Draymond Green is aiming to make another All-Defensive team in 2024-25

Draymond Green is aiming to make another All-Defensive team in 2024-25

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green is one of the best defenders of his generation. But the 34-year-old did not make an All-Defensive team for the first time since 2019-20 last year after appearing in just 55 games, 10 below the 65-game minimum threshold.

Green, who’s made eight All-Defensive teams over his first 12 seasons, is making it a goal to make it back in 2024-25.

“That’s my goal,” he said on a recent episode of The Draymond Green Show. “I know I wasn’t eligible because of the games I missed, but it still pissed me off. I want to keep building on what I hope ultimately becomes a Hall of Fame career. The more accolades, the better.

“This year, that’s one of my goals: To get back in the Defensive Player of the Year race, get back on All-Defense First Team, and just keep running that up.”

Green is off to a strong start defensively to begin the 2024-25 season, averaging 2.5 stocks through the team’s first six games, in addition to 7.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists.

He’s only playing 26.8 minutes per night, having played north of 30 minutes twice entering Monday. Plus, head coach Steve Kerr wants to utilize the team’s depth with Jonathan Kuminga, Kyle Anderson, Trayce Jackson-Davis and others. That could make it difficult for Green to get run as the season goes on, should he stay healthy and out of trouble.

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That said, he’s also second on the team in minutes, so maybe this is a moot point come the New Year. Stephen Curry‘s missed three games due to injury and the rotation will figure itself out over time, so I think Green will find himself in the conversation for an All-Defensive team regardless if he keeps this track up.

The league is as skilled as ever, but and Green is one of the few who can guard every position at an incredibly high level. He may not be tasked to do that on a night-to-night basis anymore, but he’s still more than capable of taking on the challenge. There’s a reason why he’s won a Defensive Player of the Year award with four other top-5 finishes–the most recent coming in 2022-23, when he was fourth.

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