Draymond Green Proving Size Doesn’t Matter
There’s two things you can’t teach in basketball.
The first is height.
Standing at just 6-feet-7-inches and coming in at roughly 230 lbs., Draymond Green is what is known as an “in-betweener,” or “tweener” for short (no pun intended).
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Coming out of Michigan State, he was known to be a versatile player — a jack-of-all-trades, if you will — capable of handling the responsibilities of guard, wing and big man due to his relatively good ball handling, superior court vision and tenacious rebounding ability.
It’s thanks to a high basketball IQ tempered over years and years of playing basketball since early youth that Green was able to develop such a well rounded game; that, and a passion for basketball that even some of the historically elite players that many fans still idolize were unable to experience throughout their primes.
Yet despite being considered one of college basketball’s most elite players by the time he was a senior, it was partly due to the fact that Green was unable to fit into any of the prototypical NBA positions that allowed the Golden State Warriors to steal him at the 35th overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
What the scouts had seen was a player with the height of a small forward and the strengths of a power forward, a player that lacked the explosiveness, athleticism and shooting ability so greatly appreciated at the wing position and the height normally deemed necessary to guard opposing bigs.
But if there’s one other thing you can’t teach in basketball, it’s heart.
Whatever Draymond Green lacked in height, he made up for it with a strong mental state, a tireless work ethic and an extremely contagious and likable personality.
It’s through his passionate outbursts on the court and his ride-or-die mentality off of it that emotionally helps give his team — and their fans — the push needed to fight through whatever adversity, whatever obstacle that may be in their way on the road to a NBA title.
And on the eve of a such a critical offseason for Golden State, such a conversation becomes that much more important with Green going into restricted free agency and the Warriors looking at limited options to avoid venturing into luxury tax territory.
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The main question: Is Draymond Green a max contract NBA player? The traditional numbers would say no.
Averaging 11.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists in addition to 1.6 steals and 1.4 blocks, Green appears to be a swiss army knife but by no means a standout elite player. His usefulness as a stretch-four also seems to work against him, as he’s currently shooting just 33.3 percent from behind the arc this season and 43.6 percent from the field.
But what makes Green so invaluable is his toughness, especially on the defensive end. He’s known as a defensive stopper capable of guarding multiple positions (as supported by a defensive rating of 95.4, good for second among NBA forwards that have played 40+ games this season), but defensive specialists normally (think in terms of Andre Iguodala) don’t get max contracts (e.g. Trevor Ariza, Tony Allen).
Moving further into advanced statistics and analytics (sorry Chuck), we take a page out of ESPN’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss‘ book and look at Real Plus-Minus — a stat that theoretically measures Green by how well his team does while he’s playing on the floor:
Draymond Green Real Plus-Minus (per ESPN)
While such a measure may be skewed due to Golden State having the best record in the league (what Strauss calls possibly being a “bizarre byproduct” of the Warriors winning so much), it’s still amazing to find that Green is in fact 11th among all NBA players in RPM, second among wings behind LeBron James [despite Green starting at power forward].
Green could also fall under the category of “situational superstars” as SB Nation’s Tom Ziller put it — a player seen as elite or worth a max contract due to the plethora of talent surrounding him and team’s strategy (e.g. Shawn Marion in Phoenix).
But nevertheless, the one thing that everyone can agree on is that no one expected Green to be THIS good, a player that some believe to be in the conversation for Most Improved Player and Defensive Player of the Year.
So while he may lack the height of a prototypical power forward, it’s Green’s intangibles that has served as one of the central driving forces behind the Warriors’ historically significant season.
He may not be a max contract power forward. He may not be an All-Star small forward. He may never be recognized as an elite player at any position.
But if there’s one thing that Draymond Green appears to be proud of, it’s being The Heartbeat of the Golden State Warriors.
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