Following a 44-win season and getting bounced in the second round of the playoffs, there has been a real “This time we’re serious” vibe from the Warriors this summer. They add Chris Paul, clean up the chemistry issues that haunted them from the start of last season and... is that enough?
Enter Draymond Green, who sat down with Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN and talked about not just the upcoming season but the next few — and how the Warriors can still win multiple titles.
“I don’t like to necessarily put a number on things,” Green told ESPN. “But I don’t see why we can’t get two more championships. Why not?”
What else did you expect Green to say?
Green said he was a little hesitant when he first heard the Warriors could add CP3, but now he is on board with his former rival being part of the team, and Green says his arrival ups the team’s motivation factor.
“I look at this as one of the most important years of my career,” Green said. "... It’s not to redeem anything about Draymond. My goal is that we can help Chris Paul get his first championship.”
The Warriors will enter next season as “if everything goes right” contenders. Stephen Curry has shown no signs of slowing down. Still, they will need Paul to mesh with a team that plays a very different style, Klay Thompson to take a step forward another year removed from his injuries, Green not to let his offensive game slide any further, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody to be more reliable regular contributors, and Dario Saric to be a steady contributor. Then they need a little help from the Nuggets and Suns not to have everything go right for them.
There’s an end of an era feeling watching the Warriors, but of course the guys in the locker room are not buying into that. Green is just being Green and saying what he should. However, even the guys in that locker room might think two is a lot considering how hard it was to earn the banner in 2022.