Nate Williams Is Playing +14 More Minutes a Night for Golden State
A teammate's absence has turned Nate Williams into a bigger part of the Warriors' plan, but the sample is still short.
Nate Williams is playing 14 more minutes a night for the Warriors over his last three games, with a teammate out of the lineup. That stretch ran through his last game on April 12, 2026, in the 2025-26 season.
The jump is real by any measure. Williams is averaging 31.2 minutes a night over those three games, more than double his season mark of 17.1. His scoring has followed the same path, up to 14.7 points a game in that span from a season average of 8.
This is not a full season of evidence. Williams has appeared in only 14 games in 2025-26, so three games is a fifth of his sample. The extra playing time is tied directly to a teammate being unavailable, not to a permanent change in how the Warriors use him.
For this to hold, that teammate would need to stay out of the lineup, or the coaching staff would need to keep Williams in an expanded role once that player is back. For it to fade, the minutes and scoring would slide back toward his season numbers as soon as the rotation returns to full strength. Right now, both paths are open, and the next few games will show which one the Warriors are actually choosing.