Every time a team adds or says goodbye to a player, numerous other players are impacted. Changes in a roster can lead to changes in the roles of many of the established players. Injuries, trades and free agent signings all have ripple effects throughout the team and subsequently the NBA.

The injuries to the Golden State Warriors big men started out innocently enough. Two weeks later, what initially seemed like some minor bruises and scratches may have potentially massive impacts on the Warriors’ 2019-2020 roster.

The most severe of the injuries is to Willie Cauley-Stein, who is expected to miss the entire preseason and the first few games of the regular season with a left foot strain. Kevon Looney and Alen Smailagić have also suffered ailments. Although those injuries appear to be more minor, they have clearly served as a call to action for the Warriors organization. They chose to wave a perimeter player in wing Devyn Marble while signing big man Kavion Pippen, Scottie’s nephew, to a non-guaranteed deal. Such a transaction signals that the Warriors are uncertain about the status of key big men and aren’t afraid to shake up the roster if it benefits the frontcourt for the preseason. From there, the organization may make moves that affect the regular season.

Those previously mentioned ripple effects apply to basically any acquisition or change to a lineup. With the beat-up Warriors bigs, we are seeing these ripples move in real time. And no one has more potential to be impacted than power forward Marquese Chriss.

When Chriss was signed to a non-guaranteed training camp deal on October 4, he wasn’t given much chance of making the team. After a decent rookie year with the Phoenix Suns, he was named to the All-Rookie Second Team, but he has not delivered on his promise. By the end of the 2018-2019 season, which saw him split time between the Houston Rockets and the Cleveland Cavaliers, he was seen as a terrific athlete and a decent rebounder but little else. His career scoring, shooting and passing statistics have been mediocre at best and he hasn’t been as good a shot blocker as one would expect considering his athletic ability and his 6’10” height. The Warriors brought him into training camp primarily to push established big men like Looney and Cauley-Stein. He probably wasn’t expecting to use training camp to get a contract with Golden State, but instead to impress other teams and sign elsewhere after he would inevitably be waived at some point during the preseason.

But that was before. Before Looney and Cauley-Stein both went down. And before Chriss began impressing in the preseason in a way nobody anticipated.

Through three preseason games, Chriss has, almost unbelievably, been the Warriors’ best active big man. He’s scored efficiently and led the team in rebounding. He’s even dished out some assists and blocked a few shots. Between his performance and the team’s need for insurance for the injured players, all the right things are happening for Chriss to get considered for a contract. While nothing is official yet, it is looking more and more likely that he will be a part of the 2019-2020 Golden State Warriors in some way. He has clearly impressed his coaches and teammates, most notably Draymond Green who opined that Chriss’ status as a journeyman was the result of mismanagement in the Suns organization.

“I think he’s been in some pretty tough situations,” Green said. “No one ever blames the situation. It’s always the kid...no Phoenix writer is going to bash the Phoenix Suns, but let’s be frank about it. When he was there, the organization was terrible. Everything was going wrong.”

Green also took time to express optimism about Chriss’ preseason performance.

“I’m happy he’s gotten another opportunity to show what he can really do,” Green said.

However, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. And if Chriss does stay, that means that someone else has to go. The most likely options are either to release small forward Alfonzo McKinnie from his non-guaranteed contract or to trade power forward Omari Spellman or shooting guard Jacob Evans.

But Spellman, even though he is now (seemingly mildly) injured himself, is probably safe due to his status as a big man and the Warriors do not seem likely to give up on their 2018 first-round pick Evans after just one season with the team. This means that McKinnie could be cut, which would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago.

McKinnie has spent time all over the basketball world. He’s played professionally in Luxembourg, Mexico, the G-League and the NBA. Ironically, he made the Warrior roster as a non-guaranteed training camp invite in 2018, much in the same way Chriss might this year. Although McKinnie was initially seen as someone who could ride the bench for much of the season, he became an important part of the rotation in both the regular season and the playoffs. At the same time, he has struggled with consistency and hasn’t demonstrated the defensive capabilities that the Warriors need from the small forward position; combine that with the injuries and the emergence of Glenn Robinson III and Jordan Poole as potential starting small forwards, and McKinnie may be the odd man out.

This would not be an easy decision for the Warriors by any stretch of the imagination. The big man injuries and Chriss’ stellar play means that, essentially, the Warriors have to choose between being thin in the frontcourt or thin at the wing. At the moment, they appear to be on track to settle on the latter.

That’s all it took—three injuries, two of which seem to be very minor, and strong preseason work from one player. That’s all it took to force the front office to make decisions that have impacted and may impact Marble, Pippen, Chriss, McKinnie, Spellman, Evans, Robinson, Poole and, as a result, the entire team and the entire league.

It’s the NBA’s ripple effect at its finest.