Golden State Warriors: Breaking down the signing of Kavion Pippen

The Golden State Warriors have signed undrafted center Kavion Pippen to address their big-man depth concerns. Here is a brief analysis of the preseason signing.

The Golden State Warriors have already run into a case of the injury bug and we’re only in early October. After numerous injuries to the team’s big men, the Warriors have signed undrafted center Kavion Pippen to a non-guaranteed contract.

And if that name sounds familiar it’s because you know even the smallest bit of NBA history.

Pippen’s uncle is Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen who won six NBA championships playing alongside Michael Jordan in the ’90s. But unlike his uncle, Kavion Pippen went undrafted in the NBA Draft and didn’t exactly follow the same basketball timeline.

The younger Pippen never played AAU ball and attended a community college in Missouri before transferring to Southern Illinois.

While with the Salukis, Pippen would start the final two years of his collegiate career earning All-Missouri Valley Conference Third Team and All-MVC Defensive Team honors as a senior.

As expected, Pippen wasn’t exactly too highly-touted coming out of a small school like Southern Illinois but opportunity came knocking once the Warriors called him in for a tryout.

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In fact, the 6-foot-10 center beat out former No. 2 overall pick Hasheem Thabeet who also worked out with the team this week. Given the Warriors’ injuries in their frontcourt, Pippen should see plenty of minutes in the team’s final four preseason games this October.

Willie Cauley-Stein is out nursing a foot injury that will keep him out for the remainder of training camp and very likely could force him to miss time early in the season.

Kevon Looney remains sidelined with a hamstring injury and rookie second-round pick Alen Smailagic is out for the “foreseeable future” with an ankle injury.

These injuries have left the Warriors with a lone option at center — that being former Atlanta Hawks draft pick Omari Spellman. Spellman was acquired by the Warriors this summer in a trade that sent Damian Jones packing out east.

With the many injuries to the Warriors big man rotation, expect Spellman to receive plenty of minutes at least early on in the season.

As for Pippen, his chances of making the roster are incredibly thin despite the various injuries. The Warriors are hard-capped and the only way to clear space to sign another player — barring a trade — would be to release Alfonzo McKinnie who is currently the projected starter at small forward.

While that’s certainly a possibility, it’s unlikely the team would make that move to clear room for Kavion Pippen — even if they need another big man.

The likeliest route to a roster spot would be for Pippen to exceed expectations in the preseason and steal away one of the two two-way contracts slots from either Ky Bowman or Damion Lee.

Seeing as both Bowman and Lee are backcourt players, the Warriors could opt to give one of their two-way contracts to Pippen, especially with their recent depth concerns.

If so, we could even see Pippen receive some playing time this season if recalled from the G-League at some point.

In all likelihood, this will simply be a training camp invite with little more to come of it. But if Pippen impresses, a roster spot isn’t entirely out of the question.

And if anything, he certainly has basketball bloodline and family genealogy on his side.