Photo by Eric Molina

Keith Smart, the Warriors’ top assistant, is publicly playing the part of timid understudy as the team awaits the full-time return of head coach Don Nelson from a bout with pneumonia.

What Smart is doing in the locker room and on the court, however, might be proving that he is ready for a leading role.

He is widely considered the heir apparent to Nelson, though no one confirmed that verbiage is in writing.

FanNation

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