Eric Paschall will be a major wild card for the Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors didn’t play Eric Paschall after finding their rhythm late in the season, and that could spell trouble for the young forward moving into the future. He’ll now be battling for minutes with Juan Toscano-Anderson.

JTA and Paschall played together during the team’s 15-win season a few years ago. Both were rookies, but JTA was an older, first-year player while Paschall was a second-round pick for the Warriors.

The Golden State Warriors didn’t give Eric Paschall much run at the end of last season, and his future with the franchise could be in jeopardy.

The Warriors may look to the former Mexican league MVP more often instead of playing Paschall. Standing 6-foot-6, Paschall may struggle to get his minutes back next season as his playmaking wasn’t enough to get him back into the rotation.

Paschall ended his second season in the league averaging 9.5 points per game. While his three-point shooting did take a small leap forward, he shot the exact same percentage, 49.7 percent, from the field. Paschall didn’t take a step backward necessarily.

It was just others took a step forward. Averaging around 17 minutes per game, Paschall does still have some upside. The Warriors were 12-7 when he reached double figures, so his involvement did help Golden State win.

That said, playing 3 of the last 31 games did not help his cause moving forward. He was healthy towards the end of the season, and head coach Steve Kerr still didn’t get him back into the rotation, showing a comfortability with JTA behind Draymond Green.

Paschall can bring scoring and energy which is ideal for a sixth or seventh man.

That will be his upside next season as the Warriors hope to contend, but it may also be tough to find time for him in impactful games when both Green and Paschall are undersized in the frontcourt. Together, they don’t provide great rebounding.

The Warriors would be better with Paschall giving them a good 17 minutes and double figures off the bench. That’s what the team should look to get from him, and hopefully, he can start the season in good standing and show he can do just that.

Then again, it may be tough to play him over JTA who seems to be a much more competent three-point shooter.