Things couldn't have gone much worse for Georges Niang through the first three games of his Golden State Warriors career, having signed a one-year, minimum contract with the franchise in free agency.
Niang has missed his first 12 3-point attempts as a member of the Warriors, including all five during his 23 minutes off the bench in Saturday's loss to the Phoenix Suns. For a player who's major value is a three-point shooter, that's nothing short of a disaster and one Golden State may already have to think about moving on from.
Georges Niang signing is already looking like a disaster for Warriors
Niang is a 40% career three-point shooter, having shot a combined 40.6% during his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta hawks in the 2024-25 season. Those numbers would have given the Warriors optimism when they signed him to a minimum contract, but perhaps a year out of the game after dealing with a foot injury is too much for Niang to come back from.
The 33-year-old doesn't provide much outside his perimeter shooting. He's slow-footed on defense and some would argue a liability on that end of the floor, while he's clearly not a ball-handler, playmaker or even much of a rebounder for his position.
The hope is that this is just a slow start to the season, and that Niang's shooting numbers will correct themselves with a hot stretch in the coming weeks. But there's a world in which that simply doesn't happen, and he may not even get the opportunity if Steve Kerr axes the veteran forward from the rotation which, on current form, is entirely possible. However, Kerr appears like he's holding trust in Niang for now based on his comments following Saturday's loss.
"George will find his way. You know he hasn't played in a year basically with the injuries last year, so he doesn't have his legs underneath him yet. He's such a good basketball player and a perfect fit for us," Kerr said.
Warriors shouldn't persist with Georges Niang
Niang was brought in to provide the shooting Golden State needs with Moses Moody on the sidelines, and after ranking 20th in three-point percentage last season. Instead, he's the main culprit to the Warriors still sitting only 17th early in this season.
The other issue is he's a veteran player on what is a bad team. If both his individual form, and the team's form doesn't improve, there's really no point the Warriors persisting with a player of his age as the season progresses.
Niang's contract doesn't become fully guaranteed until January 10, leaving an opportunity for the Warriors to simply waive him and take a small cap hit if things don't work out by that point.
Add us as a preferred source on Google