SAN FRANCISCO — Kristaps Porzingis is dealing with a “health issue” and won’t participate in Golden State Warriors training camp that starts Tuesday in Hawaii.
General manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. dropped the unfortunately unsurprising news Monday morning at the team’s media day. He said that the 7-foot-4 center would be out “indefinitely” and would not board their flight Monday afternoon to Hawaii but couldn’t share more details.
“I’m not marking him down as being out to start the season or anything like that,” Dunleavy said. “He’s just not available this week. … Disappointed that he won’t be out there tomorrow, but it’s early, so don’t want
to overreact to anything.”
Porzingis was limited to only 15 games last season after the Warriors acquired him from the Atlanta Hawks but ended the season healthy in Golden State’s play-in loss. He averaged 16.1 points and 5.3 rebounds in 23.7 minutes per contest, providing an interesting combination with Steph Curry.
Dunelavy said that Porzingis was in the building, cleared medically and working out on the court as recently as last week. He said that he wasn’t informed of Porzingis’ issue until Sunday.
Availability has been an ongoing issue for the 31-year-old Latvian. He was diagnosed with a rare nervous system condition called POTS that has kept him off the court for stretches the past two seasons, though Dunleavy could not say if that’s what was bothering him now.
The Warriors have two other significant pieces recovering from injuries in Jimmy Butler III (Achilles surgery) and Moses Moody (patellar tendon surgery). Both players have progressed to light on-court activities and will join the team for training camp, the Warriors said.
