The Golden State Warriors have looked like one of the NBA's best teams to start the season, starting 4-1 and taking down four Western Conference playoff teams from last season. In the process, Draymond Green has demonstrated a newfound shooting touch -- and one that could raise the Warriors' ceiling into the stratosphere of contention.
In five games to start the year, Green is shooting 45 percent from deep on four 3-point attempts per game. The accuracy is by far the best of his career, while he has only ever hit this volume of attempts once before back in 2014-15. It's a bold new look for Green and has been a key part of the Warriors' No. 9 ranked offense that is second in the league in 3-point percentage.
Green has certainly gone through hot streaks before, but he is rarely this consistent. If he hits a 3-pointer in his next game, he will be tied for the fifth-longest streak of his career hitting at least one triple; his career-best mark was 12-straight games in 2015-16 during the one great shooting season of his career. Steph Curry, of course, holds the NBA record in this area, hitting a three in 268 consecutive games.
Locked-in fans will remember the start of last season when Green was likewise dialed in and jacking up shots from outside. From the end of October into early December 2024, he shot at least three 3-pointers in 17 consecutive games, the longest such streak of his career. Not coincidentally, the Warriors got off to a blazing hot start last season.
Green is raising the Warriors' ceiling
The difficulty in fitting players around Draymond Green offensively over the years has been his relative lack of a 3-point shot. He has always taken some shots from outside, but over the middle of his career, the volume and accuracy waned significantly. That prevents the Warriors from pairing him consistently with a non-shooting big or adding a forward who likes to primarily operate inside.
With Jimmy Butler on board and Jonathan Kuminga rising into a more prominent role, the Warriors have needed Green to shoot more from outside and to make enough to keep defenses honest. Five games do not suddenly change the scouting report for opposing defenses, but Green is making them pay thus far.
That means massive things for this team as they move through the season with their eyes on the playoffs. Al Horford brings a needed stretch element to the roster, but when he is not on the court, Green can now add some of that spacing element and put even more strain on defenses trying to stick with Stephen Curry and wall the paint off from Butler and Kuminga. The dribble handoff and pick-and-pop dance with Curry and Green becomes all the more lethal if Green is confident enough to shoot from outside and accurate enough to make those shots.
Head coach Steve Kerr has spoken at length about the difficulties of modern spacing in trying to fit Kuminga and Butler and Green all together. That's why the team drafted Quenten Post and signed Al Horford over the last two seasons. Yet if Draymond Green can be a consistent stretch element -- hardly the next Splash Brother, obviously, but perhaps a Splash Uncle -- it opens up new heights for this offense and, by proxy, the defense.
Green's shooting may tail off, but if he can shoot four times a game and hit 38 percent or more of them, it will mean a lot for the Warriors and their chances of being true contenders. The old dog is learning a new trick, and it should have the rest of the NBA terrified if it stays true.