The Golden State Warriors have had starting center Andrew Bogut for a total of 19 minutes so far this season yet they have still looked incredible. The Warriors are off to a 6-0 start and are making it look easy out there as they have won most of their games fairly easily and while Stephen Curry's ridiculous start is the main reason for that Bogut's replacement, Festus Ezeli, has had a big part in it as well. Bogut is currently working his way back from a concussion but there is a chance that Ezeli could remain the starter even when he returns, according to Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.
Ezeli has started the Warriors last five games and he has put up nice numbers as he is averaging 10.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 19.7 minutes per game which is good for a PER of 23.3. The 23.3 PER is the second best on the team, behind Curry, among players that have gotten significant minutes so it has caused interim head coach Luke Walton and his staff to at least consider keeping Ezeli as the starting center.
"Festus is playing great. I haven't really sat down to think about that, and that's probably a discussion to have with Steve Kerr and the rest of the staff. I would assume Bogut would be back in the starting lineup, but it might be one of those things where he hasn't played in two weeks so we start Festus for a while and work him back into shape," said Walton.
There are reasons for both sides of the argument here. Typically the rule of thumb is that players cant't lose their starting spot because of injury, which would mean Bogut back in the starting lineup. Bogut also played extremely well in the 19 minutes he got in the opening game and he is their big money guy.
Having said all of that though, it would seem like the reasons to have Ezeli remain the starter outweigh the reasons to insert Bogut back into the starting lineup. First and foremost Ezeli has earned it with his spectacular play. Another key factor here is the fact that Ezeli is being groomed by the Warriors as their center of the future as Bogut only has one more year on his contract after this one and the Warriors will probably let him walk. Add in the fact that Bogut has had a lot of injury issues in recent years and it would seem like Ezeli is the obvious choice here.
Another factor probably under consideration here is the fact that Bogut has only come off the bench for 10 out of his 575 career games but that really shouldn't affect the decision of who is the best of the two centers right now. Bogut is currenty working his way through the league mandated concussion protocol and should be back pretty soon so we will know the answer to this debate before too long.
