Shaun Livingston suffered what he thought was a sprained big toe on his right foot during the the Nets’ playoff run last season, but just played through it at the time. He figured once the summer came and he rested it things would improve.
They didn’t, so in mid August he had toe surgery.
That surgery had a 6-8 week recovery time that could cost him the start of training camp with his new team in Golden State, something Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports confirmed.
The Warriors are about uncertain when @ShaunLivingston will return from toe surgery. @fezzyfel is on pace to return early in training camp.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) September 20, 2014
It’s not ideal, what with Livingston coming to a new team that has a new coach in Steve Kerr bringing in a new system. That said, Livingston is a veteran and smart player who can pick this up quickly.
Livingston is a big upgrade for the Warriors, who last season traded for Steve Blake because he was going to be an upgrade off the bench behind Stephen Curry at the point (except he wasn’t). The result was Curry getting 35.4 minutes a night, and while he’s one of the best players in the game and should get heavy minutes it would be better for the Warriors long term to get him some rest.
By the way, the second part of that tweet — Golden State getting Festus Ezeli back early in camp — is also key. More than keeping Curry’s minutes down and having a good backup for him, what really matters is keeping Andrew Bogut’s minutes down and having a good backup for him. Ezeli is key.
If Golden State can have a better bench this season and keep their starters fresher for the playoffs, they brome a much more dangerous team.