There are two things that no one can take away from Draymond Green, his ability on the defensive end of the floor and his unshakeable confidence. After missing 34 games through injury this season, Green could be considered out of the running for the Defensive Player Of The Year award, but Dray believes that he has still done enough to deserve it.
Draymond is due to return to the court soon as the Golden State Warriors look to make another run and take back the 2nd seed from the Memphis Grizzlies and Green was asked about his DPOY candidacy by Mark Haynes in a press conference. Draymond explained that he hasn’t seen any player make their mark as the obvious candidate in his absence.
Can Draymond Green still win Defensive Player of the Year this season?#DubNation #draymondgreen pic.twitter.com/AbzD7byxZh
— Mark Haynes (@markhaynesnba) March 14, 2022
“Yeah, I’ve seen guys win with not many more games played than imma play. And like I said before… I probably missed about 32 down this stretch and in those 32 games, I don’t know what league everybody else been watching, but I have not seen anyone solidify themselves as Defensive Player Of The Year in those 32 games… I think we can all agree that through 34 games it was already solidified. Yeah, I think I still can.”
Green has played 34 games this season and he was the anchor for Golden State who were vying for the best record in the league before injury took him out and messed with their season. A healthy Draymond coming back in time to get some rhythm before the playoffs is sure to scare a lot of teams in the West considering that Klay Thompson just spoke about how influential he is for the Warriors.
Golden State has only 14 games left, which means Green can at best reach a total of 48 games played. This total is likely not enough to get him the DPOY award but he does have a point in that there isn’t really an outright candidate in the league for that position at the moment. Only time will tell if Dray gets his wish.
