Draymond Green is listed as questionable for Saturday’s game against the Orlando Magic with right elbow inflammation. The elbow is a new problem, separate from the back and thigh issues that have kept him out at other points this season.
Green comes into the game off an 11-assist night in Thursday’s 120-100 win over the Miami Heat, a game in which he took only three shots. If he is downgraded to out, Al Horford and Charles Bassey — the pairing this site argued should be starting at center anyway — would absorb the minutes at the five.
Green is not the only name on Golden State’s report for the Magic. Gary Payton II is questionable with right calf tightness and Gui Santos is questionable with a knee issue, while Jimmy Butler (right ACL surgery) and Moses Moody (left patellar tendon surgery) remain out.
A Thin Frontcourt Gets Thinner by the Week
Golden State is already without Butler and Moody for the long term, and Kristaps Porziņģis announced Friday that he is stepping away from basketball, which removes the roster’s nominal starting center from the picture entirely.
That leaves Horford and Bassey as the whole of the fallback plan. A Green absence would ask those two to cover the five on a night they are already covering for Butler and Moody, stacking absences onto a short bench.
This is less a single injury story than a depth test the Warriors have been running for several straight games.
Three Questionable Tags Will Not Resolve Until Saturday Afternoon
Green, Payton and Santos are all day-to-day designations, which in practice means their status firms up at Saturday’s shootaround or later. Orlando tips at 5:30 p.m. Pacific.
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