Draymond Green continues to be a big part of everything the Golden State Warriors do in his 14th NBA season, but that also includes creating offensive limitations that the franchise has failed to fix in recent years.
Most tend to look at the positives that Green brings to the floor and especially on the defensive end, but The Ringer's Bill Simmons has said the quiet part out loud on the veteran's lack of shooting/scoring threat while standing at just 6'6".
Warriors haven't quite fixed their ongoing Draymond Green problem
This isn't a new issue by any means, but it didn't stop Simmons from referring to it again during a recent episode of his podcast alongside Rob Mahoney.
“I just don't think it's sustainable in the same way. So you almost need him (Green) as a four playing with a center. But if that center can't shoot either, now I have two non-shooters in the league where everybody loves space," Simmons said.
In fairness to Golden State, it's something they've tried to fix in the last 12 months by targeting stretch bigs, rather than continuing with the likes of Trayce Jackson-Davis and Kevon Looney, the latter of which was free to walk to the New Orleans Pelicans on a two-year, $16 million deal in free agency.
The Warriors unearthed second-round rookie Quinten Post in the second half of last season, with the seven-footer shooting a team-high 40.8% from 3-point range. The front office then signed Al Horford in free agency, hoping the veteran center would give them a two-way presence to partner with Green in the front court.
However, the management of Horford has limited the 39-year-old to only one start this season, while Steve Kerr has been slow to fully trust in Post as a starting center. It's left Green to manage his fair share of workload as a small-ball center, having played 28% of his minutes in that position -- the most since the 2020-21 season -- according to Basketball Reference.
Simmons is right. The league is too big, too talented and Green is too old for the Warriors to have any level of sustained success playing in this manner. Golden State have a possible solution in Post who needs to get a consistent run of starting center opportunity when Green returns from injury, while improved production from Horford will also going along way.
Failing that, the Warriors might need to consider other options which is why they've now been linked to Myles Turner, or potentially look at moving Green himself in what would be a massive identity shift on both ends of the floor.