Draymond Green’s 3-point uptick is a group effort
After Green's 3-point burst against the Lakers, he's shooting at a
career-high clip
>Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green gestures after a 3-point
basket against the Los Angeles Lakers during the first half of an NBA
basketball game Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Danny Emerman is a Bay Area News Group sports reporter
By DANNY EMERMAN | demerman@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: April 10, 2024 at 5:15 a.m. | UPDATED: April 10, 2024 at 9:50
a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/04/10/draymond-green-warriors-lakers-3-point-shooting-career-uptick/

LOS ANGELES — Draymond Green knew the Lakers were going to sag off him.
Practically every team does it, but no one deploys the strategy as
pronounced as Los Angeles. The Lakers want Green to shoot. They want to
dare him to beat them.

So he did. By shooting with confidence, Green torched the Lakers not
with his game-wrecking defense, but with his 3-point stroke. The veteran
hit his first five 3-pointers, finishing 5-for-7.

“When he makes 3s, it changes our team,” rookie Brandin Podziemski said.

In his first game with at least five 3s since 2017, Green propelled a
historic shooting night for Golden State. He’s shooting a career-high
39.5% from behind the arc this year as opponents continue to leave him
open. In Crypto.com Arena, he made the Lakers pay for disregarding his shot.

“I just wanted to come out and not hesitate, just shoot,” Green said.

For the past several years, Green was incapable of even doing that. His
percentages were down, which depleted his confidence. His body was
certainly strong and rugged enough to anchor elite defenses, but had
chinks in the armor that stiffened him up as a scorer.

Even though his volume is still low, Green’s accuracy as a 3-point
shooter is an outlier in his career. The type of outlier that doesn’t
come randomly. Sure enough, when asked about the work he’s put into his
jumper, Green rattled off a list of people who helped him get right —
both mentally and physically.

There’s Travis Walton, a former college teammate and close friend of
Green’s, who helped the big man work on the base of his jump shot.

There’s Rick Celebrini, the team’s director of sports medicine and
performance, helping Green stretch and strengthen his hips.

There’s James Mayhew, Green’s personal performance trainer he worked
intensely with this past summer.

There’s Danielle Langford, a Warriors physiotherapist who travels with
the team and teaches Green pilates.

The product of all that collaboration behind the scenes is Green’s jump
shot.

“It’s been a whole process,” Green said.

Before Tuesday night, Green hit five 3-pointers in a game 14 times in
his career. Each instance happened between 2014 and 2017. Back then,
Green attempted an average of three triples per game. He wasn’t
necessarily a floor-spacer, but he wasn’t a total non-shooter, either.

From the 2017-18 campaign to last year, he shot 29% from 3. As he
misfired, his attempts cratered. Defenses left him open, and he refused
to shoot, which can clog up Golden State’s motion offense.

In those years, Green’s hips were “messed up,” he said. He has a natural
forward landing spot in his shot, but it appeared extra pronounced in
those years because he was overcompensating.

“Just doing a bunch of things to kind of get my body moving the right
way,” Green said. “Get my shot all in one motion. It was kind of like
hitchy, but I was just trying to create power because I couldn’t get the
power from my hips.”

Take this miss from January 2021. He launches forward, and his upper
body isn’t as connected to his lower half as it should be. He gathers
the ball away from his body and pauses at the top of his release

[Video Player
00:00
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Compare it to his 3s against the Lakers. They’re much smoother. He’s
jumping more straight up and down to maintain balance. With apparently
improved hip mobility, he can generate power more easily.

--
Golden State Warriors
@warriors ·Follow
ANOTHA TREY FROM DRAY
He's three-for-three from three 💥

📺 @NBAonTNT
[video 0:05 / 0:12]

7:47 PM · Apr 9, 2024
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That change — even if it appears slight — only happens after hours in
empty gyms, training rooms and on yoga mats.

“It’s been incredible to see him at the facility,” Podziemski said.
“Even when he was suspended and not able to play, the work he was
putting in — it’s paying off right now. I think the basketball gods
reward those who put the effort and the time in.”

Beyond any mechanical tweak or physical gain, Green needed to regain his
confidence. All the work he put in helped in that respect, but he needed
more than that. Again, he needed a group effort.

“I put the work in all summer, and then came into the season trusting
it,” Green said. “I think one of the biggest things for me was going
into training camp and hitting shots and then seeing the confidence my
teammates gained in me. Once, it got to a point where we were doing mini
camps, when I shot a 3 and Steph would just take off running back. And
it’d go in, and that’s the best feeling in the world, when he has that
confidence in me.”

Green’s teammates’ belief in him manifested in himself. It certainly
showed in Los Angeles.

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There were more factors against the Lakers that allowed for Green’s
breakout. Their sagging defense on Green is typically executed by the
much more dynamic Anthony Davis, who missed the game due to headaches
and nausea. Plus, Steph Curry and Chris Paul’s playmaking brilliance
also created great looks for Green; Golden State had 37 assists on 47
made field goals.

But Green’s willingness to let it fly opened up the floor for the
Warriors. It spread the Lakers’ defense out. With Green shooting the way
he did, Golden State had deep threats all over.

Tuesday’s performance isn’t going to change much. Teams are still going
to sag off Green when he has the ball behind the arc. They’ll always
prefer him taking a shot instead of Steph Curry or Klay Thompson. Yet as
those shots continue to be there for him, he’ll need to take — and make
— enough of them to keep defenses honest and space the floor.

“It really helps when Draymond is just, without hesitation, shooting
that shot,” Thompson said. “The guy has great form, great shooter. He
really was a catalyst in the first half to a big night scoring.”