Draymond Green's knee issue lingers, return to Warriors remains unknown

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OAKLAND -- It’s Day 10 of the Draymond Green Watch, and the timeline for his return to the Warriors remains undetermined.

The tentative plan, announced Sunday, that was that Green would practice Tuesday and then play limited minutes Wednesday night against the Lakers in Las Vegas. That was postponed and now applies to Thursday and Friday.

“We’re going to be cautious,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s still improving, but we feel more comfortable giving him one more day. And then we’ve got six days until the opener.

“The plan is to start practice (Thursday) and play him on Friday, and he’ll be ready for the opener.”

The plan, then, is for Green to play limited minutes in the preseason finale, also against the Lakers but at SAP Center in San Jose.

Opening night is Oct. 16, and that’s when the Warriors really want Green on the floor. His achy left knee has caused him to miss valuable conditioning time as well as in-game coordination with the team’s trio of young centers.

Because Green is a veteran, he’ll be fine once he returns. But things could get choppy when he’s out there with, say, Damian Jones, who has started at center in all three preseason games and still is feeling his way. Green has not played since the preseason opener on Sept. 29.

Meanwhile, the Warriors are moving into the regular-season phase.

“These last two games will be more dress “rehearsalish,” if that’s a phrase,” Kerr said. “We haven’t really done much personnel scouting-report stuff. We’ve been more concerned with what we’re doing. The next two games will be more of our normal game-day routine, with scouting reports and matchups and tendencies.”

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