Statistically speaking, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green is having his worst shooting season since his rookie year. But does that make him a “liability” when he’s on the court?
He’s shooting 37.2% from the field and 22.2% from 3-point range — the worst percentages he’s posted since his rookie season from 2012-2013.
Because of these shooting woes, Warriors legend Rick Barry went so far to call the former NBA Defensive Player of the Year a “liability” during a recent radio appearance.
“The problem is that Draymond is not playing well right now,” Barry said on 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast.” “It’s not a good thing. If you look at his stats from two seasons ago, he’s going down in every category, his minutes obviously are down, his shooting percentage is down from 2’s, his shooting percentage is down from 3’s, his shooting percentage is down from the free-throw line, so he just needs to get back to playing at the level that he played before. They really do need him.
“Right now, he’s become a liability, even in that game, I mean nobody guards him, they force him off to the 3-point line and they walk off and he’s shooting 20-something percent from 3’s, I mean why would you guard him out there? And that cuts down on his effectiveness, he needs to be able to knock down some of those 3’s. If you look back a number of seasons ago, he was shooting 40 percent from 3’s a lot of times. So right now he’s in a bit of a funk and hopefully he can get himself back to where he was a couple of seasons ago, but right now he’s not helping it.”
Barry only referenced Green’s poor shooting when slapping down the “liability” label, avoiding discussion of Green’s ejection vs. the Charlotte Hornets that cost his team a victory they had in hand.
Head coach Steve Kerr would certainly refute Barry’s assessment. After the Warriors’ 110-107 win over the Indiana Pacers earlier this week, Kerr praised Green for his 11 assists and other plays that don’t show up on the stat sheet.
“Draymond just ties it all together,” Kerr rold reporters. “He made some plays tonight that nobody on Earth can make, just because of his brain, his anticipation, his physicality. He dug out a loose ball late in the game that he looked like he had no chance at. Nobody else on Earth was going to beat him to that loose ball.”