Draymond Green usually sits next to Stephen Curry on the Warriors’ long flights.
While teammates sleep nearby, Green and Curry discuss everything from parenting to politics and business ventures. Sometimes, when Curry tells a joke at the right time, Green laughs so loudly that someone needs to remind them to speak softly.
At such times this season, Warriors newcomers were familiar with the special bond between two future Hall of Fame. Their friendship is built on mutual respect and shared experiences. As Green and Curry became essential members of the recent Golden State dynasty, they began to see in each other an authenticity that people often lose when they become famous.
Even though Green grew up below the poverty line in Saginaw, Michigan, and Curry enjoyed the comfortable lifestyle that comes with being the son of an NBA player, they didn’t let celebrity traps obscure their passion for family and community. . As Warriors’ technical assistant Bruce Fraser said: “There is a kind of respect for the spirit that unites them. Draymond is an aggressive guy, and he knows that Steph is real. Both are true to who they are. “
This is where one of the Warriors’ greatest assets lies: as Green and Curry know what each does, on and off the court, they recognize how to get the most out of each other. While a revised support cast adapts to Golden State’s reading and reaction system, Green must show newcomers when and where Curry wants the ball.
It is no coincidence that Curry began to show the extent of his greatness this season as Green regained his breath after losing the first four games with a muscle strain in his right foot. In five games, Curry averaged 26.4 points from 42% of shots (32.1% in the 3-point range) while struggling to get touches on his favorite points. In the last two games, with Green accelerating the pace and organizing the attack, Curry had an average of 46 points in 55% of the shots (46.4% in the range of 3 points).
“Draymond obviously helped a lot in terms of organizing us, especially when I get off the ball,” said Curry. “You see the images a little more clearly and understand the spacing.”
What makes Green so important for unlocking Curry’s potential is not the passage itself, since most of Green’s feeds for Curry have been fairly routine. It is Green’s ability to anticipate – not just what Curry is about to do, but how the defense will react – that allows him to hit Curry at the right time.
At the end of Curry’s 62-point career performance against Portland on Sunday, Green received a Curry pass at the top of the arc, turned left, threw the ball back to Curry and put a tough canvas on striker Robert Covington while Curry took a dribble and aimed for a 3-point attempt. The fact that the shot left the ring did not diminish the effectiveness of the play: in a case when Portland was doing everything it could to curb Curry, Green was able to give him a clean look, thanks to Green’s time and the conscience of block.
This level of feeling is central to Green’s game, but it also shows the synergy he developed with Curry. Over the past nine years, as the Warriors have been from marginal playoff teams to heavyweights in the league, Green and Curry have learned everything about each other, from the cereal they like to how they handle adversity.
While Green was irritated by the sporadic time of playing as a novice, Curry reminded him of being patient. Three years later, when Green tried to face coach Steve Kerr during the break of a February 2016 game in Oklahoma City, Curry held his friend. After Green was suspended for an unpaid game for delivering a fiery speech about Kevin Durant in November 2018, Curry went to Green’s house to talk about everything that had just happened.
Along the way, Green saw that Curry was a loyal competitor who would do whatever was necessary to help a teammate. This instilled a confidence between the two that has only strengthened in the past two years. Earlier this season, when critics turned to social media to speculate that Curry’s best years were behind him, Green told reporters, “Wait. He will show you what he is capable of. “
But to do that, Curry needed Green. Over the first five games of the season, Curry touched the ball in midfield 31 times every 36 minutes, a lower rate than in any season since Kerr became head coach in 2014. On Sunday, Green accumulated eight assists when Curry set the season maximum in total touches (88), midfield touches (44) and possession time (6.6 minutes).
Sometimes, in the last two games, Kerr found himself fascinated watching Curry and Green. Green’s way of freelancing outside of his standard reading to release Curry with a canvas or give him the ball in a dribble-handoff may seem simple. But after more than 32 years in and around the NBA, Kerr understands how accurate Green and Curry must be to execute such moves.
“They know each other so well,” said Kerr. “Your pick-and-roll game is beautiful to watch.”
The feeling that Green and Curry have for each other was useful at crucial moments for the Warriors. In May 2019, with a victory escaping at the end of Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals in Houston, Kerr asked Green to set high screens for Curry on four consecutive possessions. Four consecutive shots, the Warriors escaped with a decisive victory in the series.
But just as Green and Curry make the best of each other, they tend to work when the other is left out. Last season, with Curry limited to five games because of an injury, Green looked lost at both ends of the court.
In mid-November, after Curry had spent months expressing confidence that Green would return to his dynamic ways, the two received a text message from general manager Bob Myers: “Can you join a conference call real quick?” As Myers told them that Klay Thompson had suffered a ruptured right Achilles tendon at the end of the season, Green and Curry did not say a word.
Wednesday game
Who: LA Clippers (5-3) in the Warriors (4-3)
When: 7 PM
TV / radio: NBCSBA, ESPN / 95.7
Finally, when the initial shock subsided the next day, Green and Curry talked about how they were unwilling to endure another lost season.
In the past two weeks, when Golden State lost its first two games by 65 points combined, Green and Curry made sure to remain seated together on team flights.
“Steph and Draymond have been together for a long time, so you know they are kind of on the same string at all,” said point guard Kelly Oubre Jr., who the Warriors acquired from Oklahoma City to help replace Thompson. “They will continue to just use this and just help new guys like me to follow suit.”
Connor Letourneau covers the Warriors for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Con_Chron