Where Draymond believes he'd be picked in 2012 redraft

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There were 34 players selected before Draymond Green went off the board in the 2012 NBA Draft.

"Me being drafted with the 35th pick -- I can name 15 small forwards/power forwards that went before me that I knew right then, 'Yo, this dude is not better than me,' " Draymond recently said to Damian Lillard on the first episode of Bleacher Report's digital show "Chips."

Back in early May, yours truly wrote about why the three-time NBA champion should have been the No. 3 overall pick in that class.

But according to Draymond, he wouldn't be chosen in the top three if there was a redraft.

"I go back and look at our draft, and I say there are three people that would get drafted before me if our draft was re-done," he said.

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So who are the three players? That would be Anthony Davis, Lillard and Bradley Beal.

Draymond is correct in that if the redraft was held today, Beal -- who is 27 years old and averaged 30.5 points and 6.1 assists per game in 2019-20 -- would be the third selection.

And in terms of looking ahead to the next couple of years, some people would go with Milwaukee Bucks forward Khris Middleton over the 2017 NBA Defensive Player of the Year at No. 4 overall.

But when it comes to historical context, Draymond is selling himself short a little bit. Plain and simple, the Warriors don't win the title in 2015 if you swap him out for Beal.

In 2015-16, Green averaged 14.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks, while shooting nearly 39 percent from deep. He was Second-Team All-NBA and finished seventh in MVP voting. And if he didn't get suspended for Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, it's very possible that he would be remembered as the second-best player on arguably the best team in NBA history.

RELATED: Draymond sends message to haters, thanks them for fuel

Ultimately, it's fun at times to engage in these hypothetical conversations and debate with friends and family. But when it comes to Draymond, I simply can't wait to see what he has in store moving forward.

"To everybody out there who want to talk s--t about this year -- I don't really give a f--k," he said in late April. "In my opinion, I got better. I got better as a player, I got better as a person and a leader ... and that's gonna make me even better for next year.

"So, I appreciate everybody talking. I kind of needed them to relight that fire under my a--."

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