Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr hadn’t made up his mind yet. But Kerr’s trusted assistant Mike Brown had.
Shortly after Kerr told traveling reporters that he had yet to decide who would start in place of Steph Curry on Wednesday night in Charlotte, Brown appeared on KNBR with P-Con & Mac and revealed that recently recalled G-League guard Quinn Cook would make his first career start with Golden State.
Though reserve point guard Shaun Livingston might be Curry’s natural replacement in the starting lineup, Brown said the Warriors want to monitor Livingston’s minutes and have him available for end of half and end of game situations.
“We’re going to start Quinn Cook and we’ll bring Shaun off the bench just because we would like to watch Shaun’s minutes and this way, bringing him off the bench, we need to have him there at the end of each half and he’ll be available,” Brown said.
Kerr said he thinks Curry’s injury can be a good thing for a Golden State team that will attempt to prove it can keep its momentum rolling with its sharp shooting superstar, and Brown said on KNBR that Curry is in good spirits. An MRI on Tuesday revealed that there’s no structural damage to Curry’s right ankle, but the Warriors are playing it safe and will re-evaluate Curry in two weeks.
The Warriors’ point guard suffered a right ankle sprain in the final minute of Monday’s contest against the New Orleans Pelicans, as he turned his ankle while attempting to close out on a late E’twuan Moore three-point attempt.
“I know it will be at least a couple of weeks, his spirits are good, the team’s spirits are good we kind of went through this with Kevin Durant later in the season so it’s just another challenge for all of our guys to step up,” Brown said.
To listen to Brown’s full interview on KNBR, listen to the podcast link below. To hear Brown’s comments about how the Warriors will replace Curry, skip ahead to the 2:24 mark.