Latest: Warriors’ Moses Moody out for Midwest Trip as a result of…..
Moses Moody will miss the Warriors’ entire four-game trip to the Midwest with a calf strain.
Moody was diagnosed with a mild calf strain (Grade 1) that he suffered mid-way through the fourth quarter, a huge blow for a Warriors team now down some guard depth with Chris Paul out at least three weeks.
“Huge loss,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s been playing really well since he got back into the rotation. Obviously with the injuries that we have it’s a big loss. Hopefully it’s not too long and he can come back shortly after the trip.”
Moody was bumped from the rotation for three games against the Dallas Mavericks, Orlando Magic and Denver Nuggets, but returned to the fold after Gary Payton II suffered a hamstring strain and Paul fractured his left hand, requiring surgery. Moody was a lone bright spot in the Warriors’ last two uncompetitive losses to the Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Pelicans, scoring 21 points in each shooting 57% from 3.
Now down a few players, the Warriors will call on Cory Joseph, Lester Quinones and Jerome Robinson off the bench to get some run. The Warriors begin the road trip against the Chicago Bulls on Friday with a back-to-back against the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, then head to Memphis to play the Grizzlies for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee and close the road trip against the Utah Jazz. Moody will be reevaluated in 10 days from Friday.
Steve Kerr will be honored in the Chicago Bulls’ inaugural Ring of Honor ceremony in the class of 2024 along with fellow members of the 1995-96 team that won the title, including Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Kerr’s mentor and coach Phil Jackson.
Kerr attended a dinner with his former teammates the night before Friday’s game. There will be a ceremony at halftime of Friday’s game.
“It was great to be here with our team and so great of the Bulls to put it together,” Kerr said. “I’m flattered that they put it together around our game.”
Further Reading:
Ex-Warriors Coach Rips Draymond Green for Sitting: ‘What Are We Doing Here?’
It has been nearly a week since Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green was reinstated after his NBA suspension, which spanned 12 games and was innovative in that it focused more on counseling and Green’s mental health than on being purely punitive. But since he has been back with the Warriors, something odd has happened: Green still has not played.
He is healthy. The Warriors are struggling. They had lost six of eight before knocking off the Bulls in Chicago on Friday. And Green was still not on the floor, despite having only undergone a suspension, not an injury.
On Sirius XM NBA Radio’s Starting Lineup, former NBA player Brian Scalabrine—who once coached Green on the Warriors staff in 2013-14—was not happy about it.
“They’re noncompetitive. They have no fight. And they don’t play any defense,” Scalabrine said, sarcastically referring to Green. “Now if only they had a competitive, fighting, Defensive Player of the Year sitting around here, they’d be fine. It’s unbelievable that he is not playing. … Even if he didn’t touch a basketball, he doesn’t shoot anyways. You’re telling me that he couldn’t just run the mountains and stuff like that? Get on the Peloton. Whatever you had to do.”
Draymond Green Missed Last 3 Games for Warriors
Green was last seen on an NBA court on December 12, when he took a swing at Suns center Jusuf Nurkic, a month after he had been suspended five games for putting Minnesota center Rudy Gobert into a chokehold. Green was suspended the next day by the NBA for an “indefinite” amount of time. During his time away, Green underwent counseling until he was deemed fit to return by the league.
Scalabrine’s co-host, longtime NBA reporter Frank Isola, agreed that Green should have kept himself in shape and should be playing.
“Why isn’t this guy who hurt his team by his actions in a game, did not keep himself ready to play?” Isola said. “And I don’t want to hear, I don’t care how much counseling he got, give me a break. He could have done counseling eight hours a day. He still could set aside an hour to train. It’s outrageous. And nobody makes a big deal of it. He’s already been suspended five games, he then was suspended 12. That’s 17.”
Reinstatement Came on January 7
Green’s reinstatement came on January 7, when the Warriors played—and lost to—the Raptors by 15 at home. They lost by 36 in their next game, against the Pelicans. That is what might be most troublesome about his absence. While Green is not injured, he has taken an extra three games off, and is getting paid for them. Meanwhile, the Warriors are struggling.
Golden State is 18-20 and would currently be out of both the playoffs and the play-in tournament. Green, who signed a four-year, $100 million contract in the offseason, has played just 15 games.
“The Warriors are in turmoil, all those people paid their money to go to the game and they watch a noncompetitive game while Draymond Green sits there on the sideline. … What are we doing here? What are we doing?” Scalabrine wondered.
Green, for his part, has vowed to change his approach—specifically, the violent “antics” for which he has come to be known.
“Antics isn’t something that got me here, and so when I look back on these situations it’s like, ‘Can you remove the antics?’ I’m very confident I can remove the antics,” Green said in meeting with the media this week, “and I’m very confident that if I do remove the antics, no one’s worried about how I play the game of basketball.”
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