After reportedly testing positive for COVID-19, Draymond Green and James Wiseman missed the start of the Golden State Warriors preseason training camp in the Bay Area.
Over the last week, Green and Wiseman made their highly-anticipated return to group practice sessions at Chase Center in San Francisco. Despite competing in a team scrimmage on Wednesday, Steve Kerr won’t play the frontcourt duo in Golden State’s preseason finale against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday.
In a post-practice press conference with members of the media, Kerr said Wiseman and Green will get a “good run” after tomorrow’s shootaround, but won’t play against Golden State’s Northern California rival.
They’re [ Wiseman and Green] not going to play tomorrow. It doesn’t make sense. They’re going to get a really good run in tomorrow after shootaround, but it would be irresponsible for us to throw either guy into a game right now. They’ll get a good workload tomorrow — we will have a light day on Friday. Then we’re going to do a full scrimmage on Saturday with the whole team – kind of a tune-up scrimmage and they will both be involved in that.
Listen to Kerr’s full post-practice scrimmage from Wednesday via Warriors Sound Cloud.
After missing the entire preseason, the soonest Golden State’s No. 2 overall selection from the 2020 NBA draft could make his debut would be the regular-season opener against Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 22.
Without Green and Wiseman in the preseason, Kevon Looney got the nod in the starting lineup. Eric Paschall started alongside Looney in the frontcourt in the preseason opener against the Nuggets. However, Paschall was ruled out against the Kings on Tuesday with knee soreness. Instead, Bay Area native Juan Toscano-Anderson was called on to start.
The Warriors tipoff in Sacramento for their second consecutive preseason contest on Thursday at 6 p.m. PST.