Warriors fans don't worry. Reinforcements are on the way.
Despite the team's March Moraes, there's plenty of reason to be hopeful about Golden State's postseason bona fides, given the talent expected to return as soon as next week.
First on everyone's wish list is Draymond Green, the sparkplug centerpiece, which is targeting Monday's matchup with the Wizards for its return. If it did, he would miss 30 games and the Warriors got a bit tanky during his absence. Especially recently.
Drummond broadcast his intentions via the Volume platform on his debut podcast the other day, saying, "That's the date I'm targeting. I'm excited as hell."
So are we Drummonds. It has been kind of painful to see this team playing defense without you.
Steve Kerr refused to break the party hats, but he encouraged.
"It looks like this. We've known for the past few weeks that there was a general timetable around that date anyway, but now it's pointed out," Kerr said Tuesday night before the matchup with the Clippers. “We have seen him speed up the movement and improve his conditioning. He is feeling better every day. He'll scramble tomorrow and do some live work and hopefully the rest of the week is really good and he'll be back on that Monday. ,
Next on everyone's wish list will be James Wiseman, the sometimes promising, rarely providing youth center who has missed every game this season. As in all 65.
Wiseman had a decidedly inconsistent rookie campaign last year, especially for someone who was the No. 2 pick in the draft. He displayed flashes of brilliance, but often looked confused on defense and never fully understood Kerr's complex systems.
But, if we've learned anything over the past month or two, it's that warriors could use some shape. Teams standing on the center (Phoenix, Denver, etc.) feast on the Warriors' weak internal defense, especially with the green out.
Many fans expected Golden State to pick a bigger man on the trading deadline, but that's not their style. They rarely make the move mid-season, and they have to give up something precious, like everyone's favorite rookie this season, the high-flying Jonathan Kuminga. He also had the second best record in the league at that time.
So, Golden State checks his hand, hoping Wiseman will come back and give him some quality minutes in the paint. that remains to be seen. First he has to return to court.
The team released a statement Tuesday saying that the second-year pro, who had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, was "cleared to progress to the next phase of his rehabilitation. Wiseman's upcoming Santa Cruz." The Warriors will play a pair of games – Thursday at Stockton and Sunday at Chase Center against G League Ignite.
Those are usually the last steps before the player returns, so Drummond can have company next week.
"Well, he's been battling the team here for the past few weeks and the next logical step is live-action in the G League," Kerr said. "I don't know of any other option than to include him in my game and we feel like it makes a lot of sense for him to take some action and play a lot and get a lot of rhythm and conditioning," he said. . plays for us."
Expect Wiseman to work his way into rotation very slowly. And it's no guarantee that he'll be part of that rotation post season, when the bench becomes too small.
but you never know. Depending on who the Warriors draw in April, the opposing roster may force Kerr's hand. Wiseman has to prove himself in the last month of the season to earn time, but that's why he's coming back. It's time. It's time for the whole team to prepare for the playoffs.
This brings us to Andre Iguodala, who will be the icing on Golden State's roster. The beloved veteran, who made a place in the hearts of Warriors fans with his final MVP performance in 2015. (Can you believe this was seven years ago?)
Some fans might not even realize he's still on the roster. But he is. And he's also recovering, overcoming the back stiffness that has kept him in the training room for most of this season.
"Draymond and Andre are both doing well, and James is doing well," Kerr said. "It's our three most athletic players. In Drummond's case, our most important defensive player. In Andre's case, one of our best players overall. Both Draymond and Andre will be able to handle some point forward duties that Steph ( Curry) is used to handling him, and he can play the ball, and we can get back to our normal style of play. I'm looking forward to that."
Problems resolved? not so fast.
"But we can't just sit here thinking that this will solve everything," Kerr said. "We have a lot of things to clean up, and that's what we're working on right now."