https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/warriors/article/Draymond-Green-says-Warriors-nowhere-near-a-16546752.php

LOS ANGELES — Draymond Green has a message for all of the Warriors’ players, coaches and executives who said they have a championship-caliber team during the preseason.

Slow your roll.

“This team is nowhere near a championship team,” Green said Tuesday before the Warriors played their first of an 82-game regular-season slog and seven months before the postseason starts. “I think we have a lot of pieces that can grow to be that. I don’t doubt that, at all, but we also can’t get fooled by a 5-0 preseason and say: ‘Oh, man, we’re a championship team.’

“We’ve got a long f—ing way to go, and that requires a hell of a process. That requires sacrifice. That requires a different level of focus, a different level of dedication in order to do that.”

Green knows all about what it takes to win, having claimed three NBA titles and two Olympic gold medals after helping Michigan State to three Final Four appearances.

In the season opener at Staples Center, Golden State trailed Los Angeles 34-32 after one quarter at press time. For the story, go to sfchronicle.com/sports.

In order for the Warriors to be considered a title contender, like they were during their five straight NBA Finals appearances from 2015 to ’19, Green said each player has to decide to put the team above himself and fit the roster’s seven new players together into a cohesive unit.

The chemistry will be tested time and again when second-year center James Wiseman returns from meniscus surgery in November or December and All-Star guard Klay Thompson (Achilles) follows suit in December or January.

“Any team has to be willing to put in that work in order to win a championship,” Green said. “You don’t just win a championship because you think the pieces fit or because you think you’ve got the talent. You have to make that s— work. Do I think we have a good chance to be a really good team? Absolutely. But to say we can win a championship right now, we’re so far away from that.”

Green said he would make similar comments about every other NBA team — save for the Milwaukee Bucks, who are coming off winning the franchise’s first title since 1971 last season.

While it’s going to take a grueling season with some disjointed segments as the Warriors reintegrate Wiseman and Thompson, Green said a championship should absolutely be the goal — even for a team that has gone 54-83 (.394) and been left out of the postseason the past two years.

“There better be some pressure on us. You can’t keep missing playoffs,” Green said. “But I could give a damn about making it to the playoffs. That’s never my goal. We’re trying to compete for a championship. (The playoffs) are just the first layer. I would hope that’s not this organization’s goal: just make the playoffs.

“That’s for damn sure not my goal.”