It's bad. Really bad. But it could have been worse.
That essentially was Basketball Hall of Famer Chris Mullin's assessment of Steph Curry's broken left hand, which occurred Wednesday night during the Warriors' 11-point home loss to the Suns.
Mullin underwent three separate hand surgeries over the course of his 16-year NBA career, so he spoke from experience in delivering that take on NBC Sports Bay Area's "Warriors Postgame Live."
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"The first thing when Steph goes down, you worry about his ankles and his knee, so on the positive side, it's his hand," Mullin said.
While we currently don't know the full extent of Curry's injury, Mullin believes it won't keep the two-time NBA MVP away from the team.
"I had three hand surgeries over the course of my career," Mullin said. "The downtime was six to eight weeks, but during that time, the one thing I was able to do was train myself cardiovascular-wise, do some basketball work. So, physically I was able to get it done, and mentally, you stay engaged a little more. If you're laid up with a bad leg, you can do nothing. You feel totally detached.
"So, depending on the timeline, the one thing Steph will be able to do is maintain his body condition, his fitness, and then stay engaged with the team, be a leader as he has been, be connected to the team. But physically, he'll be fine. We're talking about the greatest shooter of all time, and as I said earlier, the best dexterity and hand-eye coordination I've ever seen in an athlete."
Golden State Warriors
Mullin predicts Curry will be as good as new when he returns, and believes the Warriors have the right leadership in place to get through what now will be an even more trying season.
"So, he'll be fine when he recovers," Mullin said. "The big part is the rest of the team, how they manage this thing emotionally, right, getting over it, and then getting out there and competing.
"In my mind, not a better basketball coach than Steve Kerr to do this, but more importantly, not a better person to deal with this adversity and get these guys through it."
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Things are plenty bleak for the Warriors right now. But as Mullin correctly points out, they could be bleaker.
