Draymond Green Explains How Steve Kerr May Have 'Hindered' His NBA Career with Warriors

Team success will be a major part of Draymond Green's Hall of Fame case when he does retire, but he believes he could have made more of an offensive mark on an individual level if head coach Steve Kerr didn't prevent him from doing so.

Importantly, though, Green holds no ill-will toward his coach for not involving him more in the offense during his career.

"As much as he's done for me in basketball, a part of me thinks he's hindered me in my career and what I could have become," Green said (12-minute mark) on Wednesday's episode of The Draymond Green Show (h/t Nick Avila of NBC Sports Bay Area). "But what he's also helped me become. Like you got to take the good with the bad, man.

"You know, when I think of who I was offensively as a player and who I became, I think a part of that is due to him. I don't hold that against him. I'm forever grateful that he still put me in a position to be successful and that I could become Draymond Green despite my offensive role on our team."

Green was the Big Ten Player of the Year and an All-American in his final season at Michigan State in 2011-12 and averaged 16.2 points per game. He was a go-to option in the Spartans' offense and connected on 38.8 percent of his three-point attempts.

Yet much of his peak during his NBA career has come on Warriors teams loaded with offensive talent such as Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson. That put Green into more of a facilitator role who focused on impacting the games in other ways with his defense, rebounding and passing.

"You know, when [Kevin Durant] came from 2016 on, I have not had a play in our playbook," Green said. "Not a single play that we run for me in our playbook since 2016. You think that would hinder someone as an offensive player? Of course. So at times, I go home and I think about my career and I'm happy as hell of what I've been able to build. But at times, sometimes I sit there and think, 'What could I really have been if I stayed true to my game and what I really was?'"

Perhaps Green would have made more than four All-Star games during his career if he had more plays called for him or was in a different situation on a different team. He surely would have a higher career scoring average than 8.7 points per game and would have averaged double-digit field-goal attempts in more than just one of his 14 seasons to this point.

But he likely wouldn't have four championships.

The Warriors became a modern-day dynasty in large part because of the way Kerr was able to fit all the pieces together. Green's versatility and defensive prowess allowed Golden State to unleash small-ball lineups that were matchup nightmares for opponents.

He won a Defensive Player of the Year in that role and is also a nine-time All-Defensive selection.

Green also made it clear he has plenty of appreciation for how it has all played out.

"I wouldn't trade it for nothing in the world," he said. "There's not a single other coach that you say, 'Well, if you could have picked this.' Nah, it's that guy. That's the guy. … I'm forever grateful for Steve Kerr. What he's brought to me in my life, I could never, I couldn't repay him.

"You know, obviously our success playing the way I've played, becoming the player I become for this organization, for this dynasty, which ultimately helped him as well. I could never repay him. So, [I'm] forever grateful."