The 2017 Defensive Player of the Year, Draymond Green, has the goal of winning the award again this season. He's having a spectacular year defensively, and the Golden State Warriors currently have one of the highest defensive ratings in the league (4th in the West, 7th overall) because of Green. Despite that, the team is on a four-game losing streak, and continuing to lose will make Green's chances of getting the award nearly impossible. Green listed a few of his goals during his media availability.
“My goal for the second half of the season is to continue to get better defensively and make my push defensively for Defensive Player of the Year. Now obviously, that requires us to win games. So the next goal that I'm about to state is we need to win some games. I don't want to put a number on that, but we need to win a lot of games,” Green told ClutchPoints.
Winning would also help the case for Stephen Curry's chances of winning MVP. This season Curry is averaging 29.2 points per game to go along with 5.4 rebounds and 6.2 assists. These are MVP numbers, but without the lofty win total, voters won't pay those numbers much attention. Green mentioned helping his Warriors teammate was essential to him as well.
“If we do win games, then I can compete for that (Defensive Player award), and if we do win games, Steph can also compete for the MVP because he is playing at an MVP level. So we need to win games. That's my most important goal, and all my other goals will fall into place. If we just win basketball games. So that is my main goal for the second half of the season.”
The team understands winning more games is easier said than done, but it's a challenge the Warriors accept. After a blowout loss in their last game, the tanking topic came up, and people started to wonder if that was the new plan. Coach Steve Kerr addressed the media about his thoughts on tanking this season.
“We're not tanking, even though that's not what it looked like,” referring to the game against the Clippers.
Golden State is all in on winning more games and making a playoff push, which is a good thing for Green, Curry, and Warriors fans. The team's current record is 19-19, which places them in the 9th spot in the Western Conference. With a very tough stretch ahead with games against the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers, the squad is optimistic about their chances.
The Jazz will enter the Chase Center Sunday with the NBA's best record, 28-9. Even with an impressive record, people aren't entirely convinced about the team's success. Coach Kerr expressed his thoughts on how good Golden State's next opponent has performed this season.
“Well, Utah is the best team in the league,” Kerr said.”It's a huge challenge we're playing against the best team in the league.”
If the Warriors can make the postseason this year, it would be a massive help for Draymond Green and his personal goals. It goes without saying that the closer he and Stephen Curry get to those goals, team success should follow. It's just going to take some team consistency and some luck for these things to happen.
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