Draymond Was A Fantastic Scorer Early in His Career
Draymond Green was putting up points early in his career but was stifled because the Golden State Warriors had too many elite scorers.
You won’t remember this, but Draymond Green was a good scorer early in his career.
In his fourth NBA season, he averaged 14 points on efficient splits. From the field, he was averaging 49 percent. And from beyond the arc, he was averaging 39 percent.
But when Kevin Durant joined the Golden State Warriors in 2016, Draymond had to reduce his shooting and be more of a point guard, where he was expected to make plays for the spectacular shooters on the team.
And this apparently made him lose confidence in his ability to score.
On an episode of Podcast P with Paul George, Draymond admitted to the hosts that when he became the Warriors’ primary facilitator, fans’ comments about his inability to shoot got to him.
“We started to blossom and have our success, then KD comes,” Green said. “My individual game as far as scoring and shooting suffered because [playmaking] became so much of what they wanted me to do -the shooting wasn’t a priority at all.
“So then I started being called and viewed as a non-shooter when in fact I shot 37 percent from three,” he added. “Like, I shot the sh-t out of the ball. But then I started being spoke to and viewed as a non-shooter just because I was doing so much to get those guys involved and in turn, I lost my confidence. I lost my confidence in my shot.”
Green also said that because he was viewed as a non-shooter, every time he had an open shot, he felt guilty shooting it and instead opted to get the ball to one of the elite scorers.
“It really had an impact on my offensive game and especially my confidence and my mindset because then once it was like, ‘Oh well, those guys are shooting the ball so our non-shooter,’ and I’m being mentioned as the non-shooter, you start to believe it.”
During the “KD years,” the Warriors won back-to-back titles and made it to the NBA Finals three times.
And despite his poor shooting, Draymond was an All-Star in two of those years. He made it because of his playmaking and defence, where he averaged 7.8 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.3 blocks.
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