Why Draymond’s rise up Warriors’ 3-point rankings is deeply meaningful originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Kevin Durant caught a bounce pass from Bradley Beal well beyond the 3-point line from the right wing. As Durant inhaled the pass and time ticked off the game clock with only 22 seconds remaining and the Warriors leading by one point, Draymond Green closed in on his former Golden State teammate. Durant’s first step made it appear he had a beat on Green, but the cerebral defender already was one step ahead mentally.
As Durant began his move by going right, Green knew the spot he wanted to get to was from the mid-range on the left side. In turn, Green trailed for a split second before sliding alongside Durant like a choreographed dance. When Durant went up for his shot from 12 feet away, the 7-footer might as well have been the same height as the generously listed 6-foot-6 Green.
Their right hands met in midair, making Durant’s attempt at a game-winner way off. Trayce Jackson-Davis and Dennis Schroder battled for the rebound, leading to the Warriors’ eventual 109-104 win one week ago over the Phoenix Suns at Chase Center.
“Just trying to be physical, trying to make him take a tough shot,” Green said after the win. “He got the shot he wanted. Left hand pull-up, that was the shot he wants. And I knew that’s the shot he wanted. My mindset was just to make sure I timed it up and got a good contest. I wasn’t going to stop him from getting to the spot without fouling.
“I just wanted to make sure I stayed close enough in distance to get a good contest.”
For well over a decade, Green’s defense has been his golden ticket to the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame. He’s historically unique on both sides of the ball, however, his ability to change games and guard all positions at his size is second to none.
His passing ability comes next, especially in the case of his partnership with Steph Curry. Scoring for Green always has been, and always will be, a bit of an afterthought. Shooting in that same win over the Suns also saw his improbable rise up the Warriors’ all-time 3-point list.
Green, during a perfect 3 of 3 on 3-pointers in the second quarter, let Durant hear every noise he could conjure from his excitement. Draymond had made 699 career threes before the game, and came out with 702. His first make that brought him to 700 tied him with former Warriors great Jason Richardson for third on the franchise’s all-time list. The next triple gave Green sole possession of third place, and No. 702 was the icing on a three-layer cake.
Those are numbers Warriors coach Steve Kerr, and Green himself, admittedly never expected.
Fittingly, Green now sits behind only Curry and Klay Thompson, his two longtime teammates who he revolutionized basketball alongside for more than a decade together.
“No, and I definitely didn’t envision being the No. 1 3-point shooter in the organization’s history,” Green said in an exclusive interview with NBC Sports Bay Area, “because Steph and Klay don’t count. I’m No. 1. That’s crazy.
“In the words of James Harden, I am No. 1.”
And in the words of Draymond Green, he’s forever a Michigan man – just not a Wolverine. A Saginaw native, a proud product of Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans, as Richardson is, too.
The man known as ‘J-Rich’ once was the teenager Green grew up idolizing as a kid. He’d watch Richardson and Arthur Hill High School take on his future alma mater Saginaw High School and put on a show every rivalry game, throwing down 360-degree dunks and going through the legs. His alley-oop slam that was thrown from the opposite free-throw line is still talked about to this day.
Chasing a hometown legend only continued when Green went to Michigan State.
“Watching him win the national championship at Michigan State and living in that shadow, trying to win my own championship,” Green said, “he’s No. 23 – being the next guy from Saginaw to come in as 23, living in that shadow wasn’t something that I shied away from. I embraced it.
“So to pass him here, it’s a special feeling.”
Of all the memories from Kerr’s time coaching the Warriors, he’ll always remember Green hitting two threes against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6 of the 2015 NBA Finals that secured the franchise’s first championship in 40 years. Kerr was in his first season as the Warriors’ head coach, and right when Green nailed his second 3-pointer he turned to his staff and told them they were going to be champions. If Green hit multiple threes, his coach knew it was game over.
“It was also just a vibe,” Kerr says. “When he would make a couple threes, like, there’s no way we’re losing.”
Long-range shooting and scoring always have been part of Green’s arsenal, just not the first tools he’s going to reach for. He averaged double-digit scoring for four straight seasons, and in the Warriors’ infamous collapse to the Cavs in the 2016 Finals, it was Green, not Curry, Thompson, LeBron James or Kyrie Irving, who scored a game-high 32 points in Golden State’s Game 7 loss.
There still hasn’t been a game where Green has scored more points, and only once has he made more threes than the six he dropped in that devastating loss. Yet because of then-Cavs coach Ty Lue’s game plan of letting Green shoot and making him be the deciding offensive factor became the biggest contributor to Green losing confidence in his shot. He figured if a coach like that wanted him to shoot that badly, why shoot at all, even more so after the Warriors added Durant for three seasons.
Since then, the mental work Green has gone through has been as diligent as the physical.
In the 2015-16 season, Green shot 38.8 percent on threes. After that Game 7, however, his 3-point percentage fell off a cliff. It tumbled to 30.8 percent the next season, then 30.1 percent the year after, and had four straight seasons under 30 percent before shooting 30.5 percent in 2022-23.
“Knowing the journey I’ve had to go through, had I not lost my confidence I probably would have been there three to four years ago, but I completely lost all confidence in my shot,” Green said. “But to rediscover that … when you lose confidence in the NBA, people don’t understand, when you lose confidence playing against the best people in the world at something – do you know how hard it is to get that back?
“Everybody is great at something, and you’re trying to get that confidence back? It’s nearly impossible. I’m thankful that I was able to do the work to get it back, but also understanding that it’s a constant process.”
These past two seasons, though, he has been extremely accurate. Green’s 39.5-percent clip on threes last year was a career-high, and he’s at 36.9 percent on 3.8 attempts – the second-most of his career – through 29 games this season.
“Draymond has done a great job of adapting,” Kerr said. “The last two years he has shot it really well. He’s understood the importance of putting the work in and showing the confidence to let it fly, even when he’s having an 0-for-3 start. He’s still shooting it, which we want, and the percentage is showing. The confidence and the work that he has put in, pretty remarkable that we’re sitting here talking about him being on that list.”
All of Chase Center tipped their captain’s caps to Thompson in his return ahead of what was an epic battle between the Warriors and Dallas Mavericks. Klay then hit huge threes in front of Joe Lacob and emphatically celebrated a Mavs win in his next game in the Bay. Steph and LeBron exchanged buckets in an unforgettable Christmas Day game.
Draymond’s rise up the Warriors’ 3-point ranks in the same game he denied Durant at the end of a win can be added to the list as well. This Warriors season already has seen a handful of full-circle moments.
“I think it’s very fitting that us three are at the top,” Green said. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be there at the top with them with the rate guys shoot threes these days, but in saying that, just to be at the top of any list with those two guys, we built this thing together.
“To be on top of a list that kind of changed it all for not only us, but for everyone in basketball, I think that’s great. When I saw it, I had no idea. But then when I saw it, I was like wow, that’s crazy.”
Third place is never the goal of a competitor and four-time champion like Green. But Draymond sitting behind only Steph and Klay, as well as passing Richardson, ties a bow on it all, beyond belief for someone whose faith in himself – whose heart and soul that rose from Saginaw – is what brought him to this point in the first place.
