Does Draymond Green to the Sacramento Kings Actually Make Sense?
The Sacramento Kings were one of the 2022-23 NBA season's best stories. After nearly two decades out of the playoffs, this bunch of Kings busted that streak and put up a historically great offensive rating.
With almost no playoff experience to speak of (at least relative to their first-round opponent), they pushed the defending champion Golden State Warriors to seven games.
And now, the proverbial heart and soul of that Warriors suddenly seems like a very real target for Sacramento.
After unloading Richaun Holmes to the Dallas Mavericks, the Kings emerged from Thursday night's draft with the ability to get to over $30 million in cap space while still having all of De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Kevin Huerter, Malik Monk and Keegan Murray under contract for 2023-24.
Plugging Green into the spot potentially vacated by unrestricted free agent Harrison Barnes makes enough sense that multiple reporters and media personalities are making the connection.
On ESPN, Brian Windhorst referred to Kings coach Mike Brown (formerly an assistant with the Warriors) as a "Draymond Whisperer" and added, "With this cap space, [the Kings] can blow what Golden State would want to pay out of the water."
And Windhorst wasn't the only well-connected media personality to opine on a potential Green-to-Sacramento deal.
"Draymond Green is a free agent," The Athletic's John Hollinger wrote. "The Warriors have to be sweating right now, at the very least, because there is now a highly plausible rival Green bidder on the market."
Like Windhorst, Hollinger was referring to the upstart Kings, who could easily justify a hefty contract for Green to start with Fox, Huerter, Murray and Sabonis.
The most obvious reason to offer him a big payday is his defense.
Despite entering his mid-30s (2022-23 was Draymond's age-32 campaign), Green ranked in the 99th percentile in defensive estimated plus-minus (EPM is one of the most trusted catch-all metrics among NBA front offices).
He'd gladly assume the signal-calling, middle-linebacker-like role for Sacramento.
He still had solid steal, block and defensive rebound rates in 2022-23. Only five players logged 1,500-plus minutes and matched or exceeded each of Green's per-possession averages for those three counting stats.
And when he was on the floor, the Warriors allowed a whopping 9.8 fewer points per 100 possessions.
More important than all those numbers, though, is the savvy, leadership and attitude Green would bring to a defense that severely lacked all three.
Sacramento had the 25th-ranked defense in the regular season, and that's ultimately what doomed its return to the playoffs. The Kings gave up an average of 120.8 points per game in their four postseason losses to the Warriors.
And they had to suffer that defeat in a series in which Draymond stomped on Sabonis and went full pro wrestling to the Sacramento crowd afterward.
Getting over that wouldn't be easy for Sabonis or the Kings faithful, but what Draymond adds could help those wounds heal quite a bit faster.
Beyond the defense, Green's ability to play the kind of read-and-react offense that Brown brought to Sacramento would fit in right away.
Fox obviously isn't the shooter Stephen Curry is, but pick-and-rolls with those two would give the guard more opportunities to attack downhill. And flanking them with the shooting of Huerter, Murray and Monk would make defenses wary of collapsing on Fox's drives or dumpoffs to Draymond.
You could also expect some sharp, tic-tac-toe-ish interior passing between Green and Sabonis, two of the better distributing bigs in basketball.
And though it may put a lot of stress on a body that's already been in the NBA since 2012 and played 157 playoff games, Green could also address Sacramento's need for a backup center.
At least in spurts, the Kings could embrace the small-ball that made Golden State so dangerous in the mid-2010s, with a lineup of Fox, Monk, Huerter, Murray and Draymond.
In sum, the answer to the question in the headline is an unequivocal yes.
But Green and the Kings aren't the only parties here.
Draymond has been a Warrior for over a decade. He'll enter the Hall of Fame as one. While in Golden State, he's won four championships and a Defensive Player of the Year Award. He's made four All-Star teams.
And perhaps most importantly, he developed an unstoppable chemistry with the greatest shooter of all time (and one of the top 5-15 players ever) in Curry.
Walking away from that, even for a significant pay raise, would be excruciating.
But Sacramento may be able to make the gap big enough to ease that pain.
Golden State's luxury tax bill is going to be staggering if Green re-signs.
And there's no guarantee it even gets to that three years, $70 million threshold. The Kings can go with three or four years at $30-plus million per season. Or, in terms more like those in the tweet above, four years and $120 to $130 million.
That's a huge difference.
And beyond potentially adding extra years of generational wealth for his family, Green would have an opportunity to seal or add to his legacy outside the orbit of Curry, Klay Thompson and Steve Kerr.
Sabonis and Fox would still be Sacramento's best players, but Green could very easily be their leader. And if he helped get them to the promised land, he'd have a legacy feather in his cap that Curry and Thompson don't: a title without the other two-thirds of that trio.
Of course, we're getting way too far down the road now.
Curry and the Warriors, fresh off the reported addition of Chris Paul, figure to be in the mix again next season. The Los Angeles Lakers are likely to make some moves to support LeBron James and Anthony Davis. And the Denver Nuggets have all five of their starters under contract in 2023-24.
Getting out of the West is still going to be an absolute bear.
But Green would give the Kings a better chance of doing so than they've had since Chris Webber, Peja Stojaković, Mike Bibby, Doug Christie and Vlade Divac took them to the conference finals in 2002.
