David Lee's role with Warriors continues to diminish

It's been a trying season for veteran power forward David Lee, and things may have hit rock bottom in Friday's win over the Dallas Mavericks. 

Lee, the Golden State Warriors' highest-paid player, didn't come off the bench in the victory. He wasn't injured or sore; it was simply head coach Steve Kerr's decision. For a player who started for the Warriors for four straight seasons coming into this year, a DNP-CD has to be a tough pill for Lee to swallow. 

Kerr said he talked to Lee about it in the fourth quarter, and mentioned that the two-time All-Star is not someone he was simply going to put in for garbage time. 

"I didn't make that decision until during the game," Kerr told reporters about not playing Lee. "I haven't played Mo (Speights) much at all the last few games. I wanted to play Mo. I liked the matchup. We needed some scoring with the second group. We needed a little shooting, so I went with Mo tonight.

"I was hoping to get David out there, but I wanted to stay smaller at the four and more versatile just with our switching game. And I think our defense was really good, so I stayed with a defensive lineup. Festus (Ezeli) did a nice job when he went out there. I wanted to get him on Tyson Chandler, so once I got Festus and Mo out there, its hard to keep going and play 13 guys."

A leg injury forced Lee to miss 24 of the team's first 25 games of the season. When he returned, he was out of a starting role. And recently, his playing time has dwindled as he fights to remain a key reserve for the Western Conference-best Warriors, logging a total of 26 minutes over Golden State's last four games.

Lee's per-36 minute numbers are strong and in line with his career marks, but a deep Warriors frontcourt has limited him to his least amount of playing time since his rookie season.