Graham Ike is out of the Warriors’ daily orbit. On Wednesday, the team said Kristaps Porziņģis will not be around them for the immediate future as he deals with an undisclosed health matter.
Steve Kerr said he had not seen the 31-year-old and had stayed in touch by text and a phone call. “I don’t know,” Kerr said when asked ahead of the Warriors’ season opener on the road against the Lakers what had changed.
That update reverses the expectation the Warriors set last Wednesday, when they said Porziņģis would spend time with staff and teammates in some capacity while still out indefinitely. Last Wednesday, he also posted that he was working with doctors and experts to figure out how to be fully back to good health asap.
Warriors and Kristaps
The shift lands on a player whose season was already interrupted. Porziņģis did not travel with the team to Hawaii for training camp, and he missed time in March with a medical issue and illness.
Golden State also knows how limited his recent run has been. He joined the Warriors at the February trade deadline from Atlanta in a swap that sent Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga to the Hawks, then played just 15 games with 11 starts after arriving.
Across the Hawks and Warriors last season, Porziņģis played 32 games and averaged 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 blocks. He later reached a two-year, $40 million contract in late June, but the latest step keeps his immediate role away from the team’s day-to-day setting.
Mike Dunleavy and Rick Celebrini
On October 13, Porziņģis came to Chase Center for meetings with Mike Dunleavy and Rick Celebrini. The Warriors then said they are not anticipating him being around the team in the immediate future and will provide additional updates when available and appropriate.
Kerr offered little beyond that. “I haven’t seen him and we’ve stayed in touch via text and a phone call,” he said. “But we put out the statement today and there’s not much more to it. We don’t really know.”
For now, the change is simple: the Warriors had planned for Porziņģis to remain connected while sidelined, and that plan has narrowed. His health situation stays private, and so does the timeline for when he might again be around the club.
Wednesday at Chase Center
Wednesday’s announcement leaves the club managing a veteran center whose availability had already been unstable. The next public step will come when the Warriors decide the health update is ready to share.
