Warriors Give Injury Updates for Steph Curry, Podziemski, Bassey, Porzingis

Steve Kerr told reporters Monday that Stephen Curry is expected to play in the Warriors' regular-season opener against the Lakers on Wednesday.

Curry tweaked his right ankle in Sunday's practice, but Kerr reiterated what he told reporters after Sunday's practice, saying Curry's ankle is "fine."

Brandin Podziemski didn't practice Monday due to lower back soreness. He is questionable for Wednesday's game.

Charles Bassey continues to be day-to-day with knee tendinitis.

Kristaps Porzingis missed all of training camp and preseason with a health issue. Kerr said that Porzingis will not travel with the team to Los Angeles and that the 7'2" center remains out indefinitely.

What Warriors' Depth Chart Would Look Like with Podz, Bassey Out

Kerr said Podz's back injury occurred during Sunday's practice. Bassey missed the second half of the final preseason game with the knee injury.

If both can't go, this is what the depth chart will look like.

PG: Stephen Curry, Brandon Williams, LJ Cryer (two-way)
SG: De'Anthony Melton, Will Richard
SF: Gui Santos, Gary Payton II
PF: Yaxel Lendeborg, Georges Niang, Malevy Leons (two-way)
C: Draymond Green, Al Horford, Graham Ike (two-way)

It's a bad omen that the Warriors would have just 10 active players on standard contracts for their regular-season opener if both Podz and Bassey can't go.

To make up for Podz's absence, there would be a minutes spike for Melton, Richard and Payton.

To make up for Bassey's absence, Green might have to play exclusively center.

Melton Fits Well with Curry

Melton would almost assuredly slot into the starting lineup if Podz can't go.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Melton is not the caliber of offensive player that Podz is, but he's a better on-ball defender. Because of that defense, some could argue Melton fits better with Curry than Podz does (which I recently explored here).

Last year, the Warriors had a plus-12.6 net rating in the Curry-Melton minutes, per Cleaning the Glass. They were at plus-7.1 in the Curry-Podz minutes.

Melton struggled from three last year, shooting just 29.4 percent. The ninth-year guard has since said he had to get offseason surgery on both thumbs. He said that was one of the reasons for his shooting issues last year.

Melton's career three-point percentage is 35.8. If he can get back up in that range, he'll be a bargain at his contract price of $6.1 million this season.

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