SAN FRANCISCO – Confusion rang across the Chase Center press conference room at Warriors Media Day when Pat Spencer nonchalantly walked to the podium and sat down in his No. 61 jersey with a black short-sleeve undershirt.
Why? Because he wasn’t even officially on the roster at the moment. Spencer’s odd arrival felt like a comical breath of fresh air from what was a Warriors offseason that felt mostly bizarre. The Warriors announced shortly after that they had re-signed Spencer to a two-way contract.
Spencer proved the previous two seasons that he’s a step above the Warriors’ G League affiliate in Santa Cruz. The Warriors converted his two-way contract to a standard contract at the end of last season for the playoffs, and then he waited all offseason without ever putting pen to paper.
He finally did on Sept. 29, but Spencer again didn’t begin the season on the Warriors’ 15-man roster.
“Pat’s an NBA player,” Steve Kerr said Tuesday night after the Warriors’ 124-112 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. “He belongs on our roster full-time.”
Without a doubt, Spencer agrees, but he won’t allow his situation to be a distraction.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” Spencer said later the same night. “Just compete every night, I’ll let them handle that. That’s something I and the front office will have conversations about. I can only control the day-to-day right now. Ultimately, I feel like I’ve shown I can play at this level at a really high level and impact winning.
“I’ll let them make that decision when the time comes. But yeah, we will have to monitor it and figure that out.”
As the Warriors almost pulled off an incredibly impressive comeback against the now 21-1 defending champion Thunder on Tuesday night, Spencer was the key to their ignition. Spencer tied his career high of 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting, with 15 of them coming in the second half. The point guard pushed the Warriors into hyperdrive in the third quarter, when they went from scoring 44 points in the first half to matching that total over the next 12 minutes.
Spencer scored nine points in that third-quarter barrage, leading all Warriors. He dropped another six in the fourth, too. Like your town’s local pickup hero, Spencer was playing his own personal game of H-O-R-S-E against the best defense in the NBA. Spencer’s 3-pointer in the third quarter brought the Warriors within one point and each of his last three made shots in the fourth took them from down one to up one.
The last of those buckets was a ridiculous turnaround out of the post over 7-footer Chet Holmgren.
“Oh, night and day,” Spencer said of his progression as a shooter this season compared to last.
Kerr admitted he’d love to get Spencer more minutes. But it also won’t be surprising if Spencer is inactive in the near future, maybe even as soon as Thursday in Philadelphia. Spencer can only be active for 50 games, and he’s almost already halfway there, having been active for all 22 Warriors games this season.
There are other factors at hand here. De’Anthony Melton will make his season debut Thursday after recovering from ACL surgery. He last played on Nov. 12, 2024, in a Warriors win against the Dallas Mavericks. Plus, Spencer wasn’t the only role player to make a huge impact on the Warriors’ comeback efforts Tuesday night.
While Steph Curry watched from a Chase Center suite as he remains out with a quad contusion, his younger brother, Seth, made his Warriors debut. And he didn’t miss a beat.
“It felt normal. It felt natural,” Curry said after playing his first NBA game since April.
Curry’s shot-making DNA shined from the get-go, scoring 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting in 18 minutes off the bench. That’s something the Warriors have been missing the previous six weeks, and something Kerr will have to keep utilizing. His superstar older brother will not join the Warriors on their upcoming three-game road trip, with the hope that he can play against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 12 at Chase Center.
Between the additions of Seth Curry and Melton, Spencer continuing to prove he deserves to be on an NBA roster and Steph Curry expected to return in a week’s-plus time, Kerr is about to have a glut of guards to pick from.
Along with those already mentioned, the Warriors’ guard options also include Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, Buddy Hield, Gary Payton II and rookie Will Richard. Spencer, in technical terms, is the odd man out. But even with so many others in his way, the Warriors need everything Spencer brings — now and later in the season. When he wasn’t making shots on OKC, he was keeping the offense churning against a historic defense.
History has shown Kerr will play three and sometimes even four guards together. Payton is a power forward in a point guard’s body. Moody can play both forward positions, while Richard and Hield can both slide up to the three if needed.
Depth or a logjam? A problem or a luxury? The answer might be somewhere in between.
Just two months from the Feb. 5 trade deadline, Golden State already is starting to get more help. With that, though, Kerr has tough decisions to make that will have some Warriors seeing themselves fall down the pecking order depending on performances and matchups.
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