<\/p>\n
De’Anthony Melton (8) puts up a shot in the first half as the Golden State Warriors play the Sacramento Kings at Chase Center in San Francisco on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
In a season of dysfunction, De\u2019Anthony Melton<\/a>, at least, found something that clicked. For a decade, he had packed up pieces of his game and stuffed them away, collecting dust in an NBA attic. He was a point-of-attack defender, and a combo ballhandler, and an opportunistic off-ball shooter. Until 2025-26.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jimmy Butler<\/a> tore his ACL, and so did Moses Moody<\/a>, and Stephen Curry<\/a> had his own ailing knee<\/a>. Someone needed to handle the basketball. And so Melton\u00a0\u2014 still working back from his own torn ACL in 2024-25\u00a0\u2014 brushed off an old bag that hadn\u2019t quite seen a spotlight since starring days at Crespi Carmelite High in Los Angeles\u2019s San Fernando Valley.<\/p>\n Sometimes it didn\u2019t work. Sometimes it did. One thing really did, a little same-hand crossover that often froze bigger defenders. He shook<\/a> Brooklyn\u2019s Nic Claxton in December, and snaked Charlotte\u2019s Grant Williams in January, and slithered past Utah\u2019s Brice Sensabaugh in March.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI was f\u2014ing people up with my in-and-out (cross) for some reason,\u201d Melton told the Chronicle Thursday, grinning. \u201cI was f\u2014ing people up with my in-and-out. I don\u2019t even know why. People was just going for it.\u201d<\/p>\n By necessity, the 28-year-old Melton\u2019s game expanded last season with Golden State. Uncomfortably, at times. Melton is back for 2026-27 on a two-year, $12.4 million deal on a Warriors roster that hasn\u2019t materially changed much. With Butler and Moody still sidelined, his role will be just as critical.<\/p>\n Melton knows this. Get ready for more in-and-out crosses, unless opposing bigs have studied their tape. He\u2019ll adapt, if so. He prides himself on that.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s something I want to do,\u201d Melton said Thursday, asked if he was preparing to shoulder a heavier workload with Golden State\u2019s prevailing injuries. \u201cAnd you should want more of a burden on you, on your shoulders. You know what I mean? That\u2019s how valuable you are. And it\u2019s like, you\u2019re capable of it, so go do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Is he capable? Inconclusive. Over 49 games in 2025-26, Melton averaged a career-high 12.3 points per game but wasn\u2019t particularly efficient.\u00a0<\/p>\n He wore many hats last year, and many took time to break in. First came his season debut in December after a year-plus-long recovery from 2024\u2019s torn ACL<\/a>, and a month of visible shooting rust. Then came a budding role as an off-the-bench sparkplug in January. Then came starting off-guard duties in February with Butler and Curry sidelined. Then came a whole heap of self-creation duties in March, alongside a stretch in which Melton yo-yoed between starting and coming off the bench for seven straight games.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was weird,\u201d Melton said. \u201cIt was definitely weird \u2026 we had like, damn near three different rosters in one year, you know what I mean? So my role, especially with me, I\u2019m so adaptive and I could do so many different things that my role, it kinda just kept changing.\u201d<\/p>\n When the shuffling stopped, the scope of his responsibilities was vast, and unusual. Here are some players who finished second on their respective teams in usage rate (with at least 40 games played) last year: New York All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns, Denver All-Star Jamal Murray, Houston All-Star Alperen Sengun.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just tough,\u201d Melton said. \u201cTrying to figure out what we needed as a team, and then what services me best as a player, but then also having to do certain things that\u00a0\u2014 I exerted a lot of energy just trying to create the offense and create advantages and stuff like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd, also, having to go on the other end and guard the best players.\u201d<\/p>\n All of this, of course, was slightly complicated by his own season-long ramp-up, as Melton faced a minutes restriction for much of the season and played 30 minutes just twice. The Warriors have to already (ahem) manage Butler and Moody\u2019s rehabilitation, manage Curry\u2019s knee, manage Kristaps Porzingis<\/a>\u2019 health, and manage the workloads for 36-year-old Draymond Green<\/a> and 40-year-old Al Horford<\/a>; they can ill-afford to have another key rotational piece with limited availability this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n That, though, was a specific point of conversation in free-agent negotiations this offseason with Golden State. Melton told the Chronicle Thursday that he\u2019ll be \u201cfull-go\u201d with no restriction in 2026-27, and confirmed he plans to play in back-to-backs, a sorely needed development for the Warriors\u2019 roster.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The same self-creation duties may not fall on Melton again\u00a0\u2014 and shouldn\u2019t\u00a0\u2014 if Curry misses time. Golden State signed Brandon Williams, Melton\u2019s old high school teammate at Crespi, as a potential backup ballhandler. Rising fourth-year guard Brandin Podziemski<\/a> also took an offensive step in last season\u2019s last two months.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Melton, still, won\u2019t be shelving the toolkit.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was definitely different,\u201d Melton said, reflecting on last year\u2019s role. \u201cBut, I mean, it also showed me that I could do it. And it\u2019s just about doing it consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"De’Anthony Melton (8) puts up a shot in the first half as the Golden State Warriors play the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,32201,590,85,3198],"class_list":["post-887568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-deanthony-melton","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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