In an NBA regular season game that ended today, the Golden State Warriors narrowly defeated the Indiana Pacers 102-100, this game Stephen Curry scored 26 points, five consecutive points in the last minute, helped the Warriors equalize the score to become the biggest contributor, and hit 5 three-pointers in the game, only 1 far from breaking the NBA all-time record for total three-point goals set by Ray Allen, and it is no accident that he will set a record tomorrow in the back-to-back away game against the New York Knicks. And fans of Madison Square Garden will witness the miracle happening. Warriors center Kevin Rooney grabbed a key frontcourt rebound in the final moments of the game and made a good margin. Draymond Green also played well, contributing 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Green can be said to be in a clear state recently, and recently he has publicly declared himself the best defensive player in the league, and in terms of his performance this season, it is difficult to say whether he can be selected as the best defensive player of the year, but it is still very possible to be selected for the best team. In an era of great defensive players including Rudy Gobert, Joel Embiid, Alphabet Brother and Ben Simmons, Green can still be called the best of his generation. While the vast majority attribute the Warriors' success over the past decade to Stephen Curry, you can also directly link the Warriors' success to Green's emergence as one of the league's best defensive players.
As a former head coach of the Golden State Warriors, Mark Jackson laid the foundation for the Warriors' championship defense in his second season in charge of the Warriors, and the arrival of Andrew Bogut accelerated the improvement of the Warriors' defensive system, but it was Green's rapid promotion on the defensive end that really pushed the Warriors to the top of league history.
In the 2014-15 season when the Warriors won the championship, the Warriors became the league's number one defensive team with a defensive rating of 100.4, and Green's role in the process was obvious. When Green is on the floor, the Warriors' defense is much stronger, with a defensive level of 97.3, but when Green sits on the bench, the Warriors' defensive level drops to 103.1, falling directly outside the league's top ten.
The Warriors that season had so many defensively superior players that many may have overlooked Green's contribution on the defensive end. Under the aura of Bogut, Finals MVP André Iguodala and top two-way player Klay Thompson on the outside, Green, whose personal data is not very impressive, did not get much attention that year. But Green finally earned his due amassion for his efforts, making him into the Best Defensive Team for three consecutive years and winning the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2017.
While the Warriors' current roster looks different from the lineup that has reached the NBA Finals five times in a row, two things have not changed: Green is still the defensive core of the whole team, and has helped the Warriors become the best defensive team in the league again, and he himself has become the biggest favorite of the best defensive players of the year.
So is it true that, as Green himself put it, he's the greatest defensive player of all time? To answer that question first, you have to compare Green to the greatest defensive player of the moment, and that is Utah Jazz center Gobert, which is not disrespectful to Leonard, Simmons and Embiid, after all, Gobert is the greatest defensive player in the game in terms of the number of defensive players of the year.
Green: 1 DPOY, 6-time defensive team of the year, 3 All-Star
Gobert: 3 DPOYs, 5-time defensive team of the year, 2 All-Stars
Although Gobert has won two more defensive players than Green, he has been selected to the All-Defensive Team and the All-Star less often than Green, and more importantly, Gobert has been criticized for being just a great regular season defender whose defensive role in the playoffs will take a sharp turn for the worse, but Green has no such problems. The fact that Green's defense is so destructive that many opponents will do everything they can to keep him out of the game is a sign of a great defensive player and a testament to the fact that he is a player who should be in the greatest defensive player discussion in NBA history.
It's hard to compare Green to the great defensive players of different eras, but the defensive talent Green showed should be suitable for any era or style of basketball, he has the ability to defend multiple positions, the level of single defense and co-defense is the top in the league, and the ability to protect the basket is also extremely high. While his athleticism has dropped a lot from his peak, he's by no means an athlete who relies solely on physical talent, his mind is sharper than ever, and few people can read games and dissect in real time like Green, which is why his name should definitely hold a place among the greatest defensive players in NBA history.