Warriors Star Draymond Green Discloses Personal 'Motivation' for NBA Season

On the "list" currently are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tim Duncan, and Kobe Bryant. As of last season, Green has nine selections — five on the first-team — and one Defensive Player of the Year Award, plus a finalist nod in May.

Green averaged nine points, 6.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists on 42 percent shooting from the field in 68 games for the Warriors last season, helping them to a second-round playoff appearance that fell short after Steph Curry's hamstring injury in Game 1 of the series.

“We were playing playoff basketball for three and a half months,” Green said. “That’s just hard for anybody. I don’t care if you are 37 or 27. You’ve got to play playoff basketball that long? It’s tough. And we had to. We had no other choice."

Green Speaks on State of Warriors

As the Warriors look to compete in the Western Conference again next season, they'll rely on Curry, Green, and newly acquired superstar Jimmy Butler III. Curry and Green, especially, are well aware of those expectations, even with a few loose ends remaining in the offseason.

“Me, Draymond, Jimmy, we’ve all been around long enough to know how to separate the business of it from the basketball," Curry said. "Those are two totally different areas. Our job is to focus on the basketball part and not let it become something that gets in the way of how we approach every day.”

Green certainly won't. He remains confident in a deal being struck between the Warriors' brass and Kuminga. And he remains driven by the thought of putting his name next to Abdul-Jabbar, Duncan, and Bryant in the NBA history books.

"To try to put myself, my name in the hat with those guys," Green said. "You're talking Kobe (Bryant), Tim (Duncan) ... and I can put my little name next to that? That would be a dream come true."