Ranking all of Steph’s teammates: #17 — Damion Lee

During his time with the Golden State Warriors, Steph Curry has had 106 teammates who have appeared in at least one game. Some played in exactly one game, while others played in hundreds. Some never actually played in a game that Curry was active for, while others formed historically great partnerships with him.

And I’m ranking all 106 of them before a new season starts and he adds to the tally. Better get a move on.

Players are ranked — and stats are shown — based only on their time as Curry’s teammate. How good/bad they were in other organizations doesn’t matter. How good/bad they were on pre-2009-10 Warriors teams doesn’t matter.

#17 — Damion Lee

Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images

Games: 81 (T-30th out of 106)
Points per game: 9.6 (26th out of 106)
Rebounds per game: 3.7 (T-39th out of 106)
Assists per game: 1.8 (T-35th out of 106)

I try to avoid mentioning that Damion Lee and Steph Curry are brothers-in-law, because it almost always ends up as a disservice to Lee. But since this article is about the two of them, it needs to be mentioned.

So here’s how I’m going to mention it. I can think of no better way to describe the tremendous growth that Lee has shown as a player than to bring up the way his relationship to Curry is mentioned.

Early in his Warriors tenure, people would say, “Lee only plays on the Warriors because he’s Steph’s brother-in-law.” Now they say, “isn’t it cool that Lee isn’t just a good NBA player, but also Steph’s brother-in-law?”

Lee has turned into a weapon off the bench, and a high-quality NBA player. He’s become a strong defender, capable of on and off-ball defense at three positions. He’s a good shooter, who’s made 36.5% of his shots from distance while with the Warriors. He moves well without the ball, and rarely makes a poor decision on the court.

He’s earned his role in the league, and on a Warriors team that intends to compete for the foreseeable future. His familial relationship to Curry has become an anecdote rather than a description, and that’s a pure testament to the player he’s become.

With fewer than 30 players left, I’m going to start listing the remaining names in alphabetic order, to help out with determining whether someone is properly ranked. Here they are:

Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut, DeMarcus Cousins, Kevin Durant, Monta Ellis, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, David Lee, Shaun Livingston, Kevon Looney, JaVale McGee, Zaza Pachulia, D’Angelo Russell, Klay Thompson, David West, Andrew Wiggins