Kerr wants Green to unleash more jumpers this season
Before the Warriors opened their preseason slate at Portland last week, Steve Kerr sat down with Draymond Green for a frank conversation.
The head coach told the power forward to try to average two or three 3-point attempts per game.
“If you’re open, let it fly,” Kerr said Monday in recounting the discussion.
Apparently, Green has gotten the message.
In just 54 preseason minutes — about the amount he would log in 11⁄2 games during the regular season — Green has hoisted six 3-point attempts and made three.
The six-time All-Defensive Team selection and three-time All-Star — who is averaging 15.2 points per 48 minutes in the preseason — has not averaged more than 14 points in a season and hasn’t put up a double-digit scoring average since 2017-18. But the Warriors are almost unquestionably an improved team when he does choose to shoot.
The Warriors are 5-0 when he has scored at least 25 points and 33-5 when he has scored at least 20 during his career. Last season, they went 15-4 when he reached double figures in the scoring column.
“Draymond is one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around,” Kerr said. “What we want from Draymond is to attack when the attack is there and to do what he does. He’s our leading assist guy. He has been for years. He’s the best defender in the league. He does everything. But we are better when he looks to score. He’s such a smart player that he recognizes the gaps when he can drive or the open 3 when it’s there.
“We want him to be really aggressive.”
Green finished third in the Defensive Player of the Year voting last season and averaged a career-best 8.9 assists — the most among NBA frontcourt players and 0.6 higher than MVP Nikola Jokic.
Green has finished among the NBA’s top 10 in assists four times and led the league in steals (2.03 per game) during his 2017 Defensive Player of the Year campaign.
But last season, the points didn’t accompany all of his other production.
He averaged seven points per game — his worst numbers since making only 12 starts and playing only 21.9 minutes per game in 2013-14.
He attempted only six field goals and two 3-pointers per game — his lowest averages since his second season in the league.
Heading into his 10th season, Green identified it as a problem during his exit interview with general manager Bob Myers this summer. Myers asked Green what he would say to himself if they changed seats, and Green said: “Shoot the damn ball. I need you to score.”
“He doesn’t want to be let off the hook for that,” Myers said. “He’s not that type of human being. He’s not going to run from it. It requires practice. It requires coming in with a new mind-set.
“We’re confident, and he seems motivated.”
This could have been a tricky conversation with Green, because two things might appear equally true.
The Warriors do win more often when he scores, and it’s also impossible to argue his point that a Stephen Curry 3-pointer is a better shot than a Green point-blank shot.
When he was widely mocked for passing up an open layup for a Damian Lillard 3-pointer in the United States’ 120-66 victory over Iran in the Tokyo Olympics, Green called the haters “bozos” on Twitter.
Without a true center until James Wiseman returns from meniscus surgery, the Warriors are expected to play Green at center quite a bit. From that spot, Green can quarterback the defense and be the decisionmaker in pick-and-roll sets with Curry on offense.
“The thing with Draymond is just the approach,” Kerr said. “When his approach is one of aggressiveness, he tends to score eight or 10 points off offensive rebounds, a couple 3s, a tip in, whatever it is.
“We really like when he has that approach to go out and get a few buckets. When he does that, we tend to be a better team.”
Briefly: Andrew Wiggins (knee) practiced Monday and looks good for Tuesday’s game at the Lakers, according to Kerr. The coach left open the possibility of a veteran or two sitting out the final two preseason games (Tuesday at the Lakers or Friday against Portland). … The Warriors signed free-agent guard Quinndary Weatherspoon, who has averaged 1.9 points in 6.4 minutes for San Antonio during the past two seasons. The 25-year-old has a shot at the Warriors’ available two-way contract, which allows a player to log minutes in both the NBA and G League, or he could be cut and assigned directly to Santa Cruz.