Getty Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green celebrates during a game against the Golden State Warriors.
More and more recently, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has resembled the player who helped propel his team to five straight NBA Finals appearances. However, Green’s latest effort on the hardwood may have been his best of the season so far.
In 33 minutes of action against the Kings on Monday, the 31-year-old logged a 16-point, 11-rebound, 10-assists triple-double. He also added two blocks and two steals while connecting on seven of his 11 attempts from the field.
While Stephen Curry’s continued mastery, Andrew Wiggins meeting with his massive potential, the emergence of Jordan Poole and incredible roster depth have all helped pull the Warriors back into the title picture, Green’s contributions cannot be ignored.
He has been so good, in fact, that one major hoops outlet is picking him to make a return to the All-Star Game in 2022.
B/R Panel Votes Green into All-Star Spot
On Thursday, a panel of Bleacher Report’s best and brightest hoops minds, including A. Sherrod Blakely, Sean Highkin, Andy Bailey, Greg Swartz, Mo Dakhil, Eric Pincus and Dan Favale, voted to determine its All-Star squads from both conferences for the 2021-22 season.
Where the Western Conference was concerned, there weren’t any surprises among the first five (given that a pool of writers executed the vote), which came in as follows:
Backcourt: Stephen Curry (14 voter points), Chris Paul (10)
Frontcourt: Nikola Jokic (13), LeBron James (12), Paul George (9)
The West’s bench was rounded out by Donovan Mitchell, Karl-Anthony Towns, Luka Doncic, Devin Booker, Green, Rudy Gobert and Ja Morant. And while none of those are surprising picks, Green’s inclusion is significant as he has been absent from the All-Star proceedings since 2018.
His candidacy is hard to ignore, though. The Warriors are 25-6 on the year and Green is currently averaging 8.4 points, 8.0 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks per contest. He has also been getting buzz as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate.
The writers involved were asked to vote on five starters and seven reserves from each conference. A simple points system was used to narrow the field down to a final roster of 12 players for each conference — starter votes were worth two points and reserve votes were valued at a point apiece.
B/R then mimicked the league’s format of selecting the top three frontcourt players and the top two backcourt players from each conference as the starters. The seven bench spots were subsequently earmarked for the next top seven vote-getters from each conference.
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Andrew Wiggins Also Received Votes
At this juncture, the best argument that one can make against Green’s inclusion would probably be that he’s not the Warrior best suited to join Steph in the big game. As great as Green has been, Wiggins’ offensive mastery has, at the least, been an equally important factor in Golden State’s success this season.
Through 29 games, Wiggins is averaging 18.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per contest, which are numbers we have come to expect from him. However, he has also logged career-best marks from the field (49.1%) and from three-point range (42.2%).
As such, Wiggins joined Damian Lillard, Anthony Davis, Dejounte Murray, Anthony Edwards and DeAndre Ayton in the “also receiving votes” category.
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