National Basketball Association

Draymond Green’s suspension is a symptom, not the cause of the Warriors' woes

Updated Dec. 14, 2023 7:59 p.m. ET

Consider Draymond Green's latest disqualification a reckoning. Not just for Draymond. For the Golden State Warriors.

Green has been reportedly suspended indefinitely by the NBA after wildly swinging his arms and clocking Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic on the side of the head in the third quarter of the Warriors' 119-116 loss Tuesday night. He looked like a man overwhelmed by frustration, prompting Nurkic to say afterward, "What's going on with him? I don't know. Personally, I feel like that brother needs help. I'm glad he didn't try to choke me. At the same time, it ain't nothing to do with basketball."

Oh, but it does. It has to do with where Green and the Warriors find themselves in the basketball universe. Don't think for a minute that the Warriors coming into the game with a losing record and well outside the playoff picture wasn't a contributing factor. Or Green having more fouls than points and more turnovers than assists or rebounds while Nurkic was on his way to a near triple-double. Or that seven Warriors have better defensive ratings than Green, a former Defensive Player of the Year

When expectations outweigh ability, frustration is a natural byproduct.

Green and the Warriors are holding themselves to the standards they established over the last decade and not coming close to meeting them. They can feel the young guns closing in on them. The Sacramento Kings, who they kept in their place last spring, knocked them out of the in-season tournament with a last-second shot. They've played four close games with the coltish Oklahoma City Thunder and been out-executed down the stretch or in overtime (twice) in three of them.

"This was a long time coming," one Eastern Conference executive said. "It's just the first season where Draymond and the Warriors are on the losing end of clutch-time minutes. They've played relatively stress free late-minute basketball for eight years."

Well, except for the two years when injuries dismantled their championship core of Green, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, relegating the Warriors to the draft lottery. But maybe those count as stress-free as well, because there were no expectations. Coach Steve Kerr used those two years to develop fresh legs: Jordan Poole, Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga and Andrew Wiggins. All of whom played varying roles in the Warriors snaring one more title.

But the reality? The Warriors' dynastic days should have been long over by now. No team in history has made five consecutive runs to the finals, fallen completely out of the playoff picture for two years and then returned to win another title with essentially the same core. The 2022 championship deluded both the franchise and their fans into thinking the young talent had given the dynasty a second wind. There's no greater proof of that than the decision to replace the 33-year-old Green's remaining year with a four-year, $100 million extension last summer.

There's little chance the Warriors would have done that had they recognized the title for what it now appears to be: a miraculous, return-from-the-dead, last gasp.

But now there's no more running from reality. They are not good enough to cover up the blemishes that have, in part, always been there. The occasional head-scratching turnover by Curry or Thompson's eye-raising shot selection or Green's stomach-knotting outbursts were once viewed as necessary byproducts of what made them perennial champions. They all pushed the envelope in their own way, and they collectively broke new ground, raising four championship banners out of it.

Curry is finding it harder to shake free to make game-winning shots that compensate for the ill-timed off-target pass. Thompson is no longer one of the best two-way wings in the league. Green is no longer a league-wide riddle as a 6-foot-6 defensive anchor and play-making point forward. The frustration of coming to terms with all that is visible. More so with Green than anyone else.

"Draymond has lost it," a Western Conference scout said. "I'm sure they regret paying him. Because now they can't move him."

The Warriors were once the masters of multiple aspects of the game. Shooting. Team defense. (Remember the "Lineup of Death"?) Versatility ("Strength in Numbers.") Poise under pressure. ("Gold blooded.")

But what is their area of expertise now? They are almost perfectly mediocre. Offensive rating: 15th. Defensive rating: 17th. Their 3-point shooting percentage: 14th. Record in the league overall: 20th.

Part of Green's game has always involved being strategically reckless, allowing him to intimidate the bigger, stronger opponents the Warriors' small-ball system has required him to match up with for the better part of his career. But it was a minor element, far outweighed by his gifted passing, floor vision, rebounding, and a mastery of various defensive techniques — positioning, footwork, leverage and even deception, making an offensive player think he was going to be one place and showing up in another.

It's no longer a small part. A combination of his overall ability and the Warriors' margin for error waning has resulted in more antics and fewer legit game-turning plays. Earlier in his career, Green might have a suspect incident once a season. Tracking back to a one-game suspension after stepping on Domantas Sabonis' chest in the first round of last year's playoffs, followed by a five-game suspension for his chokehold on Rudy Gobert in November and now the Nurkic incident, he's averaging one every other month.

Make no mistake, though, his bravado and physicality have been a vital piece of the Warriors' success. Without him, the Warriors were — and are — a finesse team; what, for comparison, the Indiana Pacers are now. Which works until someone puts a piece of steak in the middle of the table and says winner takes all. (Re: the Lakers' bullying of Indy in the In-Season Tournament final.) Having someone willing to put their foot on an opponent's chest or in their groin or primal scream in their face is an essential asset.

Essential for a championship-contending team, that is. No one would rightly describe the Warriors that way as of right now, other than maybe themselves. Executives from both conferences suggested Green's latest suspension could change that, particularly if it sinks the Warriors to the bottom of the standings.

"This helps the Warriors," the Eastern Conference executive said of Green's suspension. "They're going nowhere with the same old Big Three. This may give Kuminga and Moody a chance to step up."

A Western Conference executive agreed. "It might be time to play the younger guys and move on from the Klay-Draymond-Steph nucleus," he said.

It is a reckoning the Warriors are going to face sooner or later. Green might have just made it sooner.

Ric Bucher is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He previously wrote for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and has written two books, "Rebound," on NBA forward Brian Grant’s battle with young onset Parkinson’s, and "Yao: A Life In Two Worlds." He also has a daily podcast, "On The Ball with Ric Bucher." Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.