects him to play center full-time. His defense is still a hypothetical at this point as he persists in conditioning to a pro standard. Though tall, and having pulled off a fantastic chase-down block in Hawaii, nobody mistakes him for a rim protector on the level of the towering Porzingis.

But the Warriors were the team that pioneered smallball, using Green and his speed to overwhelm the plodding 7-footers of his early career. Having a 250-pound tank spend a few minutes inside, saving Horford, Green or Ike or Bassey a couple possessions?

While unconventional, it could work for a team whose starting center remains an absent mystery.

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