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After 32 games, Draymond Green finally returns to the Warriors on March 14 against the Wizards. Before the game, Steve Kerr said that Green would be capped at 20 minutes, as he works his way back after a back injury that could linger if not treated properly.
The Michigan State product has been vocal all season in regards to winning the Defensive Player of Year award. Green has only played in 35 games this year, and with only 13 games left in the season, he won’t be able to crack the 50-game mark for the season. However, that doesn’t mean Green thinks he’s out of the running for winning the DPOY this season.
After shootaround on the morning of March 14, Green spoke to the media and was asked if he still believed he could win DPOY.
“Yeah, I’ve seen guys win with not many more games played than I’m going to play.”
However, that is not true. According to Basketball Reference, if Green were to win the award, he would have played the fewest games to win. Green’s favorite target, Rudy Gobert, won the award during the 2017-18 season with only 68% of the season that he played in. If Green plays the rest of games this season, he will finish around 58% played.
Green continued and went on to call out the entire league, as he says he hasn’t seen anyone make a legitimate case to run away with the award.
“I don’t know what league everybody else been watching, but I have not seen anyone solidify themselves as the Defensive Player of the Year.
When I look around the league Mikal Bridges has been really good defensively, and Jaren Jackson has picked it up defensively. But, I don’t think anyone has solidified themselves. I think we can all agree through 34 [32] games it was already solidified. So yeah, I think I can win.”
Green’s claim set Twitter on fire, as people were outraged to the thought that he still had a chance to win after missing such a large portion of the season.
Vegas Is Counting Draymond Green Out
It seems from the general consensus that Bam Adebayo should be a serious candidate to win the Defensive Player of Year award.
Even Vegas seems to agree.
As Sam Quinn of CBS Sports mentions, Adebayo has missed his own chunk of games. However, according to Vegas, the Heat center is projected second most likely to win the award at +250.
It definitely feels conjecture as to who should be under serious consideration and who should not. Compared with Adebayo, Green is on pace to miss about ten more games, yet he seems to be out of the running already.
Green Is Expected to Play on Minutes Restriction
As previously mentioned, Green will be under a strict cap in minutes, in hopes of getting him ready for the postseason. After shootaround, Green tells reporters he expects to be around 20 minutes for the next week.
The forward has been known to be against minutes restrictions, as he previously said before. However with back injuries, they may linger and the consensus belief is they should approach this with cautious optimism going forward.
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