A leading candidate for the Defensive Player of the Year award, Warriors All-Star Draymond Green is one of the most versatile and savvy defenders in the league. Green can guard all five positions, is able to act as a rim protector and is capable of locking down opponents in the post and on the wing. In large part because of Green, the Warriors have the second best defense in the league, giving up just 101.1 points per 100 possessions.
Defense has definitely been Green's calling card since he started playing a regular role with Golden State but as skilled as he is defensively, the Warriors All-Star doesn't take all the credit for his defensive prowess. Ever a team player, Green credits his teammates, especially former teammate Andrew Bogut for his excellence on defense.
From Green's Q&A with Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News:
Q: (Andrew) Bogut was kind of your running partner for a couple years, very vocal. How much has changed for you without him this season?
GREEN: I think it forced me to grow without having Bogut. Because… if I made a mistake, he would cover up for me. He was so vocal that it was always that voice that gave me that comfort, also.
And he taught me so much, man. Bogut–I wouldn’t be the defender I am without Bogut. He taught me a ton. Angles. How to guard the post. You name it, he taught me a ton.
But not having that shield there, it kind of forced me to grow more. Just because I knew if I made a mistake–Bogut’s right there at the rim, it’s getting erased. Any mistake that I made…
We were so on a string together, me and Bogut literally–although both of us talked, we could do stuff without saying a word. He would go there and I would bounce back…
We were so in tune together that, as much as we did talk, there were times where I wouldn’t say nothing, he wouldn’t say nothing, and it would just work out.
Because we knew how to read each other and play off each other. Having Bogut there was kind of like a free pass to take chances and know that he’s going to cover up for my mistakes.
So (losing him) made me be more solid, made me talk even more. It made me talk a lot more… everything.
And it look a little while to figure that out at the beginning of the year because it was just different. But it definitely made me grow for sure.
When healthy, Bogut was an excellent defender at the center position and is a big reason why Golden State was so hard to score against in recent years. But now that Bogut is gone, Green has assumed the role of being the backbone of Golden State's defense and he is excelling at it.
Yet as Green says, that's all because of Bogut, who helped mold him into the defender that he is today and in the process built the foundation of Golden State's sensational defense.
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