The recent injury reports have not been kind to the Golden State Warriors. Despite getting extra rest during the All-Star break a couple of weekends ago, the Warriors need to pull together extra bodies just to build a healthy 10-man rotation.

Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler are, of course, the two big names, with the former out for at least another week with a knee issue that's lingering much longer than expected, and the latter unfortunately out for the season due to a torn ACL. Beyond the two stars, Kristaps Porzingis also came down with a mysterious illness that has kept him out for the past four games after he made his debut for the Warriors. 

It's been tough for the Warriors, but they may have found a potential piece in the rough with one of the players getting some run solely due to these injuries.

In the Warriors' disappointing loss to the Clippers on Monday, there were a couple of things that stood out as positives. One of them was the play of recently signed two-way guard Nate Williams.

Williams signed a contract on February 16th and played in his first NBA game of the season against the Lakers this past Saturday. Then, the 27-year-old proceeded to post the best game of his career, scoring a career-high 18 points in 22 minutes of action against the Clippers.

After the game, Steve Kerr made sure to compliment Williams and described what he was impressed with.

"He's important, given all the other guys who are absent right now. I think Nate has played really well. It's fun watching him. Young player, pretty live body, can make a shot. He guarded Kawhi (Leonard) at times. Nate is a very impressive player."

The Warriors' rotation is very much in flux at the moment due to all the various injuries they're dealing with, so Williams could very well remain a key contributor off the bench.

As Kerr said, Williams played good defense on Leonard and he was efficient scoring his points, going 5-8 from the field and knocking 3 of his 4 three-point attempts. This came after he scored 7 points in 15 minutes in his Warriors debut.

Overall, Williams hasn't really gotten the chance to show much in the NBA over his four years, playing just 47 games and 403 total minutes prior to this season.

His biggest role was in his rookie year with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2023, where he played the last five games of the season and made a solid impact. He started four of the five games, averaging 10.6 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists while shooting 61.5% from the field and 37.5% from three in over 25 minutes per game.

Obviously, that's an extremely small sample size, especially considering his relatively subpar play in the past two seasons with the Houston Rockets, but Williams has shown he has the potential to be a solid contributor when given the opportunity.

He'll almost surely continue to have some sort of opportunity over the next few games. We'll see if he can continue to impress.