Getty Golden State Warriors big man Draymond Green reacts during a game against the Dallas Mavericks.
Before missing the last six-plus weeks of action, Draymond Green was showing out for the Golden State Warriors. He continues to be a player who can put up 8-10 points, rebounds and assists, along with a couple blocks and steals, every single night. Moreover, his effective field goal percentage of 56.7 is a career-high and he’s playing like a DPOY candidate.
So, when Green was named an All-Star for the fourth time this season, it wasn’t exactly a shocking development.
With Green still netting accolades and filling the box score in year 10, the question of his Hall of Fame candidacy is more relevant than ever. On Basketball Reference, his HOF probability score checks in at 59.7%. However, many would say that he’s a lock for enshrinement.
Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated’s Ben Stinar just became the latest hoops pundit to go a step further than that.
First-Ballot Dray?
On Saturday, Stinar posed a question about Green’s HOF candidacy that was really more of a proclamation, tweeting, “We’re all in agreement that Draymond Green is a first ballot HOF’er… right?”
Again, he’s not the first person to say that Green should be one and done when he finally becomes eligible. And the very concept is one that’s getting increasingly difficult to argue against.
In the history of the NBA, only four players have logged career averages of eight-plus points, four-plus rebounds, four or more assists and at least one block and one steal per game. One of them, Chris Webber, is already a HOFer. Two more — Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo — are among the top 25 players in league history and surefire first-ballot guys.
The other is Green, and he’s clearing some of those marks by a lot.
Then there’s his All-Star nods, his three championships, six All-Defensive team selections, two All-NBA selections and a DPOY trophy to consider. Also — he’s a two-time Olympic gold medalist who was a first-team All-American as a collegiate.
All of that notwithstanding, not everyone agrees with Stinar’s assessment. And a lot of the people that don’t were happy to let him know about it.
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The Contrarians Speak
Stinar’s tweet elicited a wide range of responses, many of them serving as checkmarks in the yes column. That said, there were more than a few people who came to argue against Green as a HOFer:
“Talk about someone who benefited the most from playing with hall of famers his whole career,” tweeted one fan.
“Glorified role player that’s only good when Steph and Klay plays,” wrote another.
“Nah. He’s a piece of a great team but not a great player. He could never ever ever ever be the guy on a winning team. He’s Robert Horry,” declared a third fan.
“No he is great in his role but HOF no. Although being objective there are plenty already in who you can say he should be in over. IMO though he is a great warrior but not hof,” added a fourth respondent.
“We not even in agreement he’d EVER be a HOFer,” read a quote-tweet.
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