Warriors Are Trying to Fix Draymond Green Problem with Rotation Change

The Golden State Warriors have a Draymond Green problem.

Defenses know he's not a good three-point shooter, so they leave him open. Defenses also know he's not a great play finisher, so they don't fear him as a driver or a roller.

Defenses know he knows these things, so they are expecting him to attempt high-risk passes. They are more ready for those passes than ever before.

As a result, he's having arguably the worst offensive season of his career.

The biggest issue is his turnover rate. Green is averaging 4.1 turnovers per 36 minutes. That's the third-highest rate in the league. That coupled with his lowest assist average in 11 seasons (5.0) is bringing down the offense.

That's why the Warriors were overdue to make the following rotation change.

Green Must Play All His Minutes with Curry

The Warriors have a pretty simple premise that guides their rotation decisions. When Stephen Curry is off the floor, Jimmy Butler must be on. When Butler is off, Curry must be on.

Outside of the first and last few minutes of every half (when both Curry and Butler are on), there will always be just one of Curry and Butler on the floor, and Steve Kerr has to decide who will play better in Curry lineups and who will play better in Butler lineups.

You might think that Kerr has been playing Green more with Curry due to their 14 years of experience together and the potential spacing issues that come with playing Green and Butler.

But that's not been the case this year.

Lineup	Possessions	O-Rating	D-Rating	Net Rating
Steph-Dray (no Jimmy)	276	123.6	113.6	+10.0
Jimmy-Dray (no Steph)	382	101.8	103.9	-2.1

You might be wondering how Kerr and his staff could have such a blind spot here. Well, it's probably because of last year's numbers.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Butler-Green lineups without Curry last season had a plus-14.8 net rating in 567 possessions, per Cleaning the Glass.

So it's not that Green and Butler can't coexist, but for some reason they are playing much worse together this season.

The Warriors Have Been Playing Green with Curry for the Last 5 Games

For the last five games, the Warriors have been playing Curry less in first and third quarters so he can play the beginning of second and fourth quarters. His rotation has looked something like this:

1st and 3rd Quarters: On first 8 minutes, off last 4
2nd and 4th Quarters: On first 4 minutes, off next 4, on last 4

Green usually doesn't play stints longer than six minutes, so he is coming out two minutes sooner than Curry in the first and third quarters. But otherwise, he's playing the same minutes.

Unfortunately for Golden State, this rotation change has not been working.

Green is minus-42 in the last five games. In the same stretch, Curry is plus-seven.

This might sound impossible considering they are playing virtually the same minutes, but don't forget that Warriors played most of the second half against Utah without Green and most of the final three quarters against Phoenix on Dec. 20 without Green.

The Curry-without-Green lineups in those games dominated.

To recap, Green has been bringing down the Curry lineups recently, but over the course of the season he's also been bringing down the Butler lineups.

So what's the solution?

Not Much Choice But to Stick with the Plan

Curry and Green have been one of the most effective duos in the NBA since they came together 14 years ago. Here is the net rating their lineups have had over the last six seasons:

Year	Net Rating
2025-26	+8.0
2024-25	+7.8
2023-24	+6.2
2022-23	+9.5
2021-22	+14.7
2020-21	+7.6

The Warriors are banking on the Curry-Green lineups having the type of positive impact they've had over the last 14 years and not having the negative impact they've had over the last five games.

If they can't produce positive plus/minus numbers over the next month, the alternative would be looking for a trade.

But Green's trade market might be close to nonexistent.

"A lot of coaches would look at what he does and say, ‘I don’t want this guy,’" an Eastern Conference GM told Heavy Sports' Sean Deveney. "... I would not want him around my young players. How many of their young guys have succeeded? So you can ask, like, would they trade him? But it’s also, would anyone want him?”

The Warriors need Green's defense and ability to play significant frontcout minutes, so outright benching him isn't a solution.

The most likely result is that Green remains one of the Warriors' highest-minute players past the Feb. 5 trade deadline.

We'll see if he can fight off Father Time a little longer and get back to being one of their best players again.