Why It's Time for Draymond Green to Come Off the Bench

The Golden State Warriors have 26 games left in the 2025-26 season, and one of their dilemmas is deciding how much Draymond Green should play.

This season, the 35-year-old hasn't had the type of impact that he's had over most of his career, and Steve Kerr has seemingly recognized this by cutting his minutes per game to 26.5, an 11-year low.

With that said, he's started all 47 games he's appeared in.

Kerr made a curious comment right before the All-Star break that could impact Green's starting status. He said he wants to keep starting Gui Santos when everyone is healthy.

Does that mean Green will be coming off the bench? Let's explore what might be going into Kerr's decision.

Green's Struggles

The main reason this is a conversation is Green's plummeting plus/minus.

Take a look at his impact metrics via Cleaning the Glass below.

(Note that for defensive net rating, a negative number is better than a positive one.)

	O Net Rating	D Net Rating	Net Rating
2025-26	-3.7	-0.6	-3.2
2024-25	+4.8	-3.1	+7.9
2023-24	+0.5	-5.9	+6.4
2022-23	+4.2	-9.8	+14.0
2021-22	-2.9	-5.5	+2.6
2020-21	+14.1	-0.5	+14.6
2019-20	-1.7	-5.4	+3.7
2018-19	+0.7	-6.2	+6.9
2017-18	-2.3	-1.9	-0.4
2016-17	+2.5	-5.2	+7.7
2015-16	+13.7	-11.9	+25.6
2014-15	+6.0	-6.0	+12.0

I've been harping on Green's turnovers all season, but what's just as concerning is his lack of defensive impact. The Warriors are only 0.6 points better on defense with Green on the court, which is a five-year low.

My premise for most of the season was Green's turnovers were killing his defensive impact. If he would stop turning the ball over so much, the Warriors would have to defend in transition less often. As long as opponents were having to score in the half court against Green, the Warriors would go back to winning Green's minutes like they almost always have.

But that hasn't played out.

Over his last 11 games—which starts with Golden State's first game after Jimmy Butler's season-ending injury—Green has limited his turnovers to just 2.3 per game. But he's still a minus-76 in that stretch.

In fairness to Green, only De'Anthony Melton has a positive plus-minus among Golden State rotation players since Butler's injury. But Green's is the worst on the team. Kerr will have to weigh whether that means Green should come off the bench.

Warriors' Starting Lineup Options

Stephen Curry will be back eventually, and we know he'll be starting when that time comes.

After that, nothing is set in stone, but you can expect Moses Moody to continue starting, as the three-and-D wing has earned it.

For the sake of argument, let's try to include Santos in all starting lineup combinations.

That leaves the Warriors with three realistic options:

1) Curry, Melton, Moody, Santos, Green
2) Curry, Moody, Santos, Green, Porzingis
3) Curry, Melton, Moody, Santos, Porzingis

The first seems the most far-fetched. The Warriors will have to find minutes for Porzingis, Al Horford and Quinten Post. So it makes little sense to have Green start games at the 5 with none of the three centers on the court, especially once Porzingis has ramped up and isn't limited to playing about 17 minutes like he played Thursday.

The last two options are fascinating.

A frontcourt of Santos, Green and Porzingis would be the biggest the Warriors have had in forever.

But there's reason to think it wouldn't work.

Santos, Green and Horford have played 42 possessions this season, and their net rating is minus-35.0. Of course, Horford and Porzingis are different players, but Horford is the closest approximation to Porzingis on the Warriors, and those lineups with Santos at small forward have been disastrous.

That leaves the third lineup with Santos starting at the 4 and Green coming off the bench.

In 10 possessions against the Celtics with Santos at the 4 and Porzingis at the 5, the Warriors posted an outrageous plus-120.0 net rating. This is such a small sample size that it would be reckless to draw conclusions from it, but it certainly helps the argument that Green should come off the bench.

Should What Happened with Klay Influence How the Warriors Handle Dray?

The Warriors had a similar situation arise with a different franchise legend two years ago.

Klay Thompson was showing signs of decline, and the Warriors had a better plus/minus when rookie Brandin Podziemski was on the floor, so on the last day before the All-Star break, they started Podz for Thompson.

Thompson came off the bench 14 times that season, which was jarring for him because he had started every game since the beginning of his second season. In the offseason, the Warriors had no traction re-signing him, so they agreed to sign-and-trade him to Dallas.

Green's situation isn't exactly the same. The main difference is Green has a $27.7 million player option whereas Thompson was an unrestricted free agent. Green has to know he's not getting that kind of money on the free-agent market, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he opted in.

However, the Warriors could and probably should approach Green with the hope that he'll sign a two-year contract with a higher total value but a lower 2026-27 salary. For example, a two-year, $36 million deal would lower Golden State's salary commitments for the 2026-27 season by about $10 million, which could help the front office re-sign Santos (restricted free agent), Porzingis and De'Anthony Melton.

Would Green agree to something like this after being benched for Santos?

It's hard to say for sure.

Earlier this season, Steve Kerr told reporters that Green said he'd be open to coming off the bench. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't affect offseason contract talks.

Why It's Time

The Warriors don't want to ruin their relationship with Green before contract negotiations this offseason, but it's even more important for the franchise to get Santos as many minutes as possible.

In the last eight games, Santos is averaging 15.0 points on 59.5 percent shooting and 47.2 percent from three. He's also shown playmaking chops with 3.5 assists per game, and he had several key defensive reps in the Warriors' comeback wins against the Suns and Grizzlies.

Santos' development has to be the priority. For the Warriors to be a title contender next season, they need Santos to be a consistent high-end role player.

They also need Green to find his form from the 2024-25 season. Maybe starting him for the rest of the season would help him find that form. But there is more to gain for Santos playing starting minutes with Curry and Porzingis than there is for Green.

To be clear, Green would still play more than 20 minutes per game, mostly spelling Santos. It might be a difficult transition for a player who has started 760 of his past 767 regular-season games.

But it's time to find out what it would look like.