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SAN FRANCISCO – It is a scene that has played out hundreds of times in dozens of arenas across the past 17 seasons: Over an hour before tipoff, thousands of fans fill the lower bowl , holding up signs with slogans or phones set to record video.
The object of their undivided attention is always Steph Curry , whose pregame shooting routine is more spectacle than warmup.
Following his shot-making exhibition, the ushers will then herd the masses to their regular seats, allowing a few to camp near the tunnels and plead for autographs from the man who will likely score between 20 and 40 points over the next 48 minutes of gametime.
The chances of seeing Curry’s pre- and in-game excellence are nowhere near a certainty these days, though. After Thursday’s practice at Chase Center, Warriors coach Steve Kerr had a word of advice for the thousands who hope to experience that scene this season.
“We have fans who buy tickets expecting to see Steph … people expecting to see the vets, and then we have a back-to-back and then we don’t play them,” Kerr said.
“So I would just come out and tell the fans out there to be mindful, when you’re buying the tickets, of the schedule.” The Warriors have 15 bac k-to-back sets and four road trips of at least five games.
Curry had managed an ailing right knee all offseason after it was a major factor in him missing 39 games a season ago. Load management is nothing new to the NBA, and is an issue the league has sought to address in recent years.
Players are only eligible for regular season honors if they have participated in at least 65 games, and there are now rules against resting stars during national television games.
Kerr said he and the medical staff have not mapped out which games Curry and fellow older veterans Draymond Green and Al Horford will sit out, but the staff has made no secret that caution is the prevailing theme when it comes to Curry.
“We are purposefully ramping up Steph more slowly this year, this training camp, than he’s used to in the past … we’re purposefully holding him back this year, trying to lessen the load with the knee in particular,” Kerr said.
“He’s right on schedule.” The Warriors have opted for incrementality when it comes to building Curry’s workload. He has participated in fewer practices and played less in the preseason.
Curry played in 13 and 14 minutes in each of the first two games, then did not even board the team plane for the third. He then played just 14 minutes against Sacramento last weekend, and then received second-half minutes for the first time in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Kerr did not reveal whether or not Curry would play his usual 30 or so minutes in Friday’s preseason finale against the Blazers, and said that having Curry play less than his usual 32-to-34 minutes a night to begin the regular season was also a possibility.
Then there is, in the minds of the Warriors’ medical and coaching staff, the unavoidable result of trying to preserve a superstar in his late 30s: Having him sit out certain games entirely when the schedule crunch necessitates it. That is a philosophy Kerr dislikes but begrudgingly accepts .
“The tricky part is obvious.
We’ve had a lot of games over the years in Golden State where we’d have a really rough trip and we’d sit Steph, and I’d get an email or Raymond Ridder gets an email from a fan who says ‘I just spent $2,000 on a trip here between tickets and a plane ride and a hotel and Steph didn’t play,’” Kerr said last season.
“We genuinely feel terrible. We want our fans to be able to enjoy watching Steph play.
“And so the only real answer — we al l know what the real answer is, and that is to shorten the season. Good luck.” Fans hoping to see Curry will have to scan their schedule ahead of time, because the Warriors’ philosophy will not change.
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