SAN FRANCISCO – When we last saw Draymond Green on the basketball court, the Warriors were in the Western Conference semifinals, and the 35-year-old forward was trying and failing to reach the level achieved years ago as the backbone of Golden State’s dynasty.

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle wouldn’t allow it. Three inches taller, 20 pounds heavier and five years younger than Green, Randle was feasting at the All the Buckets You Can Eat buffet. The place Draymond deemed “off limits” for most of his 13-year career.

“Ju played great the entire series,” Green conceded after the Timberwolves won Game 5 to advance to the conference finals, while the Warriors boarded a jet into the offseason.

“The way Julius has been playing since he came back from the injury … he’s been lights out,” Green added. “I have no doubt that he’ll continue to play that way. He’s aggressive as hell and he’s going to after it. He’s got the mindset, always have had that mindset. And it’s clicking for him.”

Was this some kind of conditional surrender? Or can Draymond, at this advanced NBA age, still represent the backbone of a stellar defense?

Don’t get it twisted. Green embraces the challenge that comes with the aging process. His quest is to prove he’s still elite and, moreover, quite capable of ruining opposing offenses. 

“I think, ironically, at 22, there was some things that my body couldn’t do that I can do now,” he said Monday. “Because it’s just all the work you put in and the things that you learn and the strengthening that you do. I think there’s a little give and take there. I’m always confident that I can win mentally. That’s what you rely more on, when you realize, ‘Oh, man, I can’t quite do that thing.’

“But if I’m honest with you, I don’t think I’ve reached a point to where my body can’t do it.”

To be sure, for all the fireworks provided by the likes of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant, Draymond’s unique gifts as a defender were essential to Golden State’s “Death Lineups” that once demoralized even the best of opponents. He was the NBA’s only 6-foot-6 “big man” capable of protecting the paint, patrolling baselines, clogging passing lanes, supervising the defense and running point on the break.

It’s unreasonable to assume Green can be as peripatetic as he once was six or seven years ago. He shouldn’t have to be. He is entering the winter of his career, with young teammates available to boost the team’s energy. A slimmer Trayce Jackson-Davis. The relentless Buddy Hield and Brandin Podziemski. And, it appears likely, Jonathan Kuminga. They all can feed any fire started by the first unit.

But no frontcourt player on the roster has a physical/mental/instinctive combination to match Green at his best. He knows that. For the Warriors to beat back ageism and make a serious run, he needs to be that.

“I feel great,” he said. “Am I the same person that I was at 27? No. And thank God I’m not. I’ve learned a lot since 27. There’s things that change, but if you decrease in one area, you’ve got to grow in another. That’s the constant challenge of what keeps you going and keeps you striving to do it again and again and again.”

Against Randle in May, Green, despite earning All-Defensive first-team honors, seemed too small and not quick enough to offset his physical disadvantage. Randle averaged 25.2 points per game, shooting 53.3 percent from the field, adding 7.4 assists and 6.6 rebounds. He scored a combined 60 points in Games 4 and 5.

Now, five months later, as the Warriors prepare for the 2025-26 season, Green is determined to prove he has recovered his mojo and has the goods to embellish his status as an elite defensive force. The nine-time All-Defensive team selection is chasing No. 10.

Only five players in NBA history have earned the honor at least 10 times: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Scottie Pippen.

“That’s my motivation,” Green said. “To go and try to make another All-Defensive team and join that list. It’s an amazing list. All first-ballot Hall of Famers. To try to put myself, my name, in the hat with those guys … that would be a dream come true.”

Thousands of fingers throughout Dub Nation are crossed in hopes Green, who turns 36 next March, can live that dream. His odds are long in a league that has more than a dozen candidates, including San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama, Oklahoma City’s Lu Dort and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley.

That dream might be required for the Warriors to reach the heights to which they aspire.

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