Draymond Green's New Role: Embracing the Three-Point Shot

Steve Kerr has seen enough of the Warriors’ offense grinding to a halt when defenses dare Draymond Green to shoot.

This season, he wants that dare punished.

On the Tom Tolbert Show, Kerr laid out one of the clearest philosophical tweaks of Golden State’s new era: Draymond Green has the green light from three when he’s left alone.

“We have to cut back on the turnovers. I want Draymond shooting the three when he’s open,” Kerr said. “When he shoots a three, he may not be a super high-percentage shooter, but possessions are good for us when he shoots.

“Because, number 1, it’s worth three. Number 2, we get offensive rebounds. Number 3, there’s a flow to the game that has to happen: if someone is open and they shoot it, the game keeps moving.”

That’s the crux of it. The Warriors can no longer afford empty, overcooked possessions where Green catches, surveys, hesitates, then tries to thread a risky pass into traffic while defenders swarm Stephen Curry. The turnovers have piled up. The rhythm has vanished. The math has turned against them.

So Kerr is betting on something simple: if you’re open, shoot it. Especially if your name is Draymond.

A New Reality for an Old Core

For years, opposing defenses have played the same card. Trap Curry high. Blitz him off screens. Send extra bodies at the slightest hint of daylight. Live with Green standing alone above the break, holding the ball, looking for a cutter.

Those days, Kerr hopes, are over.

If Green steps into those threes without hesitation, Golden State gets cleaner possessions, more shots on the rim, and better chances at offensive rebounds. Misses become opportunities instead of turnovers becoming fast breaks the other way. It’s not about turning Green into a sniper. It’s about forcing defenses to respect the shot just enough to unlock everything else.

The context, though, is harsher than it’s been in a decade.

This is not the loaded, star-studded Warriors roster of old. It’s thinner, more fragile, and heavily dependent on Curry’s brilliance. Kerr knows he has to squeeze every advantage out of structure and buy-in. That means role changes, new responsibilities, and uncomfortable asks for veterans who have already won it all.

Green’s three-point volume is one of those asks.

Draymond’s Future on the Line

Layered over this tactical shift is a stark personal reality: this could be Draymond Green’s final season in a Warriors uniform.

He signed a one-year extension this offseason for just under $30 million, a short-term bridge deal rather than a long-term commitment. Golden State, already facing the pressure to retool around Curry and fellow star Jimmy Butler, will need to invest heavily in fresh talent if it wants to contend again. That financial squeeze puts Green’s future in real doubt.

It is “highly unlikely,” based on the current landscape, that the Warriors will come close to matching this season’s salary for him going forward. The options are blunt. Take a discount to finish his career where it started, or find a new NBA home next summer.

That possibility isn’t theoretical. Green himself has admitted on a recent podcast that he nearly left for the Memphis Grizzlies a few years back. The idea of him in another jersey no longer feels impossible. It feels like a scenario the league quietly has to consider.

So the stakes of this season are enormous for him. If he wants a strong market in the summer—whether in Golden State or elsewhere—he has to deliver.

That means hitting threes at a more respectable clip. That means anchoring the defense at an elite level again. That means proving he’s still the kind of player who tilts playoff series, not just a nostalgic piece of a fading dynasty.

The front office has already started preparing for life after Draymond. The Warriors used a draft pick on Yaxel Lendeborg, a promising rookie who profiles as a potential long-term option at power forward. He’s not Green, not yet and maybe never, but his presence is a clear signal: the franchise is thinking ahead.

What It Will Take to Overachieve

Around the league, the question hangs over Golden State: what exactly can this team do to punch above its weight and force itself back into the playoff picture?

The checklist is unforgiving.

Curry needs to stay healthy after missing significant time last season. So does Kristaps Porzingis, whose skill set gives the Warriors a stretch-big dimension they’ve long coveted but who has his own long injury history. Butler, recovering from a torn ACL, must return by midseason and quickly find a high level of play if this group is going to have any real ceiling.

Even if all of that breaks right, nothing is guaranteed.

The West is brutal, and the margin for error is thin. Golden State can’t simply rely on its big names returning to form and expect the rest to fall into place. Players like Green and Brandin Podziemski have to stretch their games, accept uncomfortable adjustments, and do “new things,” as Kerr framed it, to justify their roles and minutes.

For Green, that starts with a shot he has often treated like a last resort.

This year, it’s a requirement.

Defenses will keep daring him. Kerr has drawn the line. The ball swings, the lane clogs, the crowd inhales, and Green stands alone beyond the arc.

Shoot it—or watch the era that defined his career slip further into the past.