The Warriors have been forced to rely more than they expected on two-way players Anthony Lamb and Ty Jerome, and both are starting to get close to their game limits for the season, writes Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area.
NBA rules state that two-way players can’t be on the active roster for more than 50 games and they’re not eligible for the playoffs. With the season not quite at the halfway point, Lamb has already appeared in 31 games, while Jerome has played 25 and had two more in which he was active but didn’t get on the court.
“We have to navigate that,” coach Steve Kerr admitted. “There will be some games where those guys will not suit up.”
Lamb, who is on his third team in three years, signed with the Warriors in October shortly before the start of the regular season. He has earned a consistent role off the bench, averaging 6.6 PPG in 19.3 minutes per game. Jerome also came to Golden State in October, after being traded and waived during the offseason, and is putting up 7.5 PPG in 18 minutes per night.
“It says a lot about the culture,” Andre Iguodala said, “just with them looking for guys like that who will make the most of their time here and even extend their time because of their work ethics.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Stephen Curry felt good after taking part in Friday’s practice, tweets Kendra Andrews of ESPN. He was able to play 5-on-5 with contact and said his conditioning is fine after missing nearly four weeks with a left shoulder subluxation. President of basketball operations Bob Myers indicated this week that Curry might be able to return January 13, but the former MVP wouldn’t commit to that, saying he plans “to be ready when I’m ready.” (Twitter link)
- The Warriors confirmed that Andrew Wiggins will be in the starting lineup for tonight’s game against the Magic, ending a 15-game absence due to an adductor strain and an illness, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Donte DiVincenzo will return to his role off the bench. Wiggins will be on a minutes restriction, although Kerr wasn’t specific about how long he will play, according to Andrews (Twitter link).
- Iguodala, who will make his season debut tonight, will also play restricted minutes, Andrews tweets. Kerr didn’t reveal how long that will be, saying the team is working out a long-term plan for Iguodala, including whether he will be available for back-to-back games.
It seems like the Warriors are starting to get healthy. I’m curious once everyone is back and healthy whether or not they will continue to struggle on the road.
I cannot recall a team that has been so clearly different when it comes to their record and quality of play when measuring their home and road splits..
Typically, that is a sign of a young team that lacks experience, but idk what this says about this team…
The road record has been impacted by their brutal road schedule, 5 games in 7 nights with 2 B2Bs on the 1st road trip ending with the ref job 1 pt loss in Orlando with the absurd 46-15 ft margin Scott Foster and crew delivered, and then a 6 games in 9 days with 2 B2Bs missing Steph and Wiggins after the 1st 2 gmes.
Any team missing 2 all star starters is going to struggle. GSW will be fine if and when they finally get healthy.
I understand injuries, as there isn’t much you can do about those, or the schedule you’re given..
Still though, we aren’t talking about a game or two below .500…
They are a LEAGUE WORST 3-16…
That is more than just your schedule, or getting hosed during one game..
Other teams have experienced rashes of injuries as well, and they aren’t sitting already THIRTEEN games below .500 without even playing in 20 road games on the year.
Clearly if you play just a bench of young guys a lot, you look like a better talented version of the Rockets … I don’t understand dubs fans excuses about refs, schedule Warriots are deep in the playin point blank, and the splash Bros and all the vets will have to play a lot more if healthy to get top 6, and then that PO serie will be way more difficult to go to the finals if GSW starting 5 is cooked.
The Warriors struggled more last year; they still won the Finals. Don’t see any reason why they can’t repeat.
With a 50% winning record in Feb & March and without Curry & Dray who sat out a month before PO GSW struggled to get to the #3 spot..? You think GSW young core could do it again or Kerr will shorten the rotation and play the vets a lot more to secoure the job? I agree and wish you they do it all again with a healthy Steph cause the west is a mess of young and banged up teams…
Jeez…There has been a 1,000 articles written about their diffulties. It is not that big of a secret. Kerr, Draymond, Thompson, Iggy have been talking about it for a long time. The young guys have to get better on defense. And they are. They are beginning to understand what they need to do, and it shows. They will be fine.