Rookies in the spotlight
The Golden State Warriors’ drive to reach the NBA finals yet again now rests on a young and inexperienced roster. Janie McCauley reports.
In a matter of months, the onceunbeatable Golden State Warriors have gone from a starting lineup featuring five All-Stars to a cast of youngsters almost nobody knows.
At least to start the season they had staples Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Kevon
Looney to lean on for leadership. Now, Curry and Looney are hurt and Green is dealing with a troublesome back. And the Warriors have looked anything but dominant during a 1-3 start.
‘‘It’s been a tough start for us on many levels, so we’re just trying to find our footing,’’ coach Steve Kerr said. ‘‘This puts us in a tough spot, so we’ll assess it and go from there.’’ Curry joined Splash Brother
Klay Thompson as the latest sidelined star. The two-time MVP broke his left hand in a 121-110 loss to Phoenix on Thursday (NZ time) and it remained unclear a day later how long he might be sidelined, while Thompson could miss the entire season recovering from July 2 surgery for a torn ACL in his left knee that he hurt in a Game 6 loss in the NBA Finals that gave Toronto its first title. Curry underwent a CT scan on Friday but the team said it would have specialists evaluate the results before providing an update on his status.
However long he is out, it hurts for far more than what he brings on the court. Curry’s presence in the locker room provides an example for the young Warriors, and he is their longest-tenured player and their oldest at 31. It will be up to players like Russell and Green to help keep things afloat for the time being.
Many already consider it a lost season, with playoff hopes in the powerful Western Conference grim at best. Golden State might instead be lining itself up for a lottery pick in next year’s NBA draft.
Still, Curry posted a smiling photo of himself, with the hand heavily wrapped, on Friday on his Instagram account with the message: ‘‘Appreciate all the love/ texts/support all that ... Be back soon!’’
D’Angelo Russell has done this before, forced to take on a far bigger role just last season because of injuries in Brooklyn. And now the new Golden State guard must do it again with a suddenly short-handed backcourt. Russell understands he faces a tall task.
‘‘Definitely trying to take on that leadership role and continue to get better every year with being able to lead guys on what I see and what
I’ve been through,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s definitely a similar situation, but it’s going to be tougher. We’ve got a lot of young guys that are going to be forced to mature and step up, so I’m looking forward to it as well . . . . It’s an opportunity. Go back to the drawing board with the team and the coaching staff, and see what we can do to prepare for each game day
‘‘We’ve got a lot of young guys that are going to be forced to mature and step up.’’ D’Angelo Russell
in and day out. The big thing I see is just opportunity for a lot of people.’’
In fact, Kerr planned to gather his staff for a serious meeting of the minds to figure out how to push ahead and what combinations might work with so many men down. Golden State already was missing key big man Looney, who is dealing with a hamstring injury and scheduled to see specialists next week because of an ‘‘on-going presence of a neuropathic condition in his body’’.
The challenge of putting a winning team on the court now seems daunting. The rookies have been thrown into action right away out of necessity – not the norm with these Warriors in recent years.
‘‘We just got to make up for it by playing hard and playing together, and making sure we’re together the time he’s out,’’ said rookie Eric Paschall, who made his first career start and scored a team-high 20 points against the Suns.
The losses have been ugly – Phoenix led 43-14 after the first quarter – at home in new Chase Centre, where the Warriors are winless.
General manager Bob Myers mentioned months ago this would be a rebuilding season for the Warriors in many ways.
The Warriors’ recent fortunes also shed light on just how much must go right to win a championship, let alone reach five straight NBA Finals and capture three titles in four years. There are nine players age 23 or younger.
‘‘I don’t know how long it’ll take. It’ll take as long as it takes, I guess,’’ Myers said. ‘‘I do know this: we believe that things take time to evolve, and we’re prepared especially with a younger roster to allow that to happen, and that’s the mindset that we have from a coaching staff, from a front office staff, is ‘let’s see how things are going before we make any blanket decisions or judgment on any of it.’ But we’re excited. I mean, look, we’re excited about the youth. We’re excited about the unknown. In years past we’ve had a lot of known, which has been fantastic, but this is different.’’
AP
Washington Redskins left tackle Trent Williams says he was diagnosed with cancer during the NFL off-season and blamed team doctors for not recognising it sooner, making his first public comments since returning to the team two days ago after a seasonlong holdout.
It was a stunning revelation by Williams, who reported to the team on Wednesday (NZ time) and was not traded by that afternoon’s NFL trading deadline. He would not address whether he wishes to ever play for the Redskins again, smiling when asked if he wanted to be traded and saying that there was ‘‘no trust’’ between him and the team.
He failed a physical on Thursday (NZ time) as a result of discomfort when putting on his helmet. Williams says he has had a tumour removed from his skull.
While his comments provided some clarity as to the reasons for his holdout and to what he hopes will happen, it is less clear what the immediate next steps will be for him and the team.
In theory, they could be relatively simple. Williams could play for the Redskins for the remainder of their season, collect a prorated portion of his salary and end the season closer to reaching unrestricted free agent status. His contract expires after the 2020 season. The Redskins could weigh trade offers for him in the off-season – as they did ahead of Wednesday’s trade deadline – and decide whether to send him elsewhere.
But little has been simple for Williams and the Redskins. Will Williams play for the Redskins this season? What are the team’s options if he doesn’t? And what will it mean for his contract?
These are some of possibilities.
❚ What if Williams continues to fail his physical?
An NFL player cannot practice or play in games without passing a physical. For now, the Redskins have been given a two-week roster exemption for Williams, which is typically granted to a team when a player returns from a lengthy holdout. But Williams cannot remain in roster limbo if he can’t pass a physical by the time his roster exemption expires, meaning the Redskins would have to make a roster move with him.
Williams would not be eligible for the injured reserve (IR) list because he never passed a physical, and the physically unable to perform (PUP) list typically is for players with prior football-related injuries.
But the non-football injury (NFI) list could be an option. If the Redskins were to place Williams on the NFI list, they could decide whether to pay him. But they might not be able to toll (suspend) his contract (and have the remaining portion of his deal cover the 2020 and 2021 seasons instead of 2019 and 2020) while he’s on the NFI list, because contract tolling on that list usually only occurs in specific instances with a player in the final season of his contract.
❚ What if Williams plays the rest of the season? the
The simple and straightforward scenario, comparatively, is that Williams passes his physical, plays the rest of the season for the Redskins and is credited with a year toward his free agent status. He has a US$12.5 million (US$19.4m) salary for the 2020 season, and would be an unrestricted free agent after that.
❚ What could go wrong with that?
Plenty. Williams is probably fine if he’s on the Redskins’ active roster for their final eight games of the regular season. An arbitrator ruled that when wide receiver Joey Galloway played eight games for the Seattle Seahawks in 1999 following a holdout, the Seahawks were not allowed to toll his contract and keep him tied to the team for an additional year.
But there are potential issues. What if the Redskins take advantage of their roster exemption for Williams and then argue that he wasn’t on the active roster for long enough and his contract should toll? In that scenario, the Redskins could contend that Williams would be under contract to them through the 2021 season. Williams and the NFL Players Association could challenge that through a grievance.
❚ Is the eight-game standard ironclad?
Not at all. In the Galloway case in 1999, the Seahawks attempted to contend that a player’s contract could toll, at the team’s discretion, if he holds out for one or more regular season games. Galloway, who played eight games that season, filed a grievance through the NFLPA and won. But the arbitrator’s ruling did not set a firm standard or stipulate a precise number of games for which a player must be on the active roster to avoid having his team toll his contract.
‘‘We don’t know what the standard is,’’ Joel Corry, an NFL contracts and salary cap expert who is a former agent, said. ‘‘We just know that Galloway’s contract didn’t toll, so there seems to be a precedent. But we don’t know the exact number.’’
❚ What does Williams’ contract status matter?
Maybe not much, if the Redskins trade him during the upcoming off-season. Williams’ new team likely would sign him to a new contract in conjunction with the trade. But in the meantime, Williams and his representatives presumably don’t want him contractually tied to the Redskins any longer than he currently is. And the remaining time on Williams’ contract potentially could affect his trade value.
❚ What if Williams passes his physical but refuses to play? That would potentially put him in violation of his contract. The standard NFL player contract says that if a player ‘‘fails or refuses to perform his services,’’ his team can toll his contract and withhold pay.
People in and around the sport said this week they could not recall an example of a player saying explicitly that he was refusing to play while healthy, and would not expect Williams to do so, even if that’s the approach that he opts to take. They likened it to the recent approach taken by cornerback Jalen Ramsey with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Ramsey, after requesting a trade, cited injuries while missing practices and games until the Jaguars finally traded him to the Los Angeles Rams, for whom Ramsey immediately played.
One person with experience dealing with squabbles between NFL teams and players said he fully expects the situation between Williams and the Redskins to result in a grievance. That person said that if Williams refuses to play and the Redskins believe he is healthy enough to do so, he could envision the Redskins suspending Williams for conduct detrimental to the team.
Washington Post
If Williams passes his physical but refuses to play, he could be in violation of his contract.