Kristaps Porzingis has been away from the Warriors for the past two weeks due to an undisclosed health issue, but the Latvian big man will be at Chase Center on Tuesday while the team is in Las Vegas to face the Lakers for another preseason game, writes Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area.
“Yeah, he’ll be here tomorrow,” head coach Steve Kerr said after Monday’s practice. “No update beyond that. But he’ll be in the building meeting with Rick [Celebrini] and the performance staff.”
Kerr said he isn’t sure whether or not Porzingis will be available for the regular season opener against the Lakers on October 21.
“All that will be determined once we get him back here and have discussions and figure out where he is with all that stuff,” Kerr said.
Although Porzingis hasn’t been around the team the past couple weeks, he has been in regular communication with the front office and Celebrini, Golden State’s director of sports medicine and performance, per Anthony Slater of ESPN.
Danny Emerman of The San Francisco Standard recently wrote that the Warriors have said they aren’t sure where Porzingis has been the past two weeks, and they also don’t know the exact nature of his health issue.
Porzingis has been impacted during the past two seasons by postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), but there has been no confirmation one way or the other about whether the health issue currently sidelining him is related to that diagnosis.
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Kerr initially thought he was going to start Al Horford in center in Porzingis’ absence. However, Gui Santos has joined Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Yaxel Lendeborg and Draymond Green in the starting five for the past two preseason games, and the Warriors’ coach indicated Monday he’s “leaning toward” utilizing that same starting group for the regular season. “Al could be in there, but given just where he is minutes-wise per game … if a guy’s going to play 20, which is probably about the limit or where we’d like him to average, it’s just a lot easier to bring him off the bench,” Kerr said, per Johnson. “I also like the idea of having Draymond or Al on the court as often as possible to anchor our defense. So yeah, I’m leaning that way.”
As Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area writes, Kerr talked late last week about some of Golden State’s options in the middle with Porzingis out — at least for now — indefinitely. He also discussed the reasoning behind the frontcourt trio of Santos, Lendeborg and Green, though the team prefers not to use Green at center. “With the fact that we have Yaxel now, you’d get a 6-10 guy next to (Green),” Kerr said. “If we go that route, it makes it a little more palatable. And if we pair them with Gui (6-foot-8), now all of a sudden, you got three good-sized guys at their positions, and it doesn’t feel as small as in the past couple years. But it’s not ideal.”
In an interview with Bonta Hill and Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area (YouTube link), Curry says he and the team are “embracing” the fact that people are doubting them this season.
Governor Joe Lacob recently spoke to Ron Kroichick of The San Francisco Chronicle about Curry’s new two-year extension, the potential to create cap room next summer, the team’s offseason moves, Jimmy Butler, Kerr, and Lendeborg. Regarding Curry’s extension, Lacob said the following: “We were going to take care of him and make sure he stays, no matter what. Fortunately, we were able to convince him if he wanted to help out … he saw the benefit of that. And we’re very appreciative, obviously. If he would take even less, we’d be happier (smiling). But we appreciate what he’s done. Most players don’t ever take less, and he didn’t have to — if he had demanded to take all of it, we’d have paid it. He deserves it. … The most important thing is he stays a Warrior for life, because he’s so important to this franchise.”