With Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porziņģis unexpectedly taking a step back from basketball due to health issues, Warriors veteran Draymond Green says that the team is not lingering on his exit.
When speaking to The Athletic’s Sam Amick on Friday, Green said that the team has never had a “culture” of blame and bickering, but then spoke about willfully moving forward from Porziņģis regardless of how helpful he would’ve been on the court.
“No one’s sitting around bashing this guy or even worried about him, for that matter. In our minds, we’ve moved forward with the players that we have here,” Green told The Athletic. “We know what type of player he is. But I don’t think anyone in here is sitting around waiting on him to walk through that door. Everybody’s moved on in their mindset.”
Green told The Athletic that Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy told the team about the ongoing Porzingis situation ahead of the team’s season opener against the Los Angeles Lakers. They then addressed the situation again last week, with Green saying that the team told players that they were “moving forward.”
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Green repeated that the Warriors are focusing on the chances for players to step up, with the veteran mentioning journeyman center Charles Bassey and undrafted rookie Graham Ike as players with something to prove.
“Like I said, everybody’s moved on. It’s a next man up mentality, right?” Green told The Athletic. “You embrace those guys, and you pour into those guys, to try to help them with all that they can be helped with so that they could ultimately help this team. But you can’t sit and worry about spoiled milk.”
Porziņģis, who joined the Warriors after being traded in February, has yet to play for Golden State this season while dealing with a health issue. The 31-year-old Latvian center signed a two-year, $40 million contract this summer to return to the Warriors, but has reportedly not been paid that salary while he is away from the team.
Though neither Porziņģis or the Warriors have clarified what health problems the center has been dealing with, Porziņģis has a history with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a chronic condition that can affect the nervous system.
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Without Porziņģis, Golden State is relying on Al Horford as a backup center behind Green, along with Bassey and Ike to fill out the depth.
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