SAN FRANCISCO — Draymond Green will be out for the Warriors’ season opener against the Phoenix Suns, coach Steve Kerr announced on Monday.
Green has missed all five preseason games and most of training recovering from a left ankle sprain he injured the week before training camp began. The 33-year-old has been practicing with the team and doing 5-on-5 scrimmages since Sunday, but isn’t in game-playing condition.
“We don’t feel like it would be wise to throw him out there with so little scrimmage time on the floor,” Kerr said.
This is the second Opening Night Green will miss in his 12-year career and first since the 2020-21 season when he sat out against Kevin Durant’s Brooklyn Nets with foot soreness.
The Warriors looked incomplete, particularly on defense, without Green in the mix along with a new-look roster. Kerr tempered expectations about how the Warriors might look to start the season with Chris Paul and a new bench featuring Dario Saric and Cory Joseph.
“I have a clear vision of our team this year and it will not be on display tomorrow night because we aren’t where we need to be,” Kerr said. “But I think the clarity we have as a coaching staff, we can see where this team is going. That’s a great sign. You get bumps in the road, hopefully we don’t have too many but one was Draymond’s injury before camp. We have to ease in, we put in a ton of stuff on both ends of the floor. We have to whittle that down to get players comfortable. It’s a long way of saying we’re going to be way better in a month or two.”