New Steph Curry Knee Injury Return Timeline Revealed

The Golden State Warriors have ruled out Stephen Curry with runner's knee for 10 more days, the team announced.

He'll miss at least the next five games.

Curry has missed the Warriors' last 15 games, and they are 5-10 in that stretch.

ESPN's Anthony Slater and Shams Charania wrote the following about the expectation for Curry to return this season:

"Curry has advanced to court work in recent days, which is a significant step in his attempted return. Team sources have continued to describe Curry as extremely motivated to return for the stretch run and try to work the wobbling Warriors into the playoffs through the play-in bracket. He will intensify court work in the coming days."

Warriors Could Be Doomed for Brutal Upcoming Stretch

Golden State's next six games could sink them way below the Clippers in the battle for the eighth spot in the Western Conference:

3/13 vs. Minnesota
3/15 @ New York
3/16 @ Washington
3/18 @ Boston
3/20 @ Detroit
3/21 @ Atlanta

Five of those teams have winning records. Four of them have at least 40 wins.

Curry is expected to be re-evaluated before the Hawks game.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that the Warriors (32-33) go 1-5 in this stretch. The only game they should win is against the Wizards, who have lost nine straight. They'll likely be underdogs in the other five.

Meanwhile, the Clippers (32-32) have a much easier schedule through March 21:

3/11 vs. Minnesota
3/13 vs. Chicago
3/14 vs. Sacramento
3/16 vs. San Antonio
3/18 @ New Orleans
3/19 @ New Orleans
3/21 @ Dallas

Let's say the Clippers go 5-2 and the Warriors go 1-5. If that happens, the Clippers would have a four-game lead on the Warriors with 11 games to go.

Barring an injury to Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers are on their way to getting the eighth spot.

Update on Warriors' 1st-Round Pick Position

If the Warriors lose in the play-in tournament and miss the playoffs, they will get a lottery pick. That's a depressing silver lining for a veteran team, but it's a silver lining nonetheless.

If the season ended today, the Warriors would have the 12th-best odds of landing a top-four pick from the draft lottery. That would come with a 1.5 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick.

Keep in mind the Dallas Mavericks won the lottery last year with a 1.8 percent chance.

The Warriors aren't in a good position to tank for better lottery odds. They could flip spots with the Blazers (31-35) to get to the 11th-best odds, but realistically they won't end up with one of the 10 worst records in the league.

This is all to say that the Warriors have a decent chance to end up with the 11th pick.

I'm sure I can speak for most fans when I say they'd rather see the team make the playoffs even if it means the pick ends up at 15th or even in the high teens.

But if it really ends up at No. 11, they will have slightly better options in the draft, which I wrote about here.