If you are on Twitter these days, there are some common themes, or phrases, seeming to populate everybody’s feeds: “Health and safety protocols” and “10-day hardship deal”.

And with the Warriors’ placing Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole so far in the former category, Golden State went ahead and signed its first player to a hardship deal Wednesday.

Former Mississippi State and San Antonio Spurs guard Quinndary Weatherspoon was elevated from the G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors to join the major league club with a 10-day hardship deal, reported in a tweet by Shams Charania of The Athletic.

According to an article by USA Today Sports’ “For The Win” writer Bryan Kalbrosky, The hardship exemption is usually not available for teams until January 5th, and typically allows for the expansion of the 15-man roster if three or more players are unavailable due to injury. Now, because of the spread of the omicron variant throughout the country and the NBA, last season’s policy allowing for earlier use of the exceptions is expanded, as beginning on Dec. 19 teams can ink a replacement player for every player testing positive for COVID-19.

Enter Weatherspoon, the 49th pick by the Spurs in the 2019 NBA Draft and an off-guard with a defensive track record and some explosiveness at the rim. Weatherspoon signed a deal with Golden State on October 10 before being waived to Santa Cruz shortly thereafter, and described his game to the media on October 11.

“I'm an all-around player, I just need to find my one great niche, something I’m great in, and I think I can bring defense and just being able to knock down open shots when I’m open, and bring an energy each and every day to the team,” Weatherspoon said.

The 25-year old had his most extensive professional season in 2019-20 with the G League’s Austin Spurs, starting 35 contests and playing almost 30 minutes a game, averaging 14.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.1 steals when he took the floor.

Despite shooting 51.4% from inside the arc in his G League career, Weatherspoon has connected on just 32.4% of his shots from distance, which he acknowledged may need to be improved upon to operate in Golden State’s offense.

“I know this is a big shooting offense, and I know that’s something I need to work on in my game,” Weatherspoon said in October. “So (I’m) just coming here and trying to find my confidence again, and hopefully it will lead to great things.”

Luckily for Weatherspoon, he is not coming into a team with which he has no familiarity, as he mentioned getting to know Poole and Chris Chiozza over the years in his journey to Golden State.

Poole figures to be one of the main players the shooting guard Weatherspoon will work to replace, and the absences of Wiggins and (potentially) Andre Iguodala, who missed practice Wednesday with knee soreness, has the Warriors in need of Weatherspoon’s abilities.

“He’ll be very helpful,” said coach Steve Kerr. “We’re without several wings and we need to have some depth there.”

His signing is not without merit, averaging 16.1 points, 3.7 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game this season with Santa Cruz, all while shooting 44.2% from the field.

Weatherspoon has also impressed recently, averaging just over 20 points in Santa Cruz’s last three contests in the AT&T Winter G League Showcase, including a game-leading 26-point performance on Dec. 17 against the G League Ignite.

Ahead of a home bout against the always-tough Memphis Grizzlies tomorrow before a Christmas Day showdown against the Phoenix Suns, Weatherspoon will have to stay ready for a potentially-pivotal role in those games.

And with limited minutes in just 31 career NBA games, he may need to tap into the mentality set forth after signing with the team in the middle of training camp in October.

“Just stay ready, stay focused basically, take the shots when I have them,” Weatherspoon said.

(Photo credit: Logan Riely / Getty Images)