[new_royalslider id=”6″]
Coach Steve Kerr used the Summer League coaching experience to help him adjust to life on the sidelines, but it also helped him evaluate the talent on the roster. While the Warriors didn’t win the NBA Summer League, some of the players took advantage of the opportunity and were able to show enough to Warriors management to earn a training camp invite.
James Michael McAdoo, Aaron Craft, and Mitchell Watt were signed a few days ago and now another Summer League player will join them at training camp, Justin Holiday. Arguably the Warriors’ best player this summer, Holiday is an athletic wing that plays terrific defense. While his offensive game on the perimeter has been a question mark, he was able to show improvement on his jump-shot and was clutch down the stretch.
With Holiday, the Warriors now have 17 players on the roster and they can only keep 13. The Warriors already signed Brandon Rush and Leandro Barbosa this off-season, which could make it difficult for Holiday to land on the roster as a back-up guard. Holiday has the athleticism and size to be a shut down defender in the NBA and if he can go to training camp with the momentum he got in Las Vegas, he should have shot at cracking the roster.
Here is the press release the Warriors released:
The Golden State Warriors have signed free agent guard Justin Holiday, the team announced today. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not released. Holiday played for the Warriors at the 2014 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, starting all five games and averaging a team-high 14.8 points to go with 5.0 rebounds in 22.8 minutes.
Holiday, 25, played professionally last season in Hungary, where he posted averages of 12.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 50 games with Szolnok. The 6’6” guard has previous NBA experience with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2012-13, appearing in nine contests and averaging 4.7 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 15.8 minutes. He spent the rest of the 2012-13 campaign with the Idaho Stampede of the NBA D-League, tallying 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and a league-leading 2.43 steals in 34.7 minutes over 47 games, earning 2013 All-NBA D-League Third Team and All-NBA D-League Defensive Second Team honors. Following a four-year career at the University of Washington, the Mission Hills, CA, native made his professional debut with Aalstar in Belgium during the 2011-12 season after going unselected in the 2011 NBA Draft.
Holiday will wear uniform #7. The Warriors roster currently stands at 17 players.