Dissecting Warriors' Draymond Green's eye-opening Steve Kerr hindrance comments - NBA

Dissecting Warriors’ Draymond Green’s eye-opening Steve Kerr hindrance comments originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

What to Know

Specifically, Green was talking about the offensive side of his game.

Even when they’re not part of the action, the Warriors still know how to find their way into the spotlight.

Nearly two weeks have passed since the Warriors’ season ended in the NBA play-in tournament with a 15-point loss to the Phoenix Suns after a thrilling win over the LA Clippers. Only two playoff series have been decided so far. The other six have made it to six games.

There’s plenty to talk about in the basketball world that doesn’t involve the Warriors. As far as the brand goes, the Warriors still sit at the main table. The latest talking point for whichever meal you’re having right now is Draymond Green’s comments on his own podcast that a part of him thinks Steve Kerr has “hindered” him in his career and “what he could have become.”

Well, what he has become under Kerr is a four-time champion, nine-time All-Defensive selection, four-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA selection and one-time Defensive Player of the Year. To be clear, those are Green’s accomplishments. Kerr wasn’t the one on the court, and he’ll never pretend to be.

He did have a hand in Green’s eventual Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction. Draymond knows that, too. What he said didn’t dispute it. Specifically, Green was talking about the offensive side of his game.

“When I think of who I was offensively as a player and who I became, I think a part of that is due to him,” Green said. “I don’t hold that against him. I’m forever grateful that he still put me in a position to be successful and that I could become Draymond Green despite my offensive role on our team.”

Let’s look at the numbers and see what story they tell.

Green’s role was almost all defense in his first two seasons, which were both under Mark Jackson. He was a bright spot as a rookie second-round pick and then really started to show more skills in his second season. Green scored in double digits in five of the seven games the Warriors played against the Clippers in the playoffs that season, including 24 points and five 3-pointers in Game 7.

The Warriors ultimately lost in the first round after making it to the second round the year before, leading to Jackson’s firing and Kerr’s hiring. With that came an instant boost in Green’s offense and the trajectory of his career completely changed.

David Lee’s injury opened the door for Green to start and he never looked back. In Kerr’s first season at the helm, Green went from 6.2 points per game the previous season to 11.7 points per game. He went from 5.6 shots per game to 9.7, and from 2.0 3-point attempts and 1.9 assists per game to 4.2 and 3.7 in Kerr’s pass-heavy offense that called for a 3-point party. The next season was the best offensively in Green’s career.

The 2015-16 season is when Green became the fourth player ever to have 100 threes, 100 steals and 100 blocked shots in the same season. Green averaged a career-high 14.0 points per game and a career-high 10.1 shot attempts per game. The Warriors won 73 games, and Green made his first All-Star team, first All-NBA selection and finished seventh in MVP voting.

It also was the season where Luke Walton was the interim head coach for the first 43 games because of Kerr’s debilitating back pain. A new voice meant an even more aggressive Green than we’ve ever seen, at least when it comes to scoring and shooting. The change was seen right away. Green took 12 shots in the season opener, including five 3-point attempts.

Under Walton, Green in 42 games averaged 14.5 points and 10.9 field-goal attempts per game, both of which would be career highs, plus 3.6 3-point attempts per game while shooting 41.4 percent from deep. Kerr came back on Jan. 22, a game where Green scored 22 points but only had four more 20-point games in the final 39 games. He had 12 with Walton as head coach.

Green’s numbers dropped down to 13.3 points per game on 9.2 field goal attempts per game and 2.7 3-point attempts per game the rest of the regular season with Kerr as coach. Remember their famous halftime heated argument in OKC that season? Do you remember what Green was heard yelling?

“I am not a robot!” Lisa Salters reported hearing Green shouting.

The Kevin Durant-era of the Warriors started the next season, and Green was obviously even less of a scorer. Green says since 2016 when Durant joined the Warriors, he hasn’t had a single play run for him in their playbook. Not in Durant’s three years as a Warrior, and not once in the seven seasons since.

“You think that would hinder someone as an offensive player? Of course,” Green said. “So at times, I go home and I think about my career and I’m happy as hell of what I’ve been able to build. But at times, sometimes I sit there and think, ‘What could I really have been if I stayed true to my game and what I really was?’”

Every coach is going to ask for some kind of sacrifice from his players and coaches, hindering them in one way or another. In Green’s case, he played with the two greatest shooters of all time in Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. He spent three seasons on the floor next to perhaps the greatest pure scorer of all time in Durant. There have been many more mouths to feed.

The uniqueness, intellect and passing ability of Green has amplified those around him. And Green is on the winning end of what all the talent around him has provided his career. It works both ways, as it does in the Green-Kerr dynamic.

Before Durant, Green in his first two seasons under Kerr averaged 12.8 points on 9.9 field-goal attempts and 3.7 3-point attempts per game, shooting 46.7 percent overall and 35.9 percent from 3-point range. In Durant’s three seasons, Green averaged 9.6 points on 8.0 field-goal attempts and 3.2 3-point attempts per game, shooting 43.8 percent from the field and 30 percent from three. Finally, in the seven years since, Green has averaged 8.2 points on just 6.7 field-goal attempts and 2.7 3-point attempts per game with a 45.9 field goal percentage and 31.8 3-point percentage.

These comments from Green came in response to Kerr saying in a New Yorker interview that his longtime forward has done things “I can never forgive him for, and yet I will do anything for him.” Loyalty and respect are at the top of Draymond’s pyramid of priorities. How he responded in public on his podcast was just the latest example.

In that same episode, Green expressed how Kerr is “so important to who I’ve become.” He said things like “I’m not who I am today without Steve Kerr.” He also said his role offensively is just a “gripe” and that if you can’t move past one gripe “you’re a shallow person.” Yet he had to share that gripe publicly, and also shared things in the episode like telling his coach “I don’t think you’ve ever liked me” after their sideline incident in December, and Kerr crying in response – another nugget that didn’t need to be shared.

Draymond doesn’t need to dream of what he could have been. He gets to revel in his team and individual success because of the reality he has lived in Golden State. Green wants Kerr to remain his coach, and vice versa. Even when it’s quiet, they still know how to make us talk.

Try if you will. The Warriors won’t go away, even when their season is over and others play on.

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Dissecting Warriors’ Draymond Green’s eye-opening Steve Kerr hindrance comments

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