The Warriors announced on Sunday that defensive stalwart Draymond Green would miss at least two weeks of action due to lingering calf and back injuries. Coach Steve Kerr said they’re playing it safe with Green’s injury issues at this stage of the season, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets.
“The main thing is to be safe and cautious,” Kerr said. “It’s a long season. That’s my sense. That we’re being cautious.”
With Green out, lottery pick Jonathan Kuminga will get expanded playing time. Kuminga irritated the staff with a disinterested performance in a G League game last week but the Warriors won’t hold that against him, according to Slater.
“He didn’t run the floor hard. It was disappointing,” Kerr said. “We talked to him about it. He understood and responded well. This is all part of the process for JK. There’s a lot to absorb and learn.”
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- Stephen Curry left the Warriors’ road trip early but it shouldn’t be an area of concern, according to Slater (Twitter link). Curry has a hand injury that the club believes is minor. He could play against Detroit on Tuesday.
- The Lakers have dropped below the .500 mark by losing their last three games, including a 37-point thumping by Denver. LeBron James went on social media and pledged to fans the team will get untracked soon. “Lakers Nation I apologize and promise we’ll be better,” James proclaimed on his Twitter feed.
- The decision to start Dwight Howard against the Nuggets shows the Lakers can only go so far with small ball lineups, Kyle Goon of the Orange Country Register writes. Coach Frank Vogel doesn’t want James banging against top-level centers such as Nikola Jokic. Howard will still have a role off the bench when Anthony Davis returns, Goon adds.
Warriors management left the Roster unprepared for an injury to Draymond or Looney.
They knew in advance that James Wiseman would miss most of the First half of the season after Knee surgery, but still chose to Sign a Stretch-4 to play behind Looney.
Now, they have to increase the Minutes they are asking Nemanja Bjelica to play at Center, with expected awful results. He is NOT a Center, not a defender or rim protector.
As such, we have been Losing games in the “non-Looney” center Minutes. We went from giving up 100 points a game to 120.
What happens if Looney gets Injured now before Draymond and Wiseman return?
Time to consider bringing in outside help.
lmao they are like 30-12. they will be fine
Don’t settle for Regular season success, let’s focus on Playoff matchups.
Our recent Losses have come against the teams that have Jokic, Embiid, Giannis, and Towns.
Our 2019 Finals loss against the Raptors can be partly attributed to Kerr starting Jordan Bell and Looney against Gasol, Ibaka, and Siakam.
We’re heading down a similar path of being under-sized and out-classed at the Center spot again in this year’s Playoffs.
Dude the finals loss had to do with Mckinny getting like 28 min along with Jerebko. It was so short handed Loon was playing with a broken collar bone. The entire roster behind the starting 5 Iggy and a healthy Boogie was sooooooo bad.
There no one in the league they can bring in that can guard Giannis, Embiid and Jokic let alone an unsigned free agent or G-Leaguer.
I wish they would use their 2 way player as a big man for depth. Also get a better PG back up in case of injury to Curry. Chiozza is a waste at PG. they need somebody to run the team when Curry is out.
Yes everything you say is true but the Warriors don’t care.
Draymond Green is the backup center and when he’s on the floor they’re at their best. If for some reason green went down with a serious injury they would think about a big man or two. Until then they don’t care about anything you’ve written above.
With Draymond in the lineup they’re the best defensive team in the NBA statistically.
To be fair Wiseman looked to be ahead of Klay on the original timeline. The problem is that you cant image a meniscus to see if it has healed since it will always looked messed up going forward. He then has swelling in it while training in Nov and surgery to clean it up and correct in Dec. None of that was on the plan. Also I think they had more confidence in JTA and Belli at the 5.
Wise has had setbacks, but once he gets the full go ahead he can ramp up fast. Its pretty similar to JJJ but his is a little more delayed. At least he has been able to do drills the last several months to work on his skills, and is now cleared as of a couple weeks ago for contact training 1-1 big man drills and 3-3.
Sounds like a smart GSW-fan argument.
In honor of that, and protected on the other end by Silli’s musings, I will add, about the article, that
While Americans are ready to accept that European whites are more conceited than Amer.whites, how about accepting that African blacks are more conceited than Amer.blacks… to an extent that always seem to surprise anticipations! Sending an African to the GLeague… ha. How is he going to mail home about that.
Conceit causes slow learning… Kerr & company are smart to insist on getting a learning mode from him before he gets too old. Bas.Ref. says GSW has him 66% a 4, 15% a 5… Even if he’s to be a 3 eventually, this could still be the allocation now. “You want to be allstar?— pay attention and fill for Looney until you can run it Kerr’s way”.
Untracked?
Kuminga will easily become one of the top 10 players in the nba in 2026
Lakers have a chance to sign Doncic, Morant and Kuminga by 2030
Sign all 3
Almost all the experts think they won’t use their mid-level exception, but in theory the Warriors can pick up another big man or a defender sometime mid-year at the mid season roster cuts (bad contracts). But the $5.3 million exception I think counts almost $15 million against the cap.
Not against the cap, but in luxury cap penalties.