Golden State Warriors: Encouraging Signs From Marreese Speights
As a backup to Zach Randolph on the Memphis Grizzlies, Marreese Speights only got to show what he could do when Z-Bo was sidelined with injuries. Not that long ago, Speights was an afterthought in the Golden State Warriors’ rotation, with many fans calling for Mark Jackson to nix him from the rotation completely.
So far in 2014-15, Speights has made it his mission to prove that head coach Steve Kerr‘s trust in him hasn’t been misplaced. Recently, he’s been coming up big on that front.
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On the season, Speights is averaging 10.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. Those numbers are only slight increases over the 6.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game he averaged in his first season with the Dubs last year, but recently, Speights has been giving Golden State even more production off the bench.
In his last four games, Speights is averaging 19.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game while shooting 63 percent from the field. Even more impressively, that production has come in a mere 18.8 minutes per game backing up Andrew Bogut. For those of you scoring at home (or even if you’re alone!), that’s a grand total of 79 points in his last 75 minutes.
Last night against a shorthanded Oklahoma City Thunder team that continues to compete with everybody somehow, Speights ended up being the difference between the Warriors winning their fifth straight game and an embarrassing road defeat. In 25 minutes, Speights dropped 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting to go with seven rebounds off the bench.
Just for reference, the Splash Brothers Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined for 35 points on 11-of-35 shooting.
It’s far too early to say this is a sign of things to come from Speights, especially since we’ve seen him put up big numbers in individual games in the past before fading from the rotation. But it’s not too soon to say this is a good sign, particularly because Kerr has been singing Speights’ praises for the past month. He even went as far as calling Speights his “new favorite player.”
It’d be easy to chalk Speights’ extensive playing time to the absence of David Lee, who has missed all but seven minutes of the season due to a hamstring injury. But Kerr has been using Speights as a backup center, giving him the nod over the injury-prone Festus Ezeli who is still trying the learn the ropes after missing all of last season.
Ezeli is still seeing some minutes off the bench, but Speights’ unexpected production has definitely put a halt on what might have been his breakout season as the team’s primary backup center. Ezeli has logged a grand total of 45 minutes in the past four games and though he’s a much better shot blocker, Speights’ activity on the defensive end has impressed almost as much as his sudden scoring boom.
When David Lee returns, it’s unclear how many minutes Speights will continue to see. If Lee is moved back into the starting rotation, Kerr will use Draymond Green as the primary power forward off the bench. If Green continues to start, the same will be said about Lee. But if Speights is able to produce at even half this rate in a backup center role, Kerr will continue to be proven right…and the Warriors’ insane depth will become even an scarier asset.