Draymond Green’s troublesome back has been showing signs of steady improvement, an encouraging development for a Warriors team already resigned to having to play without their star for the foreseeable future.
Hours before Golden State played its fifth straight game without Green Tuesday night, general manager Bob Myers provided an optimistic update on Green’s recovery from a disc problem in his lower back.
“The good news is his strength is coming back,” Myers said during an interview on 95.7 The Game’s “Morning Roast with Bonta & Shasky.” “Each day it’s getting a little better and that’s the good news. It hasn’t plateaued. We just gotta let the process go the way it’s going.
“We talked to some specialists who said we’re doing the right things. The key is to not throw a guy out there that has this issue and it makes it worse.”
The Warriors had announced Sunday that MRIs on Green revealed what seemed to be a calf injury was actually related to a back injury. The team said it would provide an updated prognosis in two weeks to determine a time frame for Green’s eventual return.
Green’s injury was revealed 10 days ago — on the same day Klay Thompson made his long-awaited return from two devastating injuries. Green insisted on being on the floor during Thompson’s comeback game, so his brief, seven-second appearance at the opening tip took a little sting out of his injury news.
“Draymond was pretty emotional … he had realized that night that he wasn’t going to play, so he was pretty shook up,” Myers revealed.
Myers also offered an update on second-year center James Wiseman’s recovery from a minor surgical procedure on his already surgically repaired right knee last month. Myers said Wiseman is slowly stepping up his recovery and the team would have “a little more clarity in the next week or so” on a timeline for the 20-year-old’s return.
While the Warriors are still basking in Thompson’s return, the injuries to Green and Wiseman give Myers a cause for a bit of concern, especially since Golden State’s starting five — Klay, Green, Steph Curry, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney – has still never played together.
“I just keep coming back to wanting to see the whole team,” Myers said. “I don’t know how good this team can be. We have ideas on how it might fit. We’re optimistic with some of these guys, but we’ve gotta have some time before the playoffs to mesh a little bit. We just have to have that and we think we will, but that’s where the injuries get frustrating.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com