What Ty Jerome’s emergence in Warriors’ rotation means for his future

After finishing his workout Monday morning, Golden State Warriors guard Ty Jerome lingered courtside to watch Stephen Curry shuttle through rehab drills. For almost an hour, Jerome sat there, mesmerized by the ease with which Curry oscillated between moves.

“His pace was just ridiculous,” Jerome recalled. “ The guy is injured, and he’s going through a workout faster than game speed. Seeing that just reminds you what it takes to be great.”

Jerome might not be great by NBA standards, but he is establishing himself as a legitimate rotation player. Since Curry suffered a left-shoulder injury in the Warriors’ Dec. 14 loss at Indiana, Jerome has excelled off the bench, averaging 11.4 points on 57.9% shooting (58.3% from 3-point range), 3.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds in five games.

His three straight outings with double-digit points are just one shy of his career-high streak. Jerome is the Warriors’ only true point guard — a 6-foot-5 facilitator who stabilizes the offense, knocks down open shots and limits mistakes. If anyone still doubts whether he belongs in Steve Kerr’s lineup, they need only watch the Christmas Day win over Memphis.

Matched against Ja Morant, Jerome scored 10 of his 14 points in the third quarter, including eight during a 17-2 Warriors run. By the time the final buzzer sounded at Chase Center, he boasted a game-high plus-minus of plus-23 in 22 minutes.

The question now is not so much whether Jerome will continue to play, but rather whether he will have his two-way contract converted into a standard NBA deal. Two-way-contract players aren’t eligible for the playoffs. To use him this postseason, the Warriors would have to put Jerome on the 15-man roster.

Not long ago, such a notion might have infuriated fans who couldn’t understand why he at times has been ahead of lottery picks Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody in the rotation. Now, fresh off a statement game on the NBA’s showcase day, Jerome is becoming somewhat of a crowd favorite.

This comes as no surprise to those closest to him. In the half-decade since he became a full-time starter at Virginia, Jerome has thrived by setting screens, executing dribble-handoffs and playing hard on defense.

The prototypical coach’s son, he makes up for a modest vertical leap and wingspan with a high basketball IQ. Seldom is Jerome, 25, out of position defensively or slow to crash the offensive glass. When Kerr senses his read-and-react offense stagnating, he often subs in Jerome and watches the Warriors regain their flow.

“Just the way that he plays, he’s so calm,” Moody said. “He can’t get sped up. He just keeps that ball moving.”

This is a testament to the numerous hours Jerome studied video with his father, Mark, a high school coach in New York City. Theirs was a familiar story: A former point guard at Lafayette College in eastern Pennsylvania, Mark placed a rubber basketball in Ty’s crib, schooled him on the game’s nuances at an early age and demanded near-perfection.

Weekends were spent ping-ponging among boroughs on New York’s Amateur Athletic Union circuit. To toughen up his son, Mark drove him to pick-up runs at Rucker Park and shepherded him through rigorous early-morning workouts.

Navigating the coach-son dynamic proved tricky for Mark, who admits he was sometimes too hard on Ty. It didn’t help that Mark and Ty’s mother, Melanie Walker, divorced when Ty was in fifth grade. After playing AAU games for his dad in New York, Ty often would head to his mom’s house in suburban Westchester County.

“It was just emotional for me,” Mark said. “When he was staying with his mom, we couldn’t reconcile or really talk through things after games. I would say our relationship definitely got better when he stopped playing for me in ninth grade.”

Added Ty: “I think my dad probably has more regrets than I do, but we’re in a great place now. And the truth is, I wouldn’t be in the NBA without him.”

After leading Virginia to a national championship as a junior in 2019, Jerome declared for the NBA draft, in which the 76ers selected him 24th overall. Over the next two weeks, he landed on three different teams — a fitting introduction to the pros for someone who would become well-acquainted with the league’s fringes.

Jerome has been assigned to the G League five times, traded four times and waived once. The high point might have been the 2020-21 season, when he averaged 10.7 points on 44.6% shooting (42.3% from 3-point range), 3.6 assists and 2.8 rebounds for Oklahoma City, which finished 22-50.

Tired of being in a rebuilding situation with the Thunder, Jerome was pleased when he became a free agent in late September. Instead of trying to earn a guaranteed contract elsewhere, he signed a two-way deal with Golden State, where he could learn from Curry and resuscitate his market value.

In Jerome, Kerr saw a bit of his younger himself: a dedicated role player who just needed to find the right NBA fit. And it appears he finally has. Though Jerome hardly rivals Kuminga and Moody in upside, he provides the Warriors much-needed reliability in an up-and-down season.

Nothing better epitomizes why Kerr appreciates him than Monday morning. With family in town for Christmas, Jerome stayed at the practice facility to study Curry’s workout.

Mark was surely understanding.

“He just really loves the game, and he’s always trying to get better,” Mark said. “Honestly, that can trump athleticism sometimes.”

Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Con_Chron