A Thursday ESPN report says Draymond Green will return to the Warriors “in the coming days,” which would sure help a Warriors team with a losing record just two weeks shy of the mid-season point.
Your Golden State Warriors just happen to be playing in tonight’s Thursday night NBA on TNT national TV feature game (7 p.m. PT). And the Warriors’ current disappointing 16-17 losing record could get notched up to .500 with a win, but manage your expectations, as they’ll be playing Nikola Jokić and the defending world champion Denver Nuggets (that said, the game is at the Chase Center.)
It would certainly help the Warriors, who’ve lost three of their last four games, to have suspended power forward Draymond Green back in the lineup. Green’s currently on an indefinite suspension for punching an opponent on December 12, which comes on the heels of chokeholding an opponent on November 14, and of course, punching the daylights out a teammate last season. So where do things stand with Draymond, who has now been suspended for the last 11 games?
Golden State’s Draymond Green — on an indefinite league suspension since Dec. 13 — is expected to return to the Warriors’ facility in the coming days to start ramping up to resume play again, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 4, 2024
ESPN’s highly reliable Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news this morning that Green is “expected to return to the Warriors’ facility in the coming days to start ramping up to resume play again.” Though in a longer follow-up article to that tweet, Wojnarowski clarifies that’s just a return to practice — not live games — and the final say does not belong to Green or the Warriors.
Bob Myers says there is a void without Draymond Green, but there will be unavoidable difficulty when he returns
— KNBR (@KNBR) January 4, 2024
"When he comes back, when that is, they've got to figure it out again. And it's just exhausting." pic.twitter.com/FAU2hwXG5n
“NBA commissioner Adam Silver has the final say on the reinstatement timeline,” Wojnarowski writes. “But it's believed that Green will have satisfied the league's (counseling) requirements to return once he is deemed properly ramped up to play.”
Draymond Green in his first game back from suspension: pic.twitter.com/WyRSUEO2Kb
— kyla (@kylaer_) January 4, 2024
As the Western Conference Standings stand now, the Warriors would not make the playoffs. But we’re still not even at mid-season, which for the Warriors, would be January 17 (at Utah). And then there’s the trade deadline three weeks later, where the struggling Warriors would surely be looking for help. The blogosphere, for what it’s worth, has floated possible Warriors targets like Bojan Bogdanović (Pistons) and Pascal Siakam (Raptors).
But you have to give something up to get something. And the blogosphere has also floated a once-unthinkable name in a Warriors trade: Draymond Green.
Related: Saturday Night Live’s ‘Weekend Update’ Razzes Draymond Green Over His Headlock Suspension [SFist]
Image: PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 12: Draymond Green #23 of the Golden State Warriors reacts during the second half of the NBA game against the Phoenix Suns at Footprint Center on December 12, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns defeated the Warriors 119-116. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
