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OAKLAND – As the Warriors have navigated through a grind otherwise known as the regular season, they drove through various speed bumps.

They have handled complacency. They have faced every opposing team’s best effort and scouting report. They absorbed two overlapping injuries to their All-Stars in Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. They even had some in-fighting with that infamous Green and Kevin Durant argument.

The Warriors (25-14) also have encountered another road hazard entering Saturday’s game against the Sacramento Kings (19-19). They constructed their roster to feature more young players in bigger roles. But the Warriors have experienced mixed progress with that transition.

“It’s been a learning curve, for sure,” Curry said. “We talked about going into this year that it was highlighted a lot and it was going to be a big part of our depth. Honestly, there’s been some growing pains.”

That pain has affected the Warriors in various ways.

The Warriors did not retain their veteran centers in Zaza Pachulia (Detroit Pistons), JaVale McGee (Los Angeles Lakers) and David West (retirement). That way, the Warriors could allocate more playing time for third-year center Damian Jones, fourth-year forward Kevon Looney and second-year forward Jordan Bell until DeMarcus Cousins returned from a left Achilles tendon injury. Before all three experienced varying learning curves, Jones suffered a season-ending injury last month to his left pectoral muscle.

The Warriors have essentially swapped training camp invitee Alfonzo McKinnie for Patrick McCaw, who recently accepted Cleveland’s two-year $6 million offer sheet after holding out through all of training camp and the first three months of the regular season. Fourth-year guard Quinn Cook experienced sporadic playing time after thriving last year as a two-way player with the Warriors and their G-League team. Warriors rookie guard Jacob Evans has not played much at all after the Warriors selected him with the No. 28 pick out of University of Cincinnati.

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“The youth movement that we’ve talked about has not unfolded given Damian’s injury and the Pat situation,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “But it’s one of those things that can turn. You never know how it’s all going to play out. That’s the thing with the NBA and like life. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or today. You just have to adapt and move on.”

Therefore, Warriors general manager Bob Myers argued “you have to be flexible in how you’re evaluating all of this stuff.”

“I always think as far as anything to do with the roster, it’s better to answer those questions in June,” Myers said. “Until you play the whole season and see exactly what guys can do in the playoffs, you don’t really know. Many players can be great in the regular season and not perform in the playoffs. Realistically, that’s what makes a great team. It’s what you can do in the playoffs. So you build your roster and see there. If you do well, great. If you don’t, you take another crack at it next season and address areas you felt you were deficient.”

Handling the big man rotation

The Warriors immediately addressed a deficiency at their center position last summer by acquiring Cousins for their taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.3 million).

Even if Cousins encountered a depressed market because of questions about his injury, plenty in the NBA cried foul for what the Warriors did. After all, they became the first team since the 1975-76 Celtics to have five starters that played on the NBA All-Star team the previous season. Therefore, the Warriors viewed Cousins’ arrival as a luxury instead of a necessity. Worst-case scenario, the Warriors could lean on their four All-Stars in Curry, Durant, Green and Thompson just as they did in two consecutive NBA championship runs.

Therefore, the Warriors carved out bigger roles for Jones, Looney and Bell both to accelerate their development and inject energy into a veteran group. At first, the experiment worked.

The Warriors started out with a 10-1 record. They leaned on Jones as their starting center. Though he faced inconsistency with foul trouble and decision making, Jones provided enough of a lob threat that the Warriors guaranteed his $2.1 million option for next season. But then the Warriors lost Curry (11 games) and Green (13 games), which both minimized Jones’ lob threat and exposed his defensive limitations without Green’s guidance.

“Teams are going to expect his presence. He has more opportunities for me to be open,” Jones said of Curry. “I just tried to do whatever it took, and whatever the team needed me to do.”

Despite Jones’ persistent foul trouble, Kerr stayed patient with him. He also remained mindful that Curry’s return would help improve the spacing to maximize Jones’ lob threat. Incidentally, Jones suffered a season-ending injury against Detroit on Dec. 1, which also marked the first game that Curry returned.

Without Jones, the Warriors has usually started Jones at center and occasionally started veteran Jonas Jerebko at power forward and shifting Green to center. Only occasionally did Bell log meaningful minutes because Kerr has believed he lacks consistency.

The common denominator among all of those combinations: the Warriors still remained undersized when matching up against traditional centers. Looney became equipped for the role because of his defensive versatility that leans on switching and using his athleticism to make up for his 6-foot-9, 220-pound frame. But despite his modest progress in expanding his outside shooting, Looney’s limited offensive game has not produced the kind of floor spacing the Warriors need.

“It’s been different. With our bigs, we were already slim up front,” Looney said. “With [Damian], he’s a lob threat. It’s been an adjustment for me and the whole team [without him]. We’re not as deep on the front, anymore.”

Even with that limited frontcourt depth, Kerr has remained reluctant to give Bell a bigger role. Perhaps more minutes await after Bell posted 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting and six rebounds in 16 minutes against Phoenix after Looney became plagued with foul trouble (four). Before that, though, Bell logged single-digit minutes appearances in five games and had a healthy scratch in another game.

“It’s tough to always be confident in yourself when your minutes are down,” Bell said. “Whether I got in or not, I tried to stay as confident as possible.”

Jacob Evans has not played as much as anticipated

Nearly a week before the Warriors acquired an All-Star center, they believed they already upgraded their roster through the NBA draft. Then, the Warriors used their No. 28 pick on Evans, who had impressed the Warriors in two workouts with his defensive hustle and outside shooting. The Warriors also liked Evans’ positional versatility after averaging 11.7 points while finishing fifth in school history in 3-point shooting (37.7 percent) through three seasons at the University of Cincinnati.

“I don’t think Steve is going to have any problem putting him out there,” Myers said following the draft. “He seems like a hard worker and will get better.”

The Warriors may still like Evans’ work ethic and defensive potential. But Kerr has not shown much comfort in granting Evans time just to eat minutes and provide energy. He has averaged .6 points per game while shooting 22.7 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from 3-point range in 4.3 minutes per game in 20 appearances. Those were hardly the kind of numbers Evans posted with the Bearcats.

“He was one of their lead scorers and one of their lead guys. Now we’re asking him to be a role player. That’s a hard transition to make,” Kerr said. “You have to find your niche, no matter who you are. If you want to play in the NBA, you have to find who you are and what you want to be. I think that’s the process Jacob is going through this year that we’re trying to help him.”

The Warriors have sent Evans down to Santa Cruz multiple times between games so he can at least play. Still, Evans has averaged only 9.3 points while shooting 38.5 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from the perimeter in six games with Santa Cruz. The Warriors have also had Evans change the arc in his shot. Nonetheless, the Warriors say they are not evaluating Evans on just his shooting numbers.

“He’s very encouraging. He’s being aggressive. He’s looking to shoot and looking to score, which is part of what we want him to do,” Kerr said. “Part of it is just playing. When you first come into the league, you just need to play. The more you can play, the better. You just got to feel comfortable. It’s A different game from college. So I’m glad to see he’s getting time.”

Could Quinn Cook receive more playing time?

Besides their third NBA championship in four years, the Warriors’ other feel-good story last season involved Cook. After experiencing roster cuts in Cleveland (2015), New Orleans (2016, 2017), Dallas (2017) and Atlanta (2017), the Warriors signed Cook to a two-way contract. His value soon extended to the regular-season roster.

He averaged 14.6 points on 49.3 percent shooting and 3.9 assists in 18 games as a starter during Curry’s absence because of overlapping ankle and knee injuries. The Warriors then signed Cook to the team’s playoff roster and for this season. The Warriors showed that commitment from a contractual standpoint. But even when accounting for Curry’s 11-game absence this season, Cook has averaged fewer minutes (15.5) than last season (22.4).

“You can go a game without playing or you can get thrown into the rotation the next game. So it’s all about staying ready,” Cook said. “We’re trying to figure some things out and see certain groups together, different combinations. We’re still trying to figure it out.”

Cook experienced seven healthy scratches with the Warriors still starting Curry as usual and leaning more on veteran reserve Shaun Livingston. McKinnie’s early emergence on defense also came at Cook’s expense. But Cook has logged double-digit minutes in two of the past three games. That has coincided with Kerr staggering Curry and Durant so that the second unit has stronger reinforcements. Kerr has often paired Cook with Durant because, as Cook observed, “me and him have a great rapport with finding each other.”

“Quinn is a crucial player for us,” Kerr said. “With his ability to shoot the ball and space the floor and his professionalism and energy, we need all of that.”

Alfonzo McKinnie helped minimize the loss to McCaw

The Warriors have also needed everything from McKinnie. After all, the Warriors entered training camp believing they would finalize a deal with McCaw. But he declined both the Warriors’ $1.7 million qualifying offer and a two-year, $5.2 million deal that included a non-guarantee on his second season.

The Warriors still had question marks on McCaw’s trajectory. He had missed the final six regular-season games and first 15 playoff games because of a spine contusion injury. Before that, McCaw averaged only 4.0 points while shooting 40.9 percent from the field and 23.8 percent from 3-point range, a decrease from his shooting numbers his rookie season both from the field (43.3 percent) and from the perimeter (33.3 percent).

Still, the Warriors had paid Milwaukee $2.5 million for their No. 38 pick in 2016 to draft McCaw. The Warriors also had hoped to re-sign him on a cap friendly deal as part of the team’s youth movement. As the Warriors discovered during Andre Iguodala’s absence in parts of the Western Conference Finals (Games 3-7) and NBA Finals (Games 1-2), the Warriors needed wing depth.

So with McCaw’s holdout extending into training camp, McKinnie became increasingly valuable. The Warriors signed the undrafted wing player after already playing for the G-League in Chicago and Toronto as well as on a non-guaranteed deal with the Raptors. They quickly fell in love with his defense, athleticism and shooting, three qualities the Warriors wanted McCaw to show with more consistency.

Before nursing a sore left foot that sidelined him for nine games, McKnnie opened the season averaged 6.3 points while shooting 51.3 percent from the field and 48.4 percent from 3-point range along with 3.8 rebounds in 15.7 minutes through 16 appearances.

“We didn’t plan for him,” Myers said of McKinnie. “He just plays that spot with Pat waiting. So credit to him. He’s been good for us.”

Since his injury, McKinnie had regressed in points (4.3), shooting percentage (39.7 percent) and 3-point shooting (21.7 percent). But he also became the product of Kerr’s tightened rotation in an overtime loss to Portland (three minutes), something Kerr has since regretted. McKinnie also had five points on 2-of-2 shooting and two rebounds in only five minutes against Houston.

During his highs and low, McKinnie maintained he hardly thought much about the implications on replacing McCaw or cementing a deal that won’t become guaranteed until Jan. 10.

“I have no control over what management does or what decisions they make. I can only control and how hard I play,” McKinnie said. “I’ve always been that way. I never stressed over things I had no control over. There’s no point.”

Will the Warriors young players benefit from this experience?

Likewise, the Warriors believe there is little point in evaluating the team’s youth movement over halfway through season. Yes, they may not have received the early returns they were expecting. Yes, the Warriors have missed additional veteran voices from West and Pachulia as well as specialized roles with West’s playmaking, Pachulia’s screen setting and McGee’s lob threat.

And yet…

“We’re happy with it. It’s been a little hard to really evaluate it with the injuries,” Myers said. “But I think we’ll have a better sense once DeMarcus comes back and what our role is going to play and how many minutes are they going to play.”

Even amid that uncertainty, various team accounts praised the young players for staying disciplined with their routine. They often arrive to practice early to complete drills and shooting workouts with Chris DeMarco, the Warriors’ assistant coach and director of player development. During the Warriors’ frequent optional days, those players still report to the practice facility for individual workouts and scrimmages. As Bell said, “we’re always in the gym playing with each other and keeping our conditioning up and really pushing each other.”

“We don’t get caught up in how many minutes you play or how many points you scored this night or whatever. We’re a part of this great franchise and legendary team,” Cook said. “We get to learn from champions every day. So if you’re not playing or you are playing, every day being here and being on this team, we’re getting better.”

How will the Warriors’ young roster get better?

Curry pledges the team’s veterans will improve its play to relieve added pressure. Looney has worked on minimizing fouls and expanding his shooting. Bell has vowed to keep his awareness and intensity consistent. McKinnie has thrived on hustle plays regardless of minutes and shooting performances. Cook has maintained he will remain aggressive with his playmaking and comfortable with his shot, regardless of erratic playing time. While Jones has slowly worked on conditioning drills, he has also watched footage so he feels prepared better next season.

Therefore in April, May and June, perhaps the Warriors will have a better return on investing in their young players.

“Watch all you want from the bench, but there’s nothing like game experience,” Looney said. “Experience we’re getting now will make us better at the end of the year. That will make coach trust us more and have more confidence in us. Seeing us play earlier in the season will help us get better.”

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