The Golden State Warriors have been ravaged by injuries through the early part of the 2019-20 NBA season, seeing their dynasty extension halt in its tracks due to ailments afflicting Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, and D'Angelo Russell, among others.
Head coach Steve Kerr had some fun at his team's expense by calling the remaining healthy players the “Elite Eight.”
“We could have used Draymond Green and D'Angelo Russell for sure,” Kerr said with a bit of a chuckle after Tuesday's film session, in the wake of a 100-97 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night. “And Kevon Looney would have been very helpful. Jacob Evans would have helped. You need bodies in the NBA, especially to get through the long haul. And playing eight guys, as long as I've been doing this, 30, 31 years in the league, it seems like maybe once or twice a year you have eight guys. Maybe, because of crazy circumstances.
“So for us to be doing this almost routinely now is — I've never seen it. So it's a testament to the group, the ‘Elite Eight,' that I like to call them. The Elite Eight's doing a hell of a job hanging in there.”
The Warriors, the Western Conference's champion for five consecutive years, are not only in danger of failing to reach the NBA Finals again, they're likely to miss the playoffs at all this season with one of the league's worst records.
The poor start for the recently superb Golden State team can mostly be attributed to the slew of injuries taking players out of the rotation and inserting younger players for the three-time champion coach Kerr to work with in his veterans' place.
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