Nico

Mannion

Mannion hasn’t been in the NBA since his rookie year, which was the 2020-21 season. After spending time in Italy, he could end up back in the league if he is able to maintain this production throughout Summer League. Mannion is in a great spot to do that, since Milwaukee doesn’t have any top draft picks to steal the show. However, even if he gets a contract, he probably won’t be impacting fantasy hoops.

The 48th overall pick in the 2020 draft by Golden State, Mannion appeared in 30 games last season for the Warriors, averaging 4.5 points, 1.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per night.

Mannion didn’t get much playing time during his rookie season with the Warriors, which comes as no surprise given the presence of one Stephen Curry. These Olympic Qualifying Tournament games represent a good opportunity for Mannion to log significant playing time as a starting point guard, and his play was a big reason why the Italians clinched the top spot in their group. Next up is a semifinal matchup against either Philippines or the Dominican Republic.

New Orleans is resting all of their main guys tonight as well, so we’ll see a battle of the B Teams. Targeting guys like Nico Mannion, Kent Bazemore and Juan Toscano-Anderson makes sense in DFS.

The Warriors needed some playmaking tonight with Draymond Green (illness) out and Stephen Curry (tailbone) still on the shelf. Coach Steve Kerr recently said that Mannion carved out a role for himself for the rest of the season, but Jordan Poole will do most of the damage for the second unit when Golden State is healthy. Mannion is only on the radar in deeper leagues.

“We’re going to stick with this rotation,” Kerr said. “We just made the change a couple of games ago ... There’s got to be a competitive spirit, which we had [vs. Utah on Sunday] and lost today.” Kerr’s comments were seemingly directed at the bench unit, which now features Jordan Poole and Nico Mannion in the backcourt with James Wiseman, Eric Paschall and Kelly Oubre. None of those guys played well on Monday but they’ll get a chance to redeem themselves vs. the decimated Rockets on Wednesday.

Mannion played well in the G League and he seems to have earned a regular spot in coach Steve Kerr’s rotation. “I thought that young group [including Mannion] did a really good job in the fourth quarter,” Kerr said after Thursday’s game. “We’re going to continue to play those guys and see what they can do, and give them a chance. I like the energy. I like the skill level.” Kerr is hopeful that Mannion and Jordan Poole can develop strong pick-and-roll chemistry with James Wiseman, which would likely solidify the guards’ spots in the rotation. Fantasy managers can take a wait-and-see approach with Mannion.

Both players, who were at best fringe rotation players, are with the Warriors’ G-League affiliate in Orlando. Poole and Mannion will get consistent playing time there, which should help with regards to their development. Neither should be rostered in any fantasy league.

“Nico, in particular, could really use a stretch of just playing 30-plus minutes every single night,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He just hasn’t had a chance to play much ... I think it’s especially valuable for Nico and that would be the plan.” If you were stashing him in a deep league, in the hopes that he’d emerge as a rotation player, it might be time to move on.

Mannion made his NBA debut with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Dubs up by 30, which tells you all you need to know with regards to where he slots into Steve Kerr’s rotation. He’s going to spend most of the year in the G League, so unless the Warriors face a series of catastrophic injuries, he’ll be safe to ignore in fantasy hoops.