Despite being one of the Warriors’ best and most important players, NBA star Draymond Green is not with the rest of his teammates ahead of the 2022-23 season.
Instead, he is spending some time away from the club with his family as he reassesses his recent conduct and behavior.
On ‘NBA Today’ Monday evening, NBA Insider Ramona Shelburne dropped some details on when we can expect Draymond to return from his unplanned hiatus.
“He is with his family right now. This is not expected to be a long absence from the team,” Shelburne said on Monday. “But in terms of clarity, there’s no reason to believe he’s going to miss any time in the regular season. … So, the sense is that he will be back for the regular season, but there’s a lot of things that need to happen.”
[Draymond Green] is with his family right now. This is not expected to be a long absence from the team. In terms of clarity, there's no reason to believe he's going to miss any time in the regular season."
🗣️ @ramonashelburnepic.twitter.com/bbyaA7cogB
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 10, 2022
The incident started last week when reporters circulated of an incident between Draymond and Jordan Poole during a Warriors practice. After the release of the video, which showed Dray clearly connecting on a punch to Poole, Draymond was ambushed by fans and experts who called him out for his actions.
Now, Dray’s entire future is at stake as the Warriors attempt to do some damage control in their locker room.
“That’s my hope, that’s my belief,” Wsaid Warriors GM Bob Myers on if he sees Draymond Green staying with the team long-term. “I’ll do everything I can to try to make that happen. He is so important to what I believe is our past, our present and our future. The weight of a leader in Steph, the best player always carries this load. They’re the ones that are up at the podium, they’re the ones having to answer the questions, they’re the ones kind of regulating the temperature of the team. Draymond offloads so much of that for Steph. Steph doesn’t ask him to, but Draymond is also a guy that can speak on behalf of the team. A lot of teams, their best player is the only one. So Draymond has this equal status, at least publicly, and privately, he’s the loudest voice internally and Steph doesn’t mind that. He doesn’t feel like he’s getting his voice taken away.”
Obviously, nobody knows for sure how this saga will play out. While the Warriors would like to keep Draymond for the long term, they might have to reconsider their position if it makes Jordan Poole unhappy in any way.
For now, though, Dray is focused on figuring out how to make it all better when he re-joins his team later this month.
