Following their preseason finale versus the Denver Nuggets on Friday, the Golden State Warriors converted forward Anthony Lamb's training camp deal into a two-way contract. This means he will split his time between the Warriors and their G League affiliate the Santa Cruz Warriors this season.
Usually, end of roster decisions like this don’t make headline news. However, Warriors president and general manager Bob Myers was forced to address the move due to Anthony Lamb’s previous sexual assault allegations.
Last summer, Lamb was accused of committing sexual assault during his time at the University of Vermont. Lamb played four seasons for Vermont between 2016 and 2020. However, he was playing on a two-way contract with the Houston Rockets when the allegations were made in 2021. The accusations against Lamb were originally reported through an Instagram account called "Share Your Story UVM."
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No official criminal charges were ever filed against Anthony Lamb, and he never addressed the situation. So far, it is unclear if the accusations have any merit. However, it is difficult to simply ignore such allegations.
When asked by Bay Area News Groups' Madeline Kenney about this on Sunday, Myers said that he did not discover any official charges prior to converting Lamb’s contract.
“We checked with the NBA. We checked with the two teams that had prior signed him and didn't hear anything as far as official charges or anything like that,” Myers said.
Myers then added that the Warriors organization takes such allegations very seriously.
“It’s tough because we take that very seriously,” Myers said.
Later, Myers also explained why it isn’t fair to punish someone for something that they might have done.
"At the same time, it’s difficult because if someone’s accused of something but not charged or convicted, and we then deny them an opportunity, is that fair, too? But again, that’s something we take very seriously," Myers said.
Myers also added that the league can’t go beyond the law.
"We can only, at times, look at what the law has done. And also follow the leadership of the NBA,” Myers said.
Finally, Meyers said if there was any evidence against Lamb or an open investigation, then the Warriors would not have moved forward with his deal.
"If the NBA had said, this is not something we would recommend, or do, or if there’s an ongoing investigation, we would have not moved forward. They have more information than we do in this situation and we had to lean on that. We had to lean on the prior teams that signed him. We didn’t do it lightly, but I understand the question,” Myers said.
It’s certainly a complicated situation. But it looks like Warriors fans can rest assured that the team took as many precautions as possible before adding Lamb to their roster.
Anthony Lamb’s NBA career so far
Anthony Lamb has struggled to find a permanent home in the NBA since going undrafted in 2020. So far, Lamb has bounced around between the G League and the NBA on two-way and 10-day contracts. He has played a total of just 26 NBA regular season games, 24 for the Houston Rockets and two for the San Antonio Spurs.
Lamb has career averages of 5.1 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game on 38.3% shooting in 16.3 minutes per game over 26 games.
In three preseason games for the Warriors, Anthony Lamb averaged 2.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per game in 12.2MPG. He also shot 50% from the field and 50% from three.
Not very impressive numbers by any stretch of the imagination. But Lamb does have decent size at 6-foot-6, 227 pounds. So between that and his ability to space the floor, maybe the Warriors will be able to get some production out of him this season.
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