De’Anthony Melton could soon be fully cleared, according to Steve Kerr

De’Anthony Melton was expected to they play a big role for Golden State Warriors when he signed with them in the summer of 2024. But just six games into his time with the Warriors, Melton suffered a torn left ACL on November 12, 2024 and was sidelined for the rest of the 2024-25 season.

He was expected to be a strong complement to Stephen Curry, but an ACL injury forced the Warriors to explore other options for retooling their roster. But Melton returned to the Warriors in the summer of 2025, signing a two-year, $6.53 million contract to try to finish what he started the year before.

De’Anthony Melton missed the first 22 games of the season for the Warriors as he continued to recover from a torn ACL, but he finally made his season debut on Dec. 4 against his former team in the Philadelphia 76ers. In 21 minutes of play, Melton recorded 14 points, three assists and two steals.

Melton has been quietly on the rise as the season has progressed. Since the calendar flipped to 2026, Melton has averaged 15 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game while shooting 45.4 percent from the field and 33.1 percent from three.

His best game of the season actually came last week, when he scored a game-high 28 points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out four assists in a game-high 28 minutes, 11 seconds of action.

The only thing Melton hasn’t done yet is play back-to-back sets, a common thing players don’t do in their first year after returning from a serious injury.

According to the Warriors head coach Steve Kerrhowever, there is a chance that De’Anthony Melton could be cleared to play in both halves of back-to-back sets at some point this season. In a conversation with Bay Area radio hosts Willard and Dibs, Kerr said it was Melton he recently increased his minutes limit and was able to play consecutively.

“There’s a chance, but it’s not something I know I can put my finger on when, but he’s going in the right direction,” Kerr said. “And we’ve increased his minutes limit so he’s playing more minutes in individual games and the next step is hopefully back-to-back, but I can’t tell you exactly when that is. It’s going to depend on the coaching staff.”

in the show, Steve Kerr also revealed that Kristaps Porzingis is currently not dealing with POTS following reports that the disease has affected the center since his days with the Boston Celtics.

“When I heard about the trade, I read about his POTS diagnosis and then I called Onsi Saleh, who was with us, he’s the general manager of Atlanta now and he’s a good friend of mine,” Kerr explained. “I called him and said, ‘is this POTS story real?’ And he said it wasn’t actually POTS. It wasn’t POTS.’ So that was some misinformation that was out there.

“I don’t know if anyone asked him about it, but basically what was bothering him in Atlanta that kept him from going out had nothing to do with being sick last week. He was just sick. There’s a lot going on around you as you know and he was sick enough where he was losing a lot of fluids and was contagious, so we kept him home, but he’s doing a lot better now.”

The Golden State Warriors return home for a matchup against their division rival Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night, with De’Anthony Melton not listed on the injury report. Kristaps Porzingis, who has played just one game with the Warriors since being traded from the Atlanta Hawks, is listed as questionable to play.