The Warriors have a knack for finding undrafted, undersized guards that turn into key rotation pieces. They were the first team to give Jeremy Lin a shot in the NBA, while Gary Payton II played a vital role in their 2022 championship run.
They seem to have found another one: Pat Spencer.
The 29-year-old has been a standout for the Warriors over the last week while star Steph Curry has been sidelined with a quad injury. Spencer has averaged 16 points, six assists, and five rebounds over Golden State’s last four games.
He’s also had a few viral moments this past week.
He screamed “I’m that motherfucker” after nearly leading a Warriors comeback against the Sixers, then waved off the Cavaliers’ home crowd after sinking a game-clinching free throw.
“Pat is that motherfucker. That became clear,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Saturday.
Prior to this recent run, Spencer had gained niche NBA popularity because of his journey to become a professional basketball player. He is considered one of the greatest college lacrosse players of all-time. During his time at Loyola Maryland, he received the Tewaaraton Award, the college lacrosse equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, and the Lt. Raymond Enners Award, the NCAA’s highest honor in men’s lacrosse, in 2019. That same year, he was selected with the No. 1 pick in the inaugural Premier Lacrosse League draft.
Instead of going pro in lacrosse, Spencer used his fifth year of NCAA eligibility to play basketball for the 2019–20 NCAA season at Northwestern. He played one season before turning pro, and signed with the Warriors on an Exhibit 10 contract in 2022.
Spencer has become a key part of the Warriors rotation, but Golden State may not be able to play him for the entire season.
Although Spencer has played in just 18 games this season, he has been active for all 25 Warriors games. Under the two-way contract Spencer signed in the offseason—worth $318,218, according to Sports Business Classroom—he is limited to 50 games on a team’s active roster. Two-way players are also not eligible to play in the postseason.
The Warriors could convert Spencer’s deal into a standard NBA contract—which they did last season—but Golden State will need to tinker with the rest of its roster first.
Golden State used its 15th spot to sign Seth Curry, Steph’s brother, last week. They will also need to clear room under the second apron, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
The second apron threshold is $207.8 million, and the Warriors are less than $300,000 away from breaching that mark.
Golden State could find a trade partner to help meet these requirements, but the team may need to wait until January 15, when most of the league’s players will be eligible for a trade. The Warriors will only be at 42 games played by then, so they can exhaust Spencer’s two-way contract games in the meantime.
Kerr has made it clear that he wants to keep Spencer around.
“He’s got to be out there,” Kerr said Thursday. “And it’d be great to find a way to get him on the roster, because he’s kind of the perfect guy to have as a backup.”
