Stephen Curry rejoins Warriors to continue hand rehab

ByNick Friedell ESPN logo
Sunday, December 22, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO -- Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry is back with his team as he continues rehabbing a broken left hand.

The star guard, who suffered the injury during an Oct. 30 loss to the Phoenix Suns, had his first surgery on the hand on Nov. 1 in Los Angeles. He had been in the L.A. area over the past couple of weeks after having a second scheduled procedure to take out pins and remove the brace he had been wearing. He has since begun the rehab process.

The timeline on Curry's projected return hasn't changed -- he was expected to be reevaluated three months after the first surgery -- but the Warriors' players and coaches are happy to have him around on a more consistent basis again.

"He's been doing basketball movements," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after Sunday's practice. "He hasn't been shooting the ball, but he's been out on the floor doing a lot of lateral movement, jumping, that kind of stuff. And it's nice to have him in the gym; it just feels better when he's around."

Kerr is hopeful that Curry, who sat on the bench with the team during Friday's win over the New Orleans Pelicans, can start traveling again with the group in the near future.

"We'd like to have him with the team as much as possible," Kerr said. "I haven't talked to him about our next trip, but I'm sure he'll be around the team more and more now that he's allowed to be up here with our staff. He's been here now the last few days, every day working with our training staff. He's present again, so I imagine that will stay the same."

The Warriors received some more positive injury-related news on Saturday after an MRI on rookie forward Eric Paschall's right knee came back clean. Paschall injured his knee in the first quarter of Friday's win after a collision with Pelicans guardJJ Redick. Warriors veteran forward Draymond Green suggested after Paschall's knee injury that an extra week or two off wouldn't be a bad thing for the rookie, who has also been battling a hip injury over the past couple of weeks. Paschall is averaging 15.4 points and 4.9 rebounds a game after being selected with the 41st pick in last summer's NBA draft.

"It's just been a tough couple of weeks for Eric," Kerr said. "I don't know that he needs a week off, he's just had a week off from the [hip] injury. And we got really good news [Saturday] with the MRI and the evaluations, so he fully practiced today, and he's anxious to get back out there. Questionable for tomorrow, we'll see how he's doing, but all in all I'm just thrilled that he's not seriously injured, and I know he's anxious to get his season back on track."

Paschall went through Sunday's practice and could play again on Monday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"Eric is a big, strong kid," Kerr said. "The hip tweak was nothing major. The knee scare, just watching it on tape, it was pretty scary when a guy rolls up your leg, and so just glad that it was not more serious."