The benching of Draymond Green

Draymond Green was just heading into his third year with the Warriors when he got the call to be a permanent member of their First Five. To argue that it signified a leap of faith would be an understatement. As a 35^th overall pick in the 2012 draft, he didn’t seem to have the physique or the skills required of a rotation player. He was an undersized power forward at 6’6”, and he lacked the traditional offensive prowess the blue and yellow demanded of regulars in the National Basketball Association. Still, he found himself with the golden opportunity following a coaching change.

Green’s ascent to stardom was, perhaps, fated. For one thing, the Warriors appeared to be only too ready to move on from David Lee; the erstwhile All-Star then had an albatross of a contract that belied one-dimensional predilections and a troubling history of injury. For another, newly installed bench tactician Steve Kerr represented a fresh set of eyes that provided bias-free impressions of his unique set of skills, and on how it could complement backcourt scorers Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson under a pace-and-space system. And the rest, as the cliche goes, is history.

These days, the Warriors have their dynasty in the rear-view mirror. Thompson is gone, and the other vital cogs are much older. And while it’s still too early in the 2024-25 season to count them out, it’s fair to argue against their capacity to stand toe to toe with the league elite given their uneven roster. For a while there, it looked as if Kerr would be able to leverage loose substitution patterns into wins. It was never going to be sustainable, of course; there’s a reason fewer cogs get to see action in the playoffs.

The other day, Kerr made a decision hitherto deemed all but impossible in the Curry era: He sent Green to the bench in favor of projected future big Jonathan Kuminga. For longtime fans, it translated to the Warriors coming full circle; all things considered, the latter’s promotion was as necessary as Lee’s demotion 10 years ago. And while they still ended up losing to the Timberwolves, the change figures to stick for a while in the face of a glaring lack of scoring options.

Creditably, Green has taken the turn of events in stride. Not normally predisposed to accepting any change in the status quo, he has accepted it with uncharacteristic peace. “I am a product of my vet being willing to take a backseat for me,” he noted. “So you got to give back what came to you. That’s what this is about.” To be sure, the Warriors are walking a tightrope. In large measure, his stellar court vision is precisely what makes the offense hum, and why Curry has thrived all this time. Then again, Kerr has no choice. They’re reeling, and they can’t keep doing the same things over and over again while expecting a different result.

Have the Warriors latched on to a formula for success? It’s anybody’s guess. At the very least, they have Green’s cooperation — as critical an ingredient as any.

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.