The Golden State Warriors scored a great victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night to get to 4-3 on the season. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg will rightfully get a lot of the headlines for his efforts as he scored 37 points in a great comeback performance following a disappointing game against the Los Angeles Lakers, but De'Anthony Melton deserves some love as well.
Melton scored 21 points and made six of his nine shots, including going 6-of-8 from three-point range. It was a huge performance which shows that Golden State's strategy of "running it back" during the offseason was not a complete mistake.
Warriors' run-it-back strategy might actually work
In light of the whole Kristaps Porzingis saga, it's really easy to take aim at general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. for his decision to pretty much bring the same roster from last season back, with the only major additions being Lendeborg, Brandon Williams and Georges Niang.
Dunleavy shouldn't escape blame entirely for the Porzingis situation, but one could argue it was worth the gamble because they had his bird rights and couldn't pay anyone else. Still, it is pretty safe to say that deal looks like an abject disaster, especially with Porzingis apparently getting his teeth done in Spain.
While bringing back Porzingis seems like a dud of a move, bringing back Melton looks very smart. The 28-year-old was quite solid with Golden State last season after coming off a knee injury, averaging a career-high 12 points per game. He did enough to earn himself a two-year, $12.5 million deal which seems like a bargain with the way he's played so far this season.
De'Anthony Melton is on fire from beyond the arc right now
As Ben Ross pointed out on social media, Melton is shooting 53% from three-point range this season. That pace is obviously unsustainable as he is not exactly known for being a sharpshooter from deep, but the fact that he was able to have a shooting performance like that with Stephen Curry on the bench is absolutely huge.
Even if Melton's three-point shooting declines, which it inevitably will, he can do enough other things to have an impact on the game, though they will need him to improve upon the 29% he shot from beyond the arc last season.
While running it back was not as exciting as bringing in a star, keeping players like Melton in the mix at least raised Golden State's floor, and ensures they at least have a chance to remain around .500 as they wait for the return of Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody.
Add us as a preferred source on Google