Warriors: At age 37, David West makes most of minutes.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Warriors center David West is an anomaly in a league in which the average career spans less than five years. In his 15th NBA season, West, 37, is not only still hanging around, he’s getting better.

“We call him Benjamin Button,” point guard Shaun Livingston said. “He’s aging backward.”

West’s minutes are down slightly from last season, but he is averaging more points, rebounds and blocks per game. His shooting clip of 67.6 percent easily would be a career best if it holds. In 13 of his 17 games this season, West has made at least half of his shots.

Hardly considered a prototypical interior defender, he ranks 22nd in the NBA with 1.24 blocks per game. Only one other player among the top 50, Dallas center Salah Mejri, is averaging fewer than 12 minutes.

Unlike his earlier years, when he banged in the low post and made two All-Star appearances (2008, 2009), West stakes his reputation on hitting midrange jumpers and finding the open man. With a rare blend of size, court awareness, touch and timing, he is the ideal fulcrum for head coach Steve Kerr’s movement-heavy system. West posts up on the right block and draws defenses toward him before kicking out to shooters.

West had 151 assists in 854 minutes last season. Livingston, Stephen Curry’s primary backup, had 12 fewer assists in 491 more minutes.

“It’s remarkable the career he’s had and just knowing what type of player he is going into this stage of his career,” forward Kevin Durant said. “He’s learned so much in this league, and he’s using what he’s learned to help us be better players.”

Drafted in 2003 by the New Orleans Hornets after a fouryear career at Xavier, West is the 10th-oldest player in the NBA. Most people ahead of him on that list are on contract to mentor younger teammates. Though respected throughout the league for his professionalism and intellect, West was re-signed last summer to be an essential role player for the defending NBA champions.

The second unit flows through him. With the ball in his hands in the low post, West is adept at deciphering defenses to get his team the best shot possible. He leans on the knowledge that comes with 1,078 career games.

What makes him so unusual is that, at a point in his career when most players’ bodies are breaking down, West is a physical specimen. At a chiseled 6-foot-9, 250 pounds, he boasts one of the lowest body-fat percentages on Golden State’s roster.

It is the result of diligent self-maintenance. Six years ago, while recovering from a torn ACL with New Orleans, West made a point to be a good patient. He doesn’t deviate from the workout regimen team trainers and coaches have outlined for him.

Along the way, West has become in tune with what his body needs to be in peak form. Seldom does he spend more time on his feet than necessary. West doesn’t eat meat in the mornings, and he has cut sugar out of his diet. It has been years since West even sipped a Gatorade.

“Just no extras,” West said. “Nothing that’s going to be harmful or damaging to the body.”

In his second season with the Warriors, he has settled into a regular substitution pattern. West heads to the locker room midway through the first quarter to get a sweat in on the stationary bike. When he enters the game at the start of the second, West feels ready.

As much as the physical, he is committed to making sure he is right mentally. West limits his stress and meditates periodically. To keep his mind active, he spends much of his free time reading about current events or African American history.

It also helps that his career decisions have allowed him to scale back his on-court workload. In the summer of 2015, at age 34, he declined a $12.6 million player option with the Pacers to chase a championship with San Antonio on a veteranminimum deal of $1.4 million.

For the first time since his second NBA season, West came off the bench. His playing time dipped even more after he inked a minimum deal with Golden State in July 2016.

From 2005 to 2015, West averaged between 28.7 and 39.2 minutes per game. Now, as he shares a Warriors center rotation with Zaza Pachulia and JaVale McGee, he logs a careerlow 11.5.

“I’ve got things I want to do after basketball,” said West, who is on the advisory board for a renewable-energy company called Zoetic Global. “The last thing I want to do is limp out of this damn league.”