SAN FRANCISCO – Kristaps Porzingis’ mysterious condition has now kept him away from the team for almost two weeks.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr had no update on the center who the Warriors gave a two-year contract extension to this offseason but was not available for training camp in Hawaii and did not sit on the bench during the Warriors’ preseason game against the Lakers on Tuesday.
General manager Mike Dunleavy described Porzingis’ ailment as a “health issue” at media day last week.
“We’d love to get him back, and we’re supporting him and helping him with everything, and we’ll see where it all goes,” Kerr said. “It’s definitely concerning, and as I said earlier, all we’re going to do is support him and give him every bit of medical help we can, and emotional support, and hope he’s back soon.”
Kerr said he was not sure if Porzingis was in the Bay Area, but that he thought “he’ll be around” during the preseason.
“I haven’t seen him yet, but we also didn’t have practice yesterday, and I just got here a little while ago,” Kerr said.
Porzingis has battled what he described as Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) for at least the past two years. Neither Dunleavy nor Kerr has stated whether Porzingis’ current health issue is related to that illness.
The center played in only 15 games after being traded for at the deadline this February. He is expected to be a big part of the team’s rotation this season in the Warriors’ new five-out offense that figures to be very 3-point heavy.
Porzingis shot just 31.1% from behind the arc last season, but is a career 36.4% shooter from 3-point land. He has not played in more than 70 games in a season since his rookie year of 2015-16, and averages 53 games played per season for his career.
The Warriors’ current center rotation consists of Al Horford, Charles Bassey and Graham Ike.