Why losing Melton is a blow to the Warriors’ hopes originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – After revamping their roster over the summer, the Warriors were pleased with their work. They didn’t get an All-Star to fill the void created for the departure of Klay Thompsonso they would do it by commission.
It wasn’t until the 10th game of the 2024-25 NBA season, De’Anthony Melton’s first as a starter, that everything coach Steve Kerr and his staff expected (a fixed starting lineup, stability with rotations, the full view of the template) fell. instead.
Of the three veterans acquired in the offseason, Melton would be the only one to break the starting lineup. And he would play alongside Stephen Curry in the defensive zone.
That lasted only two games. melton suffered a sprain of the left anterior cruciate ligament on Nov. 12 against the Dallas Mavericks, and the Warriors announced Wednesday that he will be operated and miss the rest of the season.
Golden State’s best plan was destroyed before the season was even a month old.
“I feel really bad for De’Anthony,” Kerr said Wednesday, two hours before kickoff against the Atlanta Hawks. “He was a perfect fit for us and we were very excited to have him. “He was clearly going to be our starter alongside Steph.”
With Melton gone, Lindy Waters III, who was acquired in a June transaction with Oklahoma City, he will move into the starting lineup alongside Curry. For now.
“I liked Lindy in the starting lineup the other night,” Kerr said of Waters, who had six points, five rebounds and three steals in a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday. “He has started the last (two). It will start tonight. Lindy is a really good player, a really good two-way player. “He fills that role well, so we’ll keep starting him and see how it goes.”
Waters isn’t exactly the bulldog defender Melton is, but he’s a bit more agile (6-foot-6 to 6-foot-3) and a natural 3-point shooter. This is not necessarily permanent. Other potential options to play alongside Curry are Moses Moody, who brings similar skills to Waters but has a clear role in the second unit, and Brandin Podziemski, who anchors the second unit.
“BP is another good option and could end up there, depending on how things go,” Kerr said. “But I like Lindy’s shot without the ball, to go with that first group. We played two bigs (Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson), so you want to shoot as many as possible. And he is very good at defending the ball. It just makes a lot of sense.
“But BP could play that role well, too.”
However, make no mistake: this is an absolute plan B out of necessity. Changes alignment, which changes rotations, which affects overall roster usage. There may be a Plan C, D or E.
A Curry-Melton defense zone was already envisioned in June, even before he signed a one-year contract valued at $12.8 on July 8. On-ball defense was a weakness for the Warriors last season and contributed greatly to them finishing with the league’s 15th-ranked defense.
No one on the free agent market addressed that better than Melton, who has been at the top of the list of reasons the Warriors have risen to fourth in defensive rating.
The Warriors must now look for new combinations that can deliver what they anticipated before Melton went down.
“You want to accumulate as many two-way players as you can in this league, and they’re not easy to find,” Kerr said. “Fortunately, we have a deep team. The boys will be ready to step up. We just have to keep looking for different combinations and put the best ones on the court.”
Kerr added that there has been contact with Melton’s agent about his free agency next summer and that he is hopeful for the point guard’s return to the Warriors.
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