{"id":626499,"date":"2026-02-26T18:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/626499\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T18:24:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:24:25","slug":"deanthony-meltons-warriors-role-could-grow-without-steph-curry-butler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/626499\/","title":{"rendered":"De’Anthony Melton’s Warriors role could grow without Steph Curry, Butler"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEMPHIS \u2013 De\u2019Anthony Melton<\/a> accelerated with such force after catching a Draymond Green pass on the wing that he left Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray helplessly flying by early in the fourth quarter of the Warriors\u2019 game Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

New Orleans center Karlo Matkovic tried to meet him at the rim, but was just a minor obstacle while Melton detonated at the rim<\/a> with a powerful right-handed poster dunk reminiscent of his high-flyer days just a few years ago with the Memphis Grizzlies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was only his second slam of the season, and easily the more breathtaking of the pair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt great, and there was a lot of frustration going into that dunk, because there was a lot of chirping going on out there,\u201d Melton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was the loudest basket of a 28-point night, [as Melton manufactured baskets from all three levels and flew into the paint with abandon for layups and free throws in a near-comeback 113-109 loss.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old guard looked like the Warriors\u2019 best player\u00a0\u2026. but still found himself glued to the bench the next night in Memphis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was through no fault of his own, but rather a product of the team\u2019s reasonable caution when it came to his playing time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Melton missed much of the second half of the 2023-24 season with a back injury, and then all but six games of the 2024-25 campaign with an ACL tear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since returning to the court in December, the Warriors have been careful to play him no more than around 25 minutes per game. On top of that, he has yet to play both halves of a pair of back-to-back games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That could change soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting deeper into the season and he\u2019s feeling well,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cIt\u2019s something Rick (Celebrini) and I will discuss at the end of this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GoldenDe’Anthony Melton could have his minutes and back-to-back restrictions lifted by coach Steve Kerr and team doctor Rick Celebrini soon (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is a change that Melton will welcome, whenever it comes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMost definitely, and there were conversations about this (back-to-back),\u201d Melton said. \u201cDefinitely can\u2019t wait to get out there and be with my guys on both ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Warriors have five more back-to-backs this season, and desperately need offensive punch as Steph Curry remains out with runner\u2019s knee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In limited minutes, Melton has consistently provided that on-ball scoring element no other Warrior is capable of consistently creating, and appears ready to do it on a full-time basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has scored in double figures in 21 of 31 games, and is averaging 21 points per game in just 25 minutes a night over his last four appearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite standing at just 6-foot-2 and coming off an ACL tear, he is shooting a healthy 63% at the rim<\/a> and showed on Tuesday that he still has some bounce left in that surgically repaired knee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking of taking it to the cup, Melton is also third on the team in drives per game<\/a> (7.9), just behind Jimmy Butler and Curry despite playing about 10 fewer minutes per game than those two injured stars.<\/p>\n

The 3-point shot is still inconsistent at 29%, but he has been somewhat improved since the start of the new year (33%) and is a career 36.1% shooter, indicating his percentages should rise with more time and reps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Provided the Warriors\u2019 medical staff gives him the green light, a Melton no longer confined to playing only half the game would be a boon for a team fighting to climb out of play-in territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the last few games have shown anything, it\u2019s that Melton is ready for more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEMPHIS \u2013 De\u2019Anthony Melton accelerated with such force after catching a Draymond Green pass on the wing that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,159,160,164,155,165,6,478,470,4073,4072,675,161,162,163,66,1372,158],"class_list":{"0":"post-626499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-golden-state-warriors","12":"tag-inside-sports","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-new-orleans","16":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","17":"tag-neworleans","18":"tag-neworleanspelicans","19":"tag-pelicans","20":"tag-peninsula","21":"tag-san-francisco","22":"tag-san-francisco-county","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-warriors-alert","25":"tag-warriors-hq"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116138336953111360","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}