Coming into the season, the big question surrounding the Golden State Warriors was whether they could stay healthy. They were able to stay reasonably healthy early on, but now the injuries are starting to pile up which is putting them in a nightmare scenario.
Star player Stephen Curry has been out the last few games with a quad injury and will not be back until next week at the earliest. Jimmy Butler missed last game due to a knee injury and could miss the remainder of the road trip. Then, to make matters worse Draymond Green injured his foot against the Philadelphia 76ers and may not be able to play over the next two games either.
Warriors' injury woes create nightmare scenario going forward
That means there is a very real possibility that the Warriors will not have any of their three most important players over the next game or two which leaves them in a very uncomfortable spot.
The good news is that none of these injuries seem to be long-term or season-ending, but the bad news is that with a team as old as the Warriors are, minor injury issues like this will most likely continue to pop up for the rest of the season.
Head coach Steve Kerr knew he was going to have his work cut out for him entering this season in trying to manage the workload of various players and ensure the team was as fresh as possible going into the playoffs, yet he wouldn't have envisioned being without all three of his veteran stars at the exact same time.
The hope was they could weather the storm if Curry missed a week here and Butler missed a game or two there, but it becomes really difficult to win games when your two key scorers on offense, and best player on defense are not on the floor.
The Warriors will have to turn to their younger talent to try to fill the void, but the problem is that young players like Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga have not been able to reliably step up with the veterans injured.
Thankfully, players like Pat Spencer and De'Anthony Melton were able to step up on Thursday night in Philadelphia to at least make the game competitive, but it's a big ask for them to repeat that effort going forward.
The Warriors will have a tough time getting through these next two games, but maybe once the road trip is over and the they head back to San Francisco, the franchise will be able to get their key players back and move beyond this nightmare scenario.