The Warriors‘ nightmare season continued on Friday night as mainstay Draymond Green suffered a sprained left index finger. Green’s hand was wrapped following the 127-110 loss to the Spurs as he revealed his immediate future is uncertain.
“I hurt my finger. Ligament action. But it is what it is. … I don’t know [about Saturday]; we’ll see,” Green said (via ESPN’s Nick Friedell) It’s pretty sore. I couldn’t grip the ball the whole entire [game], probably since the second quarter. Which is why I was making a lot of one-handed, right-handed passes and dribbling left with my right hand…”
While it remains to be seen how limited Green will be, losing another key part of their core has stymied the Warriors’ playoff aspirations. Golden State lost two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry for at least three months due to a broken left hand. Fellow All-Star Klay Thompson is expected to miss the entire 2019/20 campaign due to a torn ACL.
When Green signed a lucrative four-year extension with the Warriors earlier this summer, it was hard to envision a dreadful 1-4 start, even with Thompson’s absence and Kevin Durant‘s departure. However, now the focus may shift toward the future — head coach Steve Kerr has already indicated that Green’s playing time will be scaled back.
“The one thing we won’t do is run [Green] into the ground,” Kerr said. “We have to maintain a good schedule with Draymond minutes-wise and games-wise. If he’s banged up, we should make sure we take care of him.”
Green played 34 minutes on Friday night, and Kerr suggested he’d prefer not to have his star big man exceed that number, as Friedell relays.
“Not more than that,” Kerr said. “I definitely don’t want to drive him up to the 40-minute mark. That’s too much. We got a back-to-back; we play again tomorrow. We’ll just sort of take it game by game and see how he’s doing.”
Let the tanking begin!
He should go out and drop 30 a night, bring up his career averages but still lose every game. Maybe go after Kobes 81, Wilts 100.
He cant drop more than 6 points without being surrounded by 3 hall of famers and playing for 34 minutes.
I can’t remember the last time he scored anything close to 30.
Amazing fact if Green is out. In the last 7 games dating back to the finals GSW has lost 4 all stars to injuries. My guess is LeBron hired a voodoo priest to curse GSW.
Too bad this year’s draft class is weaker than last year’s … Lamelo Ball or James Wiseman aren’t as pretty as Williamson or Barrett
But the need a Center
“Hey Dray time to sit! You hit your minutes limit!”
“Come on, can’t have just *one* more [shrieks in pain as he holds out his index finger]”
Best thing for the long term health of the organization is to be terrible. Get a top 5 pick, move Russell for pick and/or cap relief and restart next season.
Do like the Lakers did last year and tank for half of the season.
They’re hard-capped so they can’t get cap relief in a Russell trade.
It’s a good thing the owner came and said they would never tank. Otherwise, someone might think this, and the announcements on Thompson and Curry, are a very aggressive form of it.
Have two words for you: Purvis Short