Golden State Warriors Injury Report (Oct. 23): Latest on Brandin Podziemski and Andrew Wiggins' status
The Golden State Warriors will take on the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center on Wednesday (Oct. 23). The good news for the Bay area side will be the availability of their key pieces ahead of the matchup. Earlier, the Warriors were sweating about Brandin Podziemski and Andrew Wiggins' fitness for the matchup, but injury reports showed that the side will field a full-strength squad.
Per ESPN's injury report, there were no names on the Warriors' injury report, suggesting that both Podziemski and Wiggins are expected to play. The guard earlier suffered a broken nose during their preseason skirmish against the Detroit Pistons. He later played with a face mask in their final tune-up game against the LA Lakers. Wiggins missed four preseason games for Golden State with an illness. He did play their final practice skirmish against LA.
"You lose it fast": Andrew Wiggins on how his illness dented his conditioning ahead of Warriors' regular season
Speaking to reporters ahead of the preseason game against the Lakers, Andrew Wiggins was asked about the illness, and the wing shed light on how falling sick was a setback. He said:
"It was tough, you lose it fast. I've been working hard, doing a lot of extra stuff to get my conditioning back, so I'm excited for tonight. I'll know tonight once I get going... It felt really good, it felt like I had a really good summer of work."
Before coming down with his illness, Wiggins' frame and shape were one of the talking points going into training camp. After a dismal 2023-24 season that saw him average a career-low 13.2 points on 45.3% shooting from the field, the explosive F/G was keen to showcase his performance but was ruled out of the four games.
Earlier this season, ]coach Steve Kerr had outlined his plans for Wiggins. He had instructed his player to shoot a minimum of six 3s per contest. The Golden State Warriors will need a secondary scorer from the deep after Buddy Hield, and if Wiggins hits his stride early on in the season, the Dubs can be a lethal offensive unit despite losing Klay Thompson in the offseason.
The Golden State Warriors will look to get off to a solid start this season, and if Wiggins manages to stay healthy and contribute on both ends of the floor as expected of him, the West side could easily land a playoff spot.