De'Anthony Melton is quickly making a claim as one of the best bench guards in the entire NBA, continuing his strong return from injury in the Golden State Warriors' 119-97 blowout win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night.
Melton once again broke his season-high in scoring, notching a team-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 from 3-point range as he continues to provide a level of impact that not even the Warriors would have predicted so quickly after injury.
De'Anthony Melton is becoming one of the best backup guards in the league
The veteran guard only returned from a long-term knee injury just over a month ago. He'd made only 44 appearances in the previous two seasons, allowing the Warriors to bring him back on a two-year, $6.5 million contract in free agency.
While there was always a chance that Melton could significantly outplay his salary and become an important rotation piece for Golden State, even the biggest optimists wouldn't have expected the 27-year-old to be this good this early into his return.
After an understandably slow start in terms of his offensive rhythm, Melton has found his footing and is delivering a surprise source of legitimate scoring that his team desperately needs beyond the star duo of Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler.
Season high in scoring for No. 8⃣@googlecloud || Player of the Game pic.twitter.com/o2jJ0boKbb
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) January 14, 2026
Melton has scored 19 points or more now in three of the past four games, while also reaching double figures during Sunday's loss to the Atlanta Hawks. His 3-point shooting is starting to become a weapon with 12 makes in the past four games, and his ability to get to the rim is also a nice development for a team that traditionally struggles to do so.
“You can see the confidence is rising. He’s a really dynamic player. Explosive athlete and really skilled. It’s fun watching him play....The guys have total confidence in Melt," Steve Kerr said after Tuesday's win.
Melton has now averaged 13.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.2 in his last nine games, shooting 50% from the floor and 40.4% from 3-point range. More importantly, Golden State are 7-2 during the same period and they've been a +99 in Melton's minutes on the floor.
What makes it all the more impressive is that Melton is still on a minutes restriction, having dropped 23 points on Tuesday in only 18 minutes. If he can make this kind of impact already, imagine what he could do when the Warriors remove the restriction and allow him to play more than 25 minutes?
It's hard to think of too many more important and valuable backup guards in the league right now, giving the franchise an important boost just as their season was well and truly slipping into mediocrity.