Warriors' Melton to have ACL surgery, miss rest of season

Golden State Warriors guard De'Anthony Melton will undergo surgery on his left ACL and miss the remainder of the season, the team announced Wednesday.

Melton missed two games because of an ACL sprain and underwent further testing before it was determined he would undergo surgery.

"First initial thought was to try to rehab for two to three weeks, see how stable it is and then go from there," Melton said. "But after getting second and third opinions, they just pretty much advised me to kind of handle it, fix it now, get it done, because you don't want it to hinder me later on in this year or later on in my career. And after that it can get a lot worse."

The Warriors were excited about signing Melton to a one-year, $12.8 million deal on the midlevel exception in free agency. Golden State liked Melton's fit as a two-way player in coach Steve Kerr's 12-man rotation.

Melton, though, played in only the first three games of the season before a back injury sidelined him for five games. He returned and played three more games, starting two of them, before he suffered his ACL injury against theDallas Maverickson Nov. 12.

"It's terrible news. I feel so bad for [Melton]," Kerr said Wednesday. "He's such a perfect fit for us, and we were excited to have him. He was clearly going to be our starter next to [Stephen Curry]."

Melton averaged 10.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals this season.

"He's disappointed, but he knows this is the right decision," Kerr said. "You can't mess around with a partially torn ACL and think that everything's going to be fine if he just plays through it. This is the right decision, and we're all very confident that he'll be back."

Kerr said the Warriors will startLindy Waters IIIin Melton's placefor the foreseeable future.

"What he was bringing to this team was great, so we'll miss that," Draymond Green said after Wednesday's 120-97 win over the Atlanta Hawks. "But what we'll miss more is just his presence around, his attitude, his demeanor every single day. Always smiling, never upset about anything, just always bringing great vibes.

"You hate to see a young guy in a contract year go through this, but I know the imprint he's already left on this organization. He'll have an opportunity to come back, and hopefully he'll decide that's the right thing for him."

The Warriors are allowed to file a disabled player exception with Melton's season-ending injury. The exception would be worth $6.4 million, according to ESPN's Bobby Marks. However, Golden State is $534,000 below the first apron and not allowed to exceed the threshold.

ESPN's Kendra Andrews and Marc J. Spears contributed to this report.