Draymond Green: Warriors' Season Would Be 'Unsuccessful' Without Championship

For Draymond Green, the stakes in the upcoming 2020-21 NBA season are clear: It's championship or bust.

"When I don't win a title, that's unsuccessful," he told reporters Monday. "There's no moral victories. There's no, 'Oh, this is our first year together.... Klay is [out].' I don't really roll like that."

Green touched on a number of other topics, from his own health and rookie center James Wiseman to Klay Thompson, who is out for the season with a torn Achilles:

The Warriors looked like a championship contender before Thompson suffered his Achilles injury. It's a far bigger question whether a team led by Stephen Curry, Green, Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Wiseman can get into the postseason, let alone win a title. 

The Western Conference is loaded. The two Los Angeles teams sit atop the conference, while the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz feel like postseason locks. The Portland Trail Blazers and Dallas Mavericks are tough to bet against, too. If the Houston Rockets keep James Harden for this season, they'll be in the mix, while the Phoenix Suns added Chris Paul in the offseason and look ready to contend for a playoff spot.

Add in teams with younger talent like the Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans and Minnesota Timberwolves, and getting into the postseason in the West will be a major challenge. 

The experienced Curry and Green give the Warriors a leg up on many of the younger teams. But this Warriors squad will have a much different look and feel than the team that won three titles this decade. 

Head coach Steve Kerr knows getting a new roster to come together in a short preseason will be a tall task, as he told reporters last week:

"It takes time for players to get to know one another, to get comfortable playing as a five-man unit—both offensively and defensively. And we're trying to do it in a really quick training camp, and we're doing it after nine months off. So it's almost like we're starting the race a little bit behind. Especially the teams that were in the bubble—they had a lot of extra time. And I don't use that as an excuse, I use it just to give you the answer you're looking for in terms of what's the biggest challenge. We're trying to put together a team on the fly pretty quickly. And it's not easy."

It may not be easy, but for Green, it also won't be successful without a title.