Game Day: Suns (29-25) @ Twolves (11-42), Fri 2/20/15

[Shabazz]

I'm not advocating signing him - especially not at the max, but I've been very impressed with his D in the Warriors games I've watched.

[Shabazz]

His defensive advanced stats are also terrific (5th in DRPM, etc.).

[TOO]

His defensive advanced stats are also terrific (5th in DRPM, etc.).

He's on arguably the leagues defensive team. He's a product of the system IMO.

[Split T]

DRPM is supposed to account for that. It's essentially saying GS defense improves by roughly 5 pts/100 possessions with Green on the court. If anything, the fact that David Lee usually replaces him is probably the biggest factor if his numbers are inflated. I haven't seen enough games to say how good of a defender he is, but he is a versatile defender. He can guard multiple spots. Maybe he's not elite, but if you can play good defense on 2's, 3's, and 4's, that's very valuable.

[Shabazz]

His defensive advanced stats are also terrific (5th in DRPM, etc.).

He's on arguably the leagues defensive team. He's a product of the system IMO.

And I think it's a system that's very dependent on his talents. Bogut and Green are the only two Warriors in the top 44 in the league in DRPM (1st and 5th, respectively. Iggy is 45th).

[Superbone]

So, Green is just a Tucker upgrade?

[Mori Chu]

Green is a hard player to describe. He's shooting only 43% FG and 33% on threes, but somehow whenever he gets an open 3 you just know it's going to go in. He's not a jump-out-of-the-gym athlete, but he has decent speed and leaping ability and doesn't seem to ever get left behind. He can run on the fast break and mostly keep up with the guards and finishes decently. He's a much, much better rebounder than PJ Tucker; he is averaging over 8 RPG this year. He even gets over a block a game (1.4) and somehow comes up with 1.6 steals a game. He isn't an amazing defender but he has active hands and he tries and I'd say he's a net positive on that end.

I think one thing you can say about Draymond Green, and this is a subtlety and a detail but an important one: He brings a lot of various things to the table and is pretty careful not to take things back off the table. That is to say, he seems to play within himself and doesn't take a lot of ridiculous bad shots or try to dribble more than he should or bring the ball up the floor without passing it to the guards or other dumb things like that. That's a really important difference from Tucker. I like Tucker's game a lot for the most part, but all too often he'll bring the ball up himself or try to dribble-shimmy around somebody or do something stupid like that, and it hurts us. Draymond at his worst is just kind of out there, and at his best he's contributing in a lot of statistical areas and helping the team all around in small ways left and right.

Draymond messes with your head a little bit. If you watch a lot of Warriors games you see countless little things he does or little plays he helps make happen. You start talking yourself into him as this crucial intangibles guy who is giving a huge lift to that team and gets them lots of key plays on both ends. The local media adore the guy. Then you start saying, "Man, considering how much this guy means to this team, maybe he IS a max guy." I think he's kind of like Marion was on the SSOL Suns. Those squads would not have been nearly as deadly without Marion's contributions on both ends of the floor. He completed those teams, gave them a lot and covered up a bunch of weaknesses and problems.

But I think the idea of maxing out Draymond is crazy at the end of the day. He's really valuable and having a great season, but I don't think you can max out a guy like him. If you maxed him you'd be basically betting on him not regressing at all and on making slow but steady improvement every year. I think the big contract might be what breaks him, honestly; he may feel pressure to live up to his next deal by shooting more, scoring more, doing more, which is exactly what he shouldn't try to do.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/6589/draymond-green

[TOO]

So, Green is just a Tucker upgrade?

He's a Shane Battier type of guy. He's not the shooter Battier was, but he's a reliable cog on a really good team.

[INFORMER]

Draymond Green is quite possibly one of the worst free agent targets the Suns could have. Team are going to make the mistake of thinking that his advanced stats are an indication that he can be a league-wide difference maker. He can't. If you half a couple of stars and a roster rich with talent, Green can do what he is doing now. But if you're a mediocre team or low on talent, he's not helping you improve.