As the Warriors grow more desperate in their pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo, it’s starting to feel like just about anything short of trading Steph Curry is on the table, and that includes parting with Draymond Green. Marc Stein, Jake Fischer, and others have been reporting that Jimmy Butler isn’t expected to be dealt after suffering a season-ending ACL tear, which means to make the money work for Giannis, any deal must include Green and Jonathan Kuminga.
That would, of course, be a tough pill for the Warriors to swallow, as Green has become a franchise icon, the last holdover from the start of the dynasty, along with Curry and Steve Kerr. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and if that’s the price for Giannis, they have little choice but to pay it.
But where would that leave Draymond? At 35 years old, he would make little sense on a post-Giannis Bucks team, which would mean another team would likely get involved, or Milwaukee would look to immediately flip him in a corresponding move.
In Fischer’s latest piece for Stein’s Substack, he reported that the market for Green may not be strong at this juncture and speculated that the Celtics could consider flipping Anfernee Simons for the four-time champion.
Adding Draymond would be a high-risk endeavor
While the cost to acquire would be reasonable, adding Green would come with a ton of risk. For one, he’s clearly not the same player he once was, even on the defensive end. He’s still good, but it’s hard to project just how much he has left and what it might look like playing without Curry for the first time.
Then there’s the matter of his contract. It’s slightly lower than Simons’ for this season, at $25.89 million, but he also has a player option at $27.68 million for next season, which has the potential to look pretty ugly (although it could have some value as an expiring).
And on top of everything else, there’s the massive, massive personality that comes along with Green. The Celtics have an extremely strong culture with great leadership from Brad Stevens, Joe Mazzulla, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and others.
Bringing in a wild card like Green to the mix has disastrous potential, and it’s not too difficult to imagine a scenario where things fly completely off the rails.
Green’s basketball fit in Boston could be perfect
Despite all that, there is still plenty of upside that would come along with the risk, and that’s why this hypothetical is so tantalizing. Being traded from Golden State could be exactly the type of thing to completely rejuvenate Draymond and bring out the best in an all-time competitor.
We all know what a great defender he is. If he can channel something close to his elite level (he finished 3rd in Defensive Player of the Year just last season), he could anchor a pretty elite defense with the likes of Tatum, Brown, Derrick White, and others around him. He would give them the perfect small-ball center for a switching defense, as he did for the Warriors’ old vaunted ‘Death Lineup’.
And his basketball IQ is off the chains. He’s a brilliant passer and playmaker out of the short roll. We’ve seen him make magic with Curry for years, and there’s no reason that he couldn’t quickly learn to play off of the Jays, White, Payton Pritchard, and others.
I would be hesitant to take a swing like this unless you know you have the buy-in from your star players, your coaching staff, and Green, but if everyone is on board, and Draymond truly shakes free, maybe this isn’t such a crazy idea after all.