The Golden State Warriors must begin their preseason preparations without Draymond Green and Cory Joseph. According to ESPN’s Kendra Andrews, Green has been ruled out with a left lateral ankle sprain and will be re-evaluated in two weeks. Joseph has a lower back sprain and will be out for at least a fortnight.
Green’s injury occurred during a recent workout when he landed on Jonathan Kuminga‘s foot. Green will now miss all of training camp and likely be forced to sit out the entire preseason schedule, too. However, with re-evaluation scheduled for two weeks, there may be some hope the veteran forward is available for opening night against the Phoenix Suns.
Buy Warriors TicketsDraymond Green has been diagnosed with with a left lateral ankle sprain, the Warriors say. He will be re-evaluated in two weeks.
Cory Joseph has a lower back Lombard strain, will also be re-evaluated in two weeks.
— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) October 2, 2023
In truth, Green will likely require more than two weeks of recovery time. Sprained ankles can be pesky injuries that take longer than expected to heal. When speaking to Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Green revealed how he believes he was fortunate to only have suffered a sprain, as the injury could have been far worse.
“I dodged a bullet and learned that today by the way it’s (positively) reacting. Even with an MRI you don’t see the trend of it immediately. The swelling is down.”
“I dodged a bullet and learned that today by the way it's (positively) reacting. Even with an MRI you don't see the trend of it immediately. The swelling is down,” Warriors forward @Money23Green tells @andscape about his sprained left ankle he expects to keep him out 4-6 weeks.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) September 30, 2023
Green, 33, recently signed a four-year $100 million extension with the Warriors and is expected to continue playing a significant role for the franchise in the upcoming season. As such, we can likely expect Steve Kerr to take a cautious approach when ramping Green back up to full-time rotation minutes.
After all, the season is a marathon, not a sprint, and having Green at full strength heading into the playoffs is more important than rushing him back to begin the season.
