The Warriors have confirmed in their latest injury report that Draymond Green has been ruled out of tonight’s matchup against the Heat at the Chase Center. Green suffered a right ankle sprain and was originally listed as probable for this game, but the veteran forward has now been scratched.
Steve Kerr later said that he expects Green to be available tomorrow night against the Raptors, as the Warriors have back-to-back games.
Green is coming off a solid performance against the Hornets. He had 20 points, six assists, and three rebounds while shooting 8-14 from the field (57.1%) and 4-8 from the three-point line (50.0%).
In good news for the team, Jimmy Butler has not been listed on their injury report after missing the last game due to personal reasons.
Al Horford, the 39-year-old Warriors veteran, will be available tonight, while De’Anthony Melton, Seth Curry, and Gui Santos remain out. This means that Horford will not be available tomorrow night for the Warriors as well, but Melton is expected to be back in action then.
The Warriors are currently on a three-game win streak and will look to extend that tonight as the Heat will also be shorthanded.
The Heat begin a five-game road trip tonight that will end with another back-to-back set of games on the weekend against the Jazz in Utah and the Suns in Phoenix.
Their star player, Tyler Herro, has been ruled out of their road trip due to a rib contusion, while Davion Mitchell and Jaime Jaquez Jr. remain probable to play tonight.
Draymond Green Defends Rich Paul; Says Warriors Tried To Push Him Out
Rich Paul recently claimed that his advice to Moses Moody was to push Draymond Green out of the Warriors franchise. While the media may have interpreted this differently, Green did not sweat about it.
He went on his podcast, ‘The Draymond Green Show,’ and admitted that for years, the Warriors had been finding ways to push him out. So he is not surprised that a player’s agent told his client to become so good that he becomes indispensable to them and eventually replaces Draymond Green on the starting lineup.
“The looking to push Draymond out is no shocker to me that Rich said that because Rich and I talked, and he told me that years ago, he’s saying that to Moses,” said Green initially.
“It’s not that Moses was going to become Draymond Green and push me out. What Rich is saying is that you become so valuable to a team that they can’t afford to keep Draymond. But you’re young, so they push him out. That’s what Rich was saying,” Green further explained.
“And by the way, for many, many, many years, I felt like the Warriors were trying to push me out,” Green added in an eye-opening revelation.
“And not that they were saying, ‘Hey, Draymond, we’re pushing you out. You need to leave.’ No, I don’t mean it that way. What I mean is, they drafted Eric Paschall, they drafted Kevon Looney, and they drafted Jordan Bell. They really drafted all of these guys to take my spot.”
“Loon obviously found his way. Jordan Bell had a good run, EP had a good run, but ultimately, my spot was never taken,” Green further added.
“But that’s what general managers are doing. They are drafting guys to take on the spot of the guys who are making the big money, so they can move off them, reset the cap. That’s just the job, right? And so I don’t make anything of that, but I definitely understood it,” concluded Green.
The Warriors are currently once again facing an identity crisis as their young core pieces are facing a lot of scrutiny and might be on the way out of the organization.
Their young core had ambitions of taking over the reins from Stephen Curry one day. But Curry sympathizes with them for facing a tremendous amount of pressure during the season.
Will Moody step up and live up to Paul’s expectations of him to replace Green on the roster? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
