OAKLAND — He’s the voice, heart, soul, legs, brains, electrical source and entire audacious spirit of the Warriors defense, and he had time to talk a few days ago.
So I had some things to ask Draymond Green, and he sure answered. Let’s talk defense, I said. Let’s dive deep. Let’s take a look inside the unique mind and motivations of the Warriors’ defensive sage/stopper/commander-in-chief.
As the team moves into the playoffs as the No. 1 overall seed–and second-ranked defense– Green also seems destined for his first Defensive Player of the Year award (announced after the playoffs) after finishing runner-up the last two seasons.
I sat down earlier this week with Green to discuss his defensive philosophies, his approach to a great individual match-up, how the Warriors’ system works around him, and to break down a play or two of his singular approach.
In so many ways, Green is something new and wholly different than any great NBA defender that I can remember–he’s an exacting man-to-man defender but also expands his role into something like a superstar NFL free safety, racing all over the field several steps ahead of the offense.
Here’s what separates Green, in my mind, from all other top-line defenders: He free-lances all over the floor, but does it in a way that still is within the integrity of Warriors, and he plays angles so cunningly and instinctively, and can shut down so many different positions, that even when opponents try like mad to avoid him… guess who ends up in front of their best guy, at the most crucial moment.
Again, this is more like Von Miller or Ronnie Lott than a normal great NBA one-on-one defender, and it makes Green so special.
We talked about this, about his motivations, and many other aspects of his defense–after about 25 minutes, I had more to ask, he had more to say, but that was the time we had, and here’s the all-defense, all-Draymond conversation…
Draymond Green interview transcript (some questions and answers were moved around for context):
Q: I told you the other day that I was going to ask about your defensive philosophy. I definitely want to ask you that now, but first I’m going to guess what I think it is:
You play like an NFL linebacker or safety–more than any NBA player I can think of in history–picking a spot you know where the ball is going, whether that’s from film work or whatever, and you cut it off with force. Is that close?
GREEN: Definitely. It’s film, but even more than just film, it’s just being a student of the game.
I watch basketball all day every day. So when I’m watching the games, I watch it–I just enjoy watching basketball–but when I’m watching other people play, I’m really just watching as a student trying to figure different things out.
You tend to figure out guys’ moves, you figure out their go-to moves, you figure out their tendencies; if this happens, what they like to do in certain situations.
And then also, while playing them, you just kind of get a feel of what they’re doing that night. So as the game goes on, it gets easier and easier to defend someone, because you know what they’re going to.
Q: You also are reading the whole team–what they want to do.
GREEN: Absolutely. Certain teams you know how they want to play, you know what they want to get to, you know their go-to sets. You know everything that they’re trying to do.
For me, it’s just reading the situations. Sometimes that’s pre-game, that’s leading up to the game, days up to the game… and sometimes it’s just bang-bang, in the flow of the game… and also…
I’ll tell you this — it’s harder against bad teams. Because you know the right play…
We were playing a team last year, they were so bad, I’m not going to just throw them under the bus… but they were so bad, I think I had seven or eight turnovers that game because I was throwing the ball to where I know I should’ve thrown the ball to, but they were so bad defensively that they were really in all the wrong spots.
And so it’s the same defensively. Sometimes it’s tougher against bad teams because you can’t really get a read on them…
Q: They’re random (and the Warriors’ defense is based on predicting what an opponent usually likes to do).
GREEN: Yeah! It’s a crazy thing.
Q: You’ve lost to some bad teams.
GREEN: It’s a crazy thing, but it’s a thing. They just don’t have a structure to them, or like they don’t make the right play, so it’s hard to ever get a read on it.
Q: Let’s talk about a good team and a great offensive player–Houston and James Harden. You never get assigned to guard him straight up, but I see you jumping to him, maybe on a very quick switch. Is that you just saying, ‘I’ve got him for this possession,’ on your own?
GREEN: Absolutely. You know, sometimes it’s, ‘I’m going to get this switch because I want to guard him right now.’ Wherever that time may be in the game. ‘I want to guard him right now.’
Guys like James, you figure out the things they like to do.
Q: There was a play in the fourth quarter this last time against him, you switched fast on to him top of the key, you totally take away his left and then as soon as he moves right, your hand is there for the steal. Can you talk me through that one?
GREEN: For James, you know he wants to get left. So taking away that left hand is key. But once I take away your strong hand, I know I’ve got you cut off. You’ve got to counter it.
I know once I have you contained to where you’re trying to go, you have to make a counter-move.
So that play in particular, I knew he had to come back right, because I had sold out so far to the left. I had completely sold out, to where he had to go back right.
And once I had sold out, it’s only a matter of time before he crossed to go back right, and once he crossed and went back, I already knew where he was going.
That particular possession, I made him do what I wanted him to do. I think on every defensive possession, every possession of the game, you have a defense trying to force an offense–team or player–try to force them to do what you want them to do.
That particular one, I knew I’d forced him to do what I wanted him to do, because I’d sold out on his left hand and completely took it away.
So now I’ve got him going right, which is where I want him going. But once I had cut him off going back to the left, I just jumped it.
Kind of like a cornerback, where you jump the route? I just jumped it because I knew he had to go back the same way and I was able to come up with the steal.
A lot of times with James, you’re not coming up with that steal, because he’s such a good ball-handler. But that time I kind of got a good jump on him to where I was just able to get the ball.
Q: I was trying to think of anybody else in NBA history who plays defense like that–all angles, perimeter and post, mid-range. Dennis Rodman maybe? Scottie (Pippen)? It really does seem like an NFL mindset, that you’re cutting off a path like a defensive football player.
GREEN: It is, it is. It’s definitely that.
Like a free safety, where you’re just roaming, you’re kind of watching the quarterback’s eyes, you’re just reading the whole situation. It’s definitely that.
And probably because I love football, I love watching football. It’s definitely more of a free safety type mentality, for sure.
Q: So can you think of anybody in NBA history who has played like this? That you’ve patterned this style off of?
GREEN: Not really. I just kind of got more and more comfortable with it. You do something, you see it’s working, you’re like, all right, I’m going to do it again, do it again, do it again.
And eventually you just get so comfortable it kind of becomes who you are.
Q: So does Ron Adams and the rest of the coaching staff scheme for you doing this?
GREEN: Absolutely, they do it all the time.
Q: Does Ron ever say, OK, but maybe don’t do this or this? Or don’t do it too much?
GREEN: Not really, because they trust my feel enough to where they kind of just let me figure it out.
The one thing they will like… sometimes depending on who I’m guarding, they’ll come over to me, ‘Hey, you cannot over-help this time’…
But for the most part, they just kind of let me go.
Q: Do you like guarding the big-time guy maybe where you can’t help as much or maybe is it more enjoyable for you to be helping and roaming off of somebody? The Spurs do that with Kawhi (Leonard) sometimes.
GREEN: I think I can do both, I enjoy doing both. Because you like the challenge of, ‘I want to shut this guy down. He averages 29 points, I want to shut him down. Can I hold him to 14?’ That’s always fun.
But being on the guy who is maybe not as good and just roaming and just messing up the entire offense? That’s usually a little bit more fun.
Because you know, ‘I am messing up their entire offense.’ And it’s a funny type of thing. You know what they’re thinking; you can see the frustration. That’s more fun to me.
Q: I hear this conversation–why are teams always going at Draymond? What are they doing? My answer is, you’re actually picking the spot where they have to go. It’s on your terms.
GREEN: You know, I used to always think, ‘Why are they picking at me? At some point, will they stop picking on me?’
Then at some point I realized teams have stopped picking on me, but I still end up in the same situations.
I kind of figured that out, too, it’s probably just me knowing where they’re trying to get to and making sure I’m in that spot. It’s weird.
Q: It’s not film work then? It’s mostly just watching games live?
GREEN: I watch some film. But it’s more so just studying the game, period. Then over the course of time, being in the league, you know certain teams, you know what they want to do.
I always tell them–my mind’s a computer. Coach (Tom) Izzo used to call me a computer. ‘Hey Draymond, we give you something, you just type it in your little calculator brain.’
It gets to a point where you just know. All right, this is who I’ve got tonight–this is my match-up. This is who I’ve got with the team, this is what they like to do.
You just get to a point where you just know.
Q: What kinds of things does Ron tell you before games?
GREEN: He’ll come to me, like, ‘Draymond, I know this guy has been like this, but he’s doing this more, so make sure you’re watching that.’ Or ‘Draymond, this is a team that doesn’t shoot many 3s, but over the last five games, they’re up from 17 a game to 32 a game, so let’s make sure you’ve got the guys locked in in taking the 3 away.’
So there’s different things like that.
Ron is more so telling me more recent trends of things to watch out for, because I think he kind of figured out, too, the thing where I kind of just know, here’s what the team wants to do.
Q: (Andrew) Bogut was kind of your running partner for a couple years, very vocal. How much has changed for you without him this season?
GREEN: I think it forced me to grow without having Bogut. Because… if I made a mistake, he would cover up for me. He was so vocal that it was always that voice that gave me that comfort, also.
And he taught me so much, man. Bogut–I wouldn’t be the defender I am without Bogut. He taught me a ton. Angles. How to guard the post. You name it, he taught me a ton.
But not having that shield there, it kind of forced me to grow more. Just because I knew if I made a mistake–Bogut’s right there at the rim, it’s getting erased. Any mistake that I made…
We were so on a string together, me and Bogut literally–although both of us talked, we could do stuff without saying a word. He would go there and I would bounce back…
We were so in tune together that, as much as we did talk, there were times where I wouldn’t say nothing, he wouldn’t say nothing, and it would just work out.
Because we knew how to read each other and play off each other. Having Bogut there was kind of like a free pass to take chances and know that he’s going to cover up for my mistakes.
So (losing him) made me be more solid, made me talk even more. It made me talk a lot more… everything.
And it look a little while to figure that out at the beginning of the year because it was just different. But it definitely made me grow for sure.
Q: What’s it like when you and Andre Iguodala are playing defense together?
GREEN: Playing with Andre is very similar to playing with Bogut only (different) in the sense that Andre’s a wing, so it’s a little different.
But playing with him is easy. Because he’s always in the right place. He knows how to read situations just as good if not better than me.
It’s easy to play with someone like that who just knows where to go–he just always knows where to be, what the other team wants to do.
He’s amazing with his hands, getting strips, and covering up other guys’ mistakes, he’s incredible.
And he talks, which, when you go on the court with somebody on the defensive end, it makes things that much easier.
Q: What are you guys saying to each other on the floor? ‘Screen left’ that sort of thing or more than that?
GREEN: You’re calling out screens, calling out switches. You’re calling out what they want to get to. What to watch out for.
‘Help this way’, ‘I’m here, over here, over here’. Or ‘no foul here, I’ve got your back’. You’re calling out all those things.
Telling a guy ‘I’m rotating, drop!’ I’ll tell Andre, ‘Dre, I’m going, cover for me! I’ve got you.’ And once he covers for me, I’ll shoot to his man.
You’re saying all of that stuff. But when you’re playing with someone like that, it makes things so much easier because you’re so much more comfortable, because you know, as opposed to guessing.
Q: Just seems like you and Andre together–you can just suffocate an offense almost just the two of you.
GREEN: Part of that is just knowing what they want to do and try to beat them to the punch.
I’d always rather be a step ahead and have to cover up for being a step ahead than covering up for being a step slow. Because if you’re a step slow, it’s probably going to result into a foul.
I always just try… and Andre as well… when we’re like that, it’s a trickle-down effect, everybody’s on that string together.
Q: (Kevin) Durant has picked it up.
GREEN: Absolutely. You know, it’s funny because as good as he is defensively, he got so much better as the year went on because he realized a lot of the stuff we do is never really a set thing.
That’s what makes our defense so good–it’s not just a set thing. It’s just reaction. Read and react. ‘All right, you want to go fire?’…
It’s very similar to our offense. Our offense is not really a set offense. We have some set stuff, obviously, but a lot of it… probably 65 to 70 percent of it, if not more of our offense, is just reading and reacting. Cutting, back-cutting…
And our defense is similar. A lot of it is just reading, reacting. Like, if you want to go fire on the guy who’s posting up, all right go ahead and do it. We’ll see you and we’ll rotate.
So it took (Durant) a little while to get used to that. But once he got used to it, he became one of the best guys at it. And he’s so long and athletic that it’s perfect for him, because he can guard anybody.
So he’s the perfect person for that type of defense.
Q: Are you expecting to win Defensive Player of the Year this time?
GREEN: I’ve had times where I thought I would before and I didn’t. So I don’t really get my hopes up any more. If it happens it happens.
Q: It’d mean something for you, though, I think.
GREEN: It’d definitely mean something. Every year I strive to be the best defensive player in the league. And so to win that award, it’d be great. But I don’t get my hopes too high any more.
Q: You think this is your best defensive year?
GREEN: I think so. I think the numbers are up a little bit, as far as steals and stuff. But I just feel much better defensively. I feel so comfortable on the defensive end.
I just feel in a groove. All year. I’ve had a few games where I walked away, ‘Man, I was horrible defensively tonight.’ But for the most part, I’ve felt like I’m in a groove.
You hear people say ‘the game slowed down for him offensively.’ That’s how I feel on the defensive end, like everything just slowed down.
I can just breathe it all (in). I definitely think it’s my best defensive year for sure.
