Warriors’ Omari Spellman has lost weight, but can he keep job?
OKLAHOMA CITY — Omari Spellman had mixed emotions. On the one hand, he felt rejected. On the other hand, he had an opportunity to start fresh.
“To tell you the truth, I was just in a slump. Like in a rut, man. It was hard for me to get out of,” Spellman said this week. “Worked through it and now I’m on the other side of it, trying to get back to where I want to be.”
In July, a year after selecting him with the 30th pick in the draft, the Atlanta Hawks traded Spellman to the Warriors. Spellman felt he wore out his welcome in Atlanta after just one season. “I was in a rut before I even got traded,” Spellman said. “They didn’t really want to deal with it.”
It was the way Spellman’s rut manifested itself that turned the Hawks away. When Spellman showed up to Las Vegas Summer League overweight at 315 pounds, the organization decided enough was enough.
Spellman, 22, was upset when the Hawks traded him, but recognized that the Warriors represented an opportunity for him to establish his NBA career. This week will show how much the Warriors are committed to Spellman beyond this season.
Thursday is the last day can exercise team options on the rookie scale contracts of former first-round picks. All the players whose options will be picked up or declined by Oct. 31 are already under contract for the 2019-20 season. The team’s decision is whether they want to lock in those players’ contracts for the 2020-21 campaign. For the Warriors, that includes second-year guard Jacob Evans and Spellman.
The Warriors traded center Damian Jones and a future second-round pick for Spellman. While the deal was primarily a cost-cutting move, the second-year forward had an opportunity to earn a role in training camp and the preseason. With injuries to Willie Cauley-Stein (foot) and Kevon Looney (hamstring), Spellman started the first game of the preseason.
After coming off the bench in the ensuring exhibitions, Spellman averaged 6.5 rebounds, 4.3 points, 1.5 assists and 0.5 blocks in 17.1 minutes per game. He’s lost more than 40 pounds since the start of camp.
“I feel like this is a better situation for me. Everything here is already established and put into place and they’re just having me come along in my process so it’s been pretty good,” Spellman said.
This isn’t the first time Spellman has dealt with weight issues. Spellman, who won a national championship while at Villanova, showed up on campus weighing nearly 300 pounds. During his redshirt freshman year, with the help his coaches, he cut 50 pounds and got down to what he considers his ideal playing weight — 245 pounds.
“I’m just quicker, better defensively. When I’m better defensively, we can get out in transition, I can run the floor better and it’s just easier for myself. It makes it easier to score points, protect the rim, and rebound,” Spellman said. “By not having anything on me, it just makes it easier.”
Spellman left college after two years, and the structure he had in place at Villanova with his coaches was gone. In the NBA, there is help, but there is a lot more freedom. It’s up to players to manage their bodies. Spellman ballooned back into the 290s.
“Sometimes, I felt like I was a little too comfortable,” Spellman said. “Feeling like ‘I got my money, I arrived.'”
To keep himself in check, Spellman is building his support system. His grandmother and mother flew out to San Francisco to help him move, and he talks to them every day. He’s leaned on forward Draymond Green — who cut 25 pounds right before last season’s playoff run — for advice, and has worked with assistant coach Aaron Miles on fitting into the Warriors’ system.
“He’s breaking old tendencies,” Miles said. “He was asked to pop a majority of the time in Atlanta, and so now we’re trying to get him to understand that ‘You’re a threat. Be a threat.’”
Miles said he wants to see ideal five-minute stretches from Spellman. He doesn’t want Spellman to idle on the perimeter like he did in Atlanta. He wants him setting screens, rolling to the rim hard, sprinting back on defense and talking to his teammates. It comes down to conditioning.
“When fatigue sets in for any body, the mind goes and then the voice is going to leave, too,” Miles said.
The preseason offered flashes for Spellman, but he ultimately lost status to forward Marquese Chriss. After playing 23 minutes in the first preseason game, Spellman logged 19, nine and 17 minutes in the next three. In the regular-season opener, Spellman finished with eight points and five rebounds in 11 minutes.
Even if at the end of the month the Warriors decide to pass on his third-year option, Spellman will still have time to earn his place.
“I think I can be a very good player, but it’s not really about what I say, it’s about what I do,” Spellman said. “I want to prove it not only to myself, but to this organization, that I’m worth it.”