CLEVELAND _ Stephen Curry underwent his scheduled re-evaluation Saturday morning and the team, encouraged by his progress, is hopeful he can return at some point in March.
Curry, who has missed most of the season after undergoing surgery for a broken left hand in November, will be re-evaluated in four more weeks, on Feb. 29. If he returns in March, he would be available for more than 20 games to end the season.
In recent weeks, Curry has been participating in shooting drills after practices. Working closely with director of sports medicine and performance, Dr. Rick Celebrini, he began strength-training for his left hand. Curry has recently been traveling with the team, including for their current five-game, East Coast swing.
Based on this new timetable, the earliest Curry could return is for the Feb. 29 game against the Suns in Phoenix. The Warriors play the Wizards in San Francisco on March 1, before facing the Nuggets on March 3 in Denver.
The Warriors entered the season hopeful they would compete to make the playoffs for the eighth-straight year but, after Curry broke his hand in a collision with Suns center Aron Baynes in the fourth game of the season, Golden State shifted their expectations.
Since then, they've focused on developing a young roster in hopes of finding contributors and rounding out the bench for next season, when Curry and Klay Thompson (left knee surgery) are healthy and the team expects to compete in the Western Conference.
Curry's return will also provide the front office with a larger sample size of his long-term fit with D'Angelo Russell. The two point guards have played only 74 minutes together and struggled to find chemistry in the backcourt.
Head coach Steve Kerr has been encouraged by Russell's burgeoning ability to play off the ball _ especially along with Draymond Green _ which could help him co-exist with Curry.
The Warriors (10-39) are on pace to win 17 games this season and currently have the best odds (14%) to land the No. 1 pick in May's draft lottery, followed by the Cavaliers, Hawks and Knicks _ all at 13-36.
However, if Curry returns in March, he could potentially help Golden State improve their record and rise from the bottom of the standings. But when asked if they would rest Curry to maintain favorable odds to land the No. 1 pick, Kerr denounced the notion.
"The players are going to play when they're ready to play," Kerr said. "And we're going to try to win every game that we can."
