Is Draymond Green's career in peril?
Draymond Green was drafted 35th overall by the Golden State Warriors in the 2012 NBA Draft and since then, Green has exceeded all expectations. Green is a 3-time champion, 3-time All-Star, 3-time All-Defensive First Team, and won the Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2017. With all these accolades (and more to come), Green sure looks like a future Hall of Famer but this season could be the turning point in his career...for the worse.
Green has been widely regarded as the crucial piece that has held the Warriors team together. He's been the ultimate team guy thus far in his career playing all kinds of roles to ensure that the Warriors continue to dominate the NBA.
However, recent altercations with his teammate Kevin Durant has left Green in a tricky situation. He explicitly told Durant that the Warriors didn't need him and they were NBA Champions before he arrived at the Oracle Arena and completely disregarding the fact that Durant won Finals MVP back-to-back for the last 2 years.
Remember, Durant is going to be a free-agent at the end of this season if he decides not to cash in his player option and literally every team in the NBA will want a player like him on their team. Draymond Green, on the other hand, is eligible for a max contract with the Warriors.
This leaves the front office in a great fix because as important as Green is to the Warriors, he's not a superstar that Durant is. And by the look of things, Green has to be traded away in order to keep Durant at Golden State. Assuming he does get traded away and signs a max contract somewhere else, is he going to be a player that he was in the Warriors? I don't think so.
And to top it all, Green is playing some really bad basketball this season. He's averaging 7.5 ppg compared to his average of 10 points throughout his career. He's also averaging a career-low 22% from the 3-point line.
While the Warriors never really depended on Green to be their scorer, Green brought a lot to the table with his hustle, elite defense and dishing out assists. But this season, he's been underperforming and could miss out on the All-Star Game after 3 consecutive appearances.
Draymond Green's career has never been on a bending curve but this season it looks like it's in serious danger of completely falling apart. For the sake of his team and himself, let's hope the ever-so-controversial Draymond picks his game up.