© Carmen Mandato | 2021 Mar 17
Tuesday’s Warriors update is a little bad news, good news. Or perhaps more accurately: bad news, good news?
There’s no question about the bad news. Stephen Curry, who has been listed as day-to-day after bruising his tailbone in Houston, has suffered a setback following an MRI, and will now be re-evaluated in a week. That means Curry will miss at least the next three games vs. the Sixers, Kings and Hawks.
“He got an MRI this morning and it showed inflammation in that tailbone,” Steve Kerr said during his pregame presser. “He made some progress the last couple of days just resting and he did more work yesterday and it was still pretty sore. Our training staff and Steph put their heads together and decided this is going to be a little bit longer than we thought and hoped.”
The potential good news is that James Wiseman is back in the starting lineup, and not just because Kevon Looney remains out. Kerr said he expects Wiseman to start for the remainder of the season.
“That’s the thought, you never know how it’s going to play out, but there’s 29 games left and it feels like a good time to get him into the lineup,” Kerr said. “We’ve tried a lot of different lineups this year…not so much starting lineups, we’ve been pretty consistent with starters, but we’ve tried a lot of different rotations. We just feel like after 43 games, James has come along really well, he’s picked up a lot of the concepts. It’s really important now, especially given the absences…he needs to be out there.”
If you believe that Wiseman’s development is worth potentially sacrificing some success this year, you like this move. Wiseman has at times been very effective, but also at times has not, and there’s a reason he was scratched from the starting lineup before.
The Warriors are far from guaranteed a playoff spot. They are currently 9th in the West, and three games out of the 11th spot, which would eliminate them from the play-in tournament.
Golden State will need to remain relatively consistent to ensure that happens, and Wiseman will have to step up his game on a night-in, night-out basis further that end.