Curry’s injury opened the door for Bowman
SAN FRANCISCO >> Ky Bowman spent last Wednesday morning in Santa Cruz at training camp for the Warriors’ G League affiliate. Later that night, Stephen Curry’s broken left hand would thrust him into Golden State’s rotation.
Curry will miss at least three months after surgery on his left hand. That, along with a growing list of injuries, from Klay Thompson
(ACL) and Draymond Green (sprained index finger), to Kevon Looney (neuropathy) and Jacob Evans (adductor strain), has forced the Warriors organization to reluctantly embrace a youth movement — one that Bowman stands a chance to capitalize on.
“We’ve got a lot of young
players who are going to be given great opportunities here in this next part of the season,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “So they’ve got to take advantage of that and we’ve got to help them as best we can.”
Playing on a two-way contract, Bowman can spend up to 45 days with Golden State. Entering the draft, he hoped a team would select him in the second round and offer him a 15-man roster spot. Instead, he begins his career having to audition until a team does.
With the injury to Curry, Bowman becomes the primary backup behind point guard D’Angelo Russell. After tweaking his ankle Friday against the Spurs, Russell missed Saturday’s loss to the Charlotte Hornets and was questionable for Monday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers. Bowman, 22, moves up the totem pole again.
“Never knowing when you’re going to get called up is the biggest thing,” Bowman said. “I was down in Santa Cruz that morning and then came up to the game. God got a plan for everybody, so you just got to be ready and wait on it.”
Bowman finished Saturday’s game with 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists in a team-high 39 minutes. He started alongside Glenn Robinson III and rookies Eric Paschall and Jordan Poole — all of whom are 25 years old or younger, and all of whom played more than 30 minutes.
With Curry and Thompson out and Green’s minutes being managed, it’s a trend that will continue.
“It would be great to have those guys back out there, dealing with injuries and stuff,” Bowman said. “At the same time, we just got to learn to play with each other with the group that we got right now, whether it’s with the few vets that we do have or the young guys. So, that team chemistry building is just going to help us throughout the season.”
Bowman went to high school in Havelock, North Carolina, where he played football and was good enough to receive a scholarship offer from Alabama. However, he loved basketball, though he didn’t have a definitive offer to play collegiately.
Under pressure to commit to a sport, he turned to his older brother, Michael. While Ky is only two years younger than Michael, he looked up to Michael like a father after their dad died suddenly when they were children.
“I think I was forced to grow up faster than I had to, with my father passing when I was younger,” Ky said.
Like Ky, Michael had an opportunity to play collegiate football but, after two arrests for larceny, his offers were withdrawn. On the phone with his younger brother from a holding cell in North Carolina, Michael told Ky that life is too short to do what is expected. He advised him to pursue his love of basketball.
That summer, Ky played for a John Wall-sponsored AAU team and earned college offers from several schools, including Boston College. After three seasons at Boston College, Bowman declared for the draft. He was projected by most as a second-round pick, but went undrafted. The Warriors signed him as a free agent to a two-way contract.
Havelock is a five-hour drive from where Curry grew up in Charlotte.
“In North Carolina, basketball and football are the two biggest things. So you hear a lot about what’s going on (locally in those sports),” Bowman said.
Of course, Bowman knew about Curry growing up, but his favorite players were Wall, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook. He admires their abilities to read the floor with the ball in their hands.
Taking a little bit from his role models’ games will help Bowman stick in the league. Mainly, running an offense and improving his 3-point shot “so it’s hard to guard me.”
Even in the car on his way up from Santa Cruz last week, Bowman didn’t anticipate the opportunity he’d have a few hours later.
• Warriors big man Omari Spellman has leapt Marquese Chriss as the primary backup behind starting center Willie CauleyStein, Kerr said.