Louisville basketball: Damion Lee’s hot start will force Warriors’ hand

Former Louisville basketball star Damion Lee is off to a hot start with the Golden State Warriors in his second season with the team, but he’ll need a trade, sooner rather than later, if he’s going to land a guaranteed deal.

Former Louisville basketball star Damion Lee was set up to receive the first fully-guaranteed contract of his young NBA career this past offseason after finishing the 2018-19 season on a bang with multiple double-digit performances, including 20 points against the New Orleans Pelicans on April 9th.

In total Lee appeared in 32 games for the Warriors last season averaging nearly 12 minutes per game and putting up totals of five points and two rebounds per night – which by no means is stellar.

However, most of Lee’s appearances came in blowouts or in mop-up duty, which doesn’t tell the full story of his value. Regardless, Lee went into free agency hoping to secure a long-term deal with Golden State or any of the other 29 teams in the NBA.

Unfortunately, nothing materialized and Lee returned to Golden State signing another one-year two-way contract that would allow him to continue splitting time with the Warriors and their G-League Affiliate Santa Cruz.

In his last eligible season as a two-way player, there was going to be more opportunity for playing time with Klay Thompson being out for the entirety of the 2019-20 season and the Warriors moving on from veteran role players like Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. But no one outside of maybe Lee himself thought his start to the season would look like what it has.

With multiple Warriors out due to injury, including stars Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and D’Angelo Russell, it’s forced head coach Steve Kerr to go deep in his bench. And while the rest of the team has struggled to find their footing, Lee has excelled and has arguably been their best bench player thus far.

Lee has appeared in all seven games for the Golden State Warriors this season, playing an average of 20.3 minutes per game while averaging 8.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1 assist per game. However, when you drill into the games where Lee has played 20-plus minutes you see that his stats skyrocket.

In the four games that Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has given Lee 20 or more minutes, he’s rewarded the Warriors in every way. He’s averaged 17.5 ppg, 5.2 rpg, and 2.5 apg while shooting 55 percent from the field and 60 percent from three. All great numbers.

This is great news for Lee, a player that Louisville fans especially know is more than capable of being a valued role player on any team in the NBA. He’s taken advantage of the more marquee players for the Warriors being out with injuries and produced at a very high level, despite the team struggles. However, there’s a problem.

As I wrote back in August before Lee signed his contract with Golden State, there were and still are, challenges when it comes to finding a scenario where Lee is able to sign a guaranteed deal with any team – including the Warriors.

With the NBA two-way contracts, players are only able to spend a maximum of 45 days with their respective teams, including off-days and practice days. However, that time won’t start until the G League season begins on November 8th.

So that decision is where things get tricky. The Warriors are hard-capped (Drew Shiller of NBC Sports explains what that means here) and despite only having 14 players (not including two-way contracts) they are unable to sign a 15th player which would meet the NBA’s maximum number of players allowed on any team (again, excluding two-ways).

The Warriors will be unable to sign another player until January 15th, which will be long-past the decision point on whether to sign Lee to a fully guaranteed contract, send him to the Santa Cruz Warriors, or release him outright at that point.

So now Lee and the Warriors are stuck in between a rock and a hard place. With injury issues all over the roster, and a ton of younger guys, there is a need for wings and sending Lee to Santa Cruz to play with the G League Warriors affiliate doesn’t make a ton of sense.

Sure, Golen State could release a player on a guaranteed contract like rookie Jordan Poole or Omari Spellman, but both figure to fit into their long term plans as they spend a year or two rebuilding to get back to championship form.

This means Golden State will either send him to Santa Cruz until that January 15th date or release him to be a free agent and sign with any team who has space available – one of which hurts Lee and one of which hurts the Warriors.

If there’s anything I know as a Louisville fan and have seen as a longtime NBA fan, Damion Lee belongs.

Every opportunity Lee has gotten for extended minutes he’s proven that he can be a trusted scorer and shooter, defend at a high-level, and be an all-around quality player and person in the locker room. Golden State’s front office would probably tell you they’d love to keep Lee if they could, but for the sake of his career advancement, releasing him or trading him may be the best option moving forward.