Quinten Post was the story of Tuesday's win over the L.A. Clippers with four threes and more importantly some strong work on the interior, yet the second-year center would go from that to just 22 total minutes over the past two games.
Post now has the second-best total plus-minus of any Warrior player only behind Draymond Green, but he's also averaging the 10th-most minutes in Steve Kerr's rotation. Seven games is enough sample size to suggest that's a mistake, particularly after Post was so good against the Clippers.
Warriors need to quickly address their crushing Quinten Post mistake
Post is part of Golden State's two best lineups to have played at least 10 minutes together this season. The combination of Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, Jimmy Butler, Green and Post have a remarkable 66.9 net rating in 16 minutes together, while the five-man unit of Stephen Curry, Butler, Jonathan Kuminga, Green and Post has a 24.2 net rating in 29 minutes.
Despite the numbers of that latter unit, Post was once again removed from the starting lineup for Podziemski in Saturday's disastrous loss to the Pacers in Indiana. It wasn't a total surprise given the home team's underwhelming center rotation, but the Warriors were still better when Post was on the floor.
While the former 52nd overall pick did shoot just 1-of-5 from beyond the arc, he still finished with nine points and three rebounds on 4-of-8 shooting in less than 13 minutes. Golden State were +4 with Post on the floor and led by seven when he was subbed out with five minutes to go in the fourth-quarter, only to give up a 17-5 run from then on to suffer an embarrassing defeat to the short-handed Pacers.
With veteran center Al Horford limited to 20 minutes per game and Trayce Jackson-Davis receiving DNPs, there would be an assumption that Post would be playing a bigger role than the 16.3 minutes he averaged during an impressive rookie year.
Instead, it's been the opposite. Post is averaging nearly four minutes less per game despite being a net positive on the floor, having shown strong signs of improvement in both his defense and rebounding while remaining a constant 3-point shooting threat.
Kerr and the Warriors need to utilize Post more going forward and have him averaging closer to 20 minutes per game, not just to manage the workloads of Horford and Green, but because the team is quite clearly better so far when he's on the floor.