The injuries continue to pile up for the Warriors, who announced today (via Twitter) that guard Damion Lee has suffered a non-displaced fracture of the fourth metacarpal in his right hand. Lee will be re-evaluated in two weeks, according to the team.
Technically, Lee isn’t even on the Warriors’ standard roster, as he’s one of the club’s two-way players. However, he has been playing about 25 minutes per night on the wing since Stephen Curry went down with a broken hand of his own, as Anthony Slater of The Athletic notes (via Twitter).
In 11 total games (21.9 MPG), Lee has averaged 10.0 PPG and 3.9 RPG on .385/.343/.848 shooting.
The Warriors will be without Curry and Klay Thompson until at least February, and Kevon Looney is sidelined indefinitely due to a neuropathic condition. An adductor strain will keep Jacob Evans on the shelf until later this month, and Alen Smailagic and Omari Spellman are recovering from ankle injuries.
Teams dealing with at least four extended injury absences can qualify for a hardship provision allowing them to temporarily carry a 16th man on their roster. However, that would be of no use to the Warriors, who can’t even carry a 15th man for now due to a restrictive hard cap.
Since two-way players don’t count toward the salary cap, Golden State could theoretically replace Lee with a new two-way addition. But that would mean waiving a player who has spent the last couple years with the franchise and could be healthy again within the next few weeks.
On the plus side, Lee’s 45-day NBA clock won’t continue to run while he’s injured, so a potential decision on whether or not to find room for him on the standard roster will be pushed further down the road, tweets Slater.
Dubs are sooooooo F(&ked. Come on lucky roll in the Draft lottery. 2020-21 cant come soon enough!
This is why the idea of Curry playing this season is so ridiculous. Even if he’s healthy in March or whatever, the Warriors will probably already be mathematically eliminated by then.
Could be a David Robinson – Tim Duncan scenario all over again
I agree. I only hope the Ewing sweepstakes doesn’t happen to them again.
Theoretically speaking, what would happen if a team who is hard capped got into a bad bus accident and everyone was hurt? Would they have to sign all 2 way players and lose they guys they were replacing?
As I understand it if they get two more guys down so that they cant meet the minimum players active for a game requirement they can apply for a hardship player despite being hard capped. Where the one way possible to exceed the hard cap is to not have 8 players suiting up. I dont however know if they would be granted another minimum guy or maybe just get to convert a 2 way and sign another. I dont know if the league has discretion or if it is a set thing. Not much info on this on the web, but knowledgeable writers have mentioned it, and it makes sense.
Teams are only allowed two 2-way players at a time.