Draymond Green has no shortage of accolades in his trophy case, and in Year 13, has a chance to add another prestigious honor to his collection.
The Warriors' defensive guru once again finds himself in the conversation for the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year award, and with 10 games remaining in the 2024-25 regular season, has a chance to secure the second of his career after last taking home the crown during the 2016-17 season.
Green joined NBC Sports Bay Area's Monte Poole and Kerith Burke on the latest episode of "Dubs Talk," where he was asked what it would mean to win another DPOY award this season.
"It would mean the world to me; you know I pride myself on the defensive end," Green told Poole and Burke. "I think to be acknowledged as the best defender in this league is no small feat. It's something that, I never pride myself on winning awards, but they never hurt the ego and they don't hurt the pockets. But most importantly, even more so than that, I think all the hard work you put in to try and stay at an elite level, and to be recognized as the Defensive Player of the Year at 35, eight years after first doing it, it takes a lot of work and a lot of effort to have that type of longevity."
While Green is encouraged to see his name in the conversation for the award, he knows he still has more to prove down the stretch.
"To even be mentioned in that conversation, to me, is special," Green said. "Obviously, I want to win it, but it's not something that's totally in my control ... When I started to see my name pop up in the conversation, I was like, 'Wow, I really have a chance to do this.'
"And I came into this season, for the last couple years I've been kind of priding myself on that. Like, 'I want to win another one. I want to win another one.' But obviously you have to have success as a team and just to find that success, put myself in the conversation. At worst, I want to make [All-Defensive First Team] and if I can put myself in the conversation to be DPOY, I think that would be crazier than winning the first one."
The award, since Green last won it, more often than not has been given to a player who finishes the season at or near the top of the league in counting stats like blocks and steals. Green, however, who is 32nd in blocks (62) and 29th in steals (84) believes what he does on the court still is worthy of DPOY recognition.
"I think for me defensively, the best thing that can happen to me defensively is nothing," Green explained. "Because you want to put the fire out before it even starts. And that's how I approach the defensive end. Yes I can put myself in position to get the steal, or go after the steal, or I can put myself in position to go after a block, or I can put myself in position to where the steal or the block doesn't need to happen. And that's what I try and do on the defensive side of the ball, I try to put out the fire before it starts. And that is a skill that oftentimes can stymie an offense more than getting a steal or getting a block.
"And if nothing happens, meaning we go through this defensive possession and I stop all the things from happening, and it doesn't end in a stat, that's ultimately what you want to do. And so I pride myself on that ... and so I'm happy that regardless of blocks, regardless of steals, my goal in this when it's all said and done is that somewhere down the road when we look back at this award, 10 years down the road, that it's not just based on a block or a steal."
Green likely will be up against Cleveland's Evan Mobley, Atlanta's Dyson Daniels, Memphis' Jaren Jackson Jr. and Oklahoma City's Luguentz Dort for the award.
And how he and the Warriors finish the regular season will go a long way toward deciding if he takes home his second career honor.
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