What Draymond Green's suspension means for Golden State - ESPN

Late Tuesday night, after the Warriors dropped a wholly winnable game on the road against the Kevin Durant-less Suns, Golden State coach Steve Kerr fielded a question about Draymond Green, who'd been ejected during the third quarter for spinning and clocking Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the face.

At what point does Green's behavior, which has now resulted in three ejections and two suspensions through 15 games this season, become too much, — more of a detriment, now, than the positive energy that fueled their dynasty?

«Draymond's still a hell of a player. Still a really good player,» said Kerr, who's won four NBA titles with Green. «So we need him. If we're gonna be a really good team, we need him.»

That might be be true. But at the moment, there are so many problems the Warriors need to solve that it's not entirely clear Green's availability --or his play so far this season-- would fix them.

On Tuesday, wing Andrew Wiggins, a hero of the 2022 Finals, shot just 1-for-7 in 14 minutes, his worst game in what has arguably been a career-worst season. Future Hall of Famer Klay Thompson, logging the worst effective field-goal rate of his career this season, was hardly any better, shooting just 2-for-10 in 27 minutes. Unceremoniously benched, neither of them, nor center Kevon Looney, was on the court in crunch time of the narrow loss.

Instead, Kerr elected to use rookie guard Brandin Podziemski and third-year forward Jonathan Kuminga to finish the contest. (Gary Payton II, the dependable guard, has been on the shelf since late November with a torn right calf.) And this is all taking place as Stephen Curry, at 35, is averaging 29 points per game on just 19 shots.

Then, of course, there's Green. Even setting aside the question of