The Golden State Warriors thought they’d settled on a starting lineup before guard De’Anthony Melton sprained his left ACL in Tuesday’s 120-117 win over the Dallas Mavericks. In that game and their 127-116 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder two nights earlier, they started Melton next to Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. That lineup, the sixth starting unit the Warriors have used this season, has logged just 13 minutes together all season, all of them in those two games, but it outscored its opponents by 21.6 points per 100 possessions in that tiny sample.
“It’s disappointing,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters at Thursday’s practice. “It was really the perfect mix. De’Anthony does a little bit of everything: on-ball defense, rebounding, 3-point shooting, playmaking. Great fit, and that’s why we targeted him. So the fact that he’s going to be out the next game is a bummer. We were finding some momentum. And we’ll see how this unfolds.”
Melton, who joined the Warriors on a one-year, $12.8 million contract in July, will be sidelined when they host the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday in their second NBA Cup game of the season. Beyond that, his status is unclear — the team announced Thursday that he would undergo further tests. “He’s obviously a really important player for us and the guy who we envisioned and has done a good job as a starting two guard, so it’s a concern for sure, but we’ll know more over the next few days,” Kerr said. If there is an unofficial timeline, though, Buddy Hield might have let it slip.
“He works so hard,” Hield told reporters Thursday. “Every day, he comes in two hours before to get his treatment, works his butt off. For him to be out a couple weeks — we just gotta stay the course with him, keep his faith, and when he comes back, come back better. We have a great training staff here.”
Kerr said he didn’t know exactly when during Tuesday’s game the injury occurred. Melton appeared to grab his left knee in pain after a fall in the second quarter, but remained in the game and was on the floor in crunch time.
Melton has already missed five games because of a lower back strain. He returned from that injury just a week ago. It was immediately clear, though, that he complemented the rest of the Warriors’ starters extremely well. He’s an excellent rebounder for a guard, he’s a reliable spot-up shooter and he gives Golden State the point-of-attack defense it needs.
Before Melton joined the starting lineup, Kerr had tried both Gary Payton II and Moses Moody in his spot. If the Warriors decide to prioritize size and spacing, they could go back to Moody. If they prioritize perimeter defense, they could go back to Payton. Kerr is not afraid to mix things up, and he could decide to keep the fifth spot in the starting lineup fluid while Melton is sidelined.
Fortunately, Golden State is perhaps the NBA’s deepest team. All season, Kerr has used an 11- or 12-man rotation, and he said Thursday that he wanted to play Lindy Waters III against the Mavericks and Thunder, but couldn’t find a place for him. The Warriors will miss Melton, but they have no shortage of rotation-caliber wings and they won all five games that he missed with the back injury.
“We got options, we got a lot of depth and we’re very capable of filling in,” Kerr said, “but it’s very disappointing for him and for us.”
