Former guard earns huge recognition to reiterate Warriors misfortune

A lack of point guard depth again became problematic for the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night, with Steve Kerr turning to the two-way contracted Pat Spencer for rotation minutes in the absence of Stephen Curry.

Spencer brought energy and actually led the Warriors in plus-minus as a +9 in nearly 15 minutes, but without Curry the Warriors simply weren't good enough offensively down the stretch in what resulted as a 105-101 defeat.

Former Warriors guard Ty Jerome has been listed as the most underrated player in the league to start the season

Point guard depth was an obvious issue for the Golden State roster heading into the season, having placed significant faith in Brandin Podziemski to carry the non-Curry minutes. Podziemski's form has been less than ideal to say the least, and a season-ending injury to De'Anthony Melton has hardly helped matters.

The Warriors have cycled through backup point guards recently, with 12x All-Star Chris Paul spending a season in the Bay after he was acquired for Jordan Poole. In the case of Paul and Poole, Golden State actively moved on from both players, but the same can't be said for another former guard.

The Warriors tendered a qualifying offer to Ty Jerome in the 2023 offseason, yet were unable to match an offer from the Cleveland Cavaliers. After having his first year in Cleveland wiped out by injury, Jerome has now become one of the most under the radar backup point guards in the league to start this season.

Jerome's impact has gone so far as to seeing him listed as the most underrated performer over the first month of the season, at least according to Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report.

"Of Jerome's 10 career 20-point games, four of them have come this year," Hughes wrote. "He's shooting a league-high 54.4 percent from deep, seemingly hasn't missed a floater all season (65.5% in the 3-10 foot range) and leads the NBA in true shooting percentage."

Jerome is currently averaging 12.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists on insane shooting efficiency, but that's not a total surprise given he nearly went 50/40/90 in his sole year with Golden State.

The Warriors could certainly do with Jerome right now, though it's more misfortune than poor management given they simply couldn't afford to keep him. Golden State forward Andrew Wiggins was actually ranked as the second most underrated player, with Tari Eason, Kris Dunn and Goga Bitadze rounding out the top five.