As the preseason starts to wind down, and the much anticipated regular season tip-off approaches, coaches and general managers around the league are going to be trimming their roster up so that all teams have at most 15 players.
For the Golden State Warriors that might not be so easy this year, as they have a mix of five rookies and veterans that have a decent shot at making the cut.
As it stands now, there are 14 roster spots that are all but locked up. Here is who you can expect to see in a Warriors uniform this season without a question:
- Stephen Curry
- Klay Thompson
- Andre Iguodala
- David Lee
- Andrew Bogut
- Shaun Livingston
- Brandon Rush
- Harrison Barnes
- Draymond Green
- Festus Ezeli
- Nemanja Nedovic
- Leandro Barbosa
- Marreese Speights
- Ognjen Kuzmic
That leaves one open roster spot, and five guys hoping to fill it.
During the Warriors 90-83 loss to the Houston Rockets, Justin Holiday made his case as to why he should be the 15th man on this roster. He dropped a game high 18 points including 4-for-8 from behind the arc. He and Aaron Craft also had some hustle plays diving for loose balls, showing how hard they were fighting for their jobs.
After the game, Holiday talked about the final roster spot and how all of the guys are handling it.
“I mean, you don’t know what’s going to happen so you can’t really kill yourself right now about it,” Holiday said in the locker room after the loss, “Whoever gets it, [I’m] happy for them. Hopefully it’s me, but everyone has worked hard, so if they get it they’ll deserve it.”
Craft also spoke on the topic and how he is happy when the guys on the bubble succeed.
“It’s not about one guy hoping one guy does bad,” Craft stated, “For us it’s all about hoping they do the best, and everyone kind of doing what they need to do, and everything is kind of out of our hands by then.
“We’re friends. And yes it is a competition, there’s one spot left, but we’re just trying to control what we can control. I like these guys, and obviously I hope the spot is mine, but if it’s not, it wasn’t from lack of effort on my part, and it wasn’t because I wasn’t better than the other guy. If they’re going to win it outright, then I’m fine with it.”
Head Coach Steve Kerr spoke before the game about how difficult it will be to just choose one guy to make the final fifteen.
“Don’t hold me to this, but I think we’ll keep everybody as long as we can, partly because these guys are awesome,” Kerr said at the morning shoot around, “I’ve had five different coaches or players tell me it’s the best group of rookies they’ve ever seen.
“It’s going to be agonizing when we get to that point because I can make a case for all of them.”
The five players fighting to win that final roster spot will have two more games to state their case. The Warriors will be back on the court Tuesday, October 21st and 24th, 2014, Oracle Arena aka #Roaracle, when they take on the Los Angeles Clippers and the Denver Nuggets, in a pair of Bobblehead Nights for Iguodala and Curry, respectively. Both games will be at 7:30 PM PST and will be livetweeted at @letsgowarriors Twitter page.
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