Power of mature people, Draymond GreenHe’s had it since he was knee high to a grasshopper. Even as a chubby teenager, he had the bone density of a longshoreman and the urgency of a single father.
He calls it creepy. An intangible element that holds up when bigger players try to push him. This allows him to do the pushing. It made him a champion at Saginaw High School, Michigan, with the Warriors of the Golden State. Grit was his foundation when he became a novice N.B.A forward, the slot center of a dynasty, a defensive player of the year. All-natural power from the Midwest.
But Green was in his thirties. The games piled up, the play-off battles took their toll. His knees, his back, his strength all suffered from the stress of life as a defensive anchor. So Green began to do something he had never done before, something his natural strength had never required of him.
Lift weights.
It has worked wonders. He is less than four months away from his 35th birthday. Yet he is on his way to yet another DPOY campaign.
“One thing I’ve learned over the last four years,” Green said, “you have to lift weights. And I was someone who was always naturally strong. So I’m thinking, ‘Why am I going to lift weights? These mothers can’t move me now.’ But your body needs it. Your body needs to get stronger as the season progresses to withstand the pounding conditions.
If a player’s shooting ability is the last thing to go, then defense is the first.
It’s a grueling job, defending. The agility required to continuously respond. The endurance it takes when you’re constantly under attack. The physical demands of applying pressure. The humility it takes to stand tall in the face of greatness, often without worship. It affects the joints and ligaments, the muscles and bones, the ego and energy.
A long tooth is the hallmark of prey in this kingdom. The young eat the old.
That’s what makes the breed of OG defenders so impressive.
The competition is as wide open as ever. Shooting and ball handling at every position. Speed, athleticism and skill all over the floor. Imagine being over 30, ten years into your career and still stuck. Causing problems. Doing the Lord’s work.
And if you ever have to appear in court to put a trash-talking youngster in his place, teach a niece, nephew, or cousin how all that crazy dribbling doesn’t work against real defense, and that you’ll have to pay for it on your knees and back hours later, you appreciate what they do. You know they are different.
These guys are uniquely wired. Their glory lies in preventing it, an inglorious task.
“Yes, it’s incriminating,” the Oklahoma City guard said Alex Carusoknown as one of the best perimeter defenders in the game. “But that’s part of the job. It’s just as taxing on the guys trying to score as it is on the guys trying to stop people from scoring. It only looks worse for us because we are usually the ones who end up on the ground. But it’s a part of the game that I embrace: just doing the dirty work and being the guy who mixes it up.
Alex Caruso, pictured here defending Chris Paul, embraces the “dirty work” of defense. (Daniel Dunn / Imagn Images)
Their significance has increased in a skill-oriented league where defense has been so ignored that people have had to beg the NBA to take a stand against soft whistles and fouls. A player who can be a defensive force, make it a chore to score, guard multiple positions effectively, be comfortable on an island without help, is invaluable.
But that means they have to persevere and maintain their excellence above the usual benchmarks.
That definitely requires maintenance of their body. Especially the bottom half.
“Basketball is a two-way sport,” Boston said Jrue holiday said. “So no matter how much you train to do things offensively, you probably need to do the same thing defensively. … I think I’ve done that most of my life. Maybe not in the weight room, but doing defensive slides, sitting on the wall, things that help with your legs, help with your base. I’ve been doing that since I was little. But once you add weights to it, either at the gym or in the weight room, I feel like it helps.
Green said he “didn’t know what core was” until a back injury in 2022 led to some changes. He no longer relied solely on the strength of mature people and developed his core and basic strength.
Now he’s on a mission to win another Defensive Player of the Year Award. His only honor came in 2017 – long before they changed the name to the Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy. Green finished second Kawhi Leonard in 2016.
Entering Tuesday, the Warriors held teams to 41.9 percent shooting (third in the NBA) and 110.1 points per game (seventh). They allowed 107.3 points per 100 possessions (fourth). And there is no doubt that Groen is the genius at the center of the defence. He starts games as the power forward and serves as a free safety to deploy his elite relief defense. He closes out matches as a central and last line of defense. And he’ll jump on any player who gets hot, whether it’s a point guard or an elite scoring wing.
If Green can pull this off, he would be the oldest player ever to win Defensive Player of the Year. The current eldest is the late Dikembe Mutombo, who won the award in 2001 at the age of 34.
Over the past ten seasons, 25 of the 100 All-NBA Defensive slots went to players age 30 or older. Eight of them made the First Team, although one of them was a defensive bully still in his mid-thirties named Tony Allen. He was more of the kind of the previous era.
In the previous ten seasons (2004-05 to 2013-14), players age 30 and older captured 35 All-NBA Defensive spots. And 11 of them made the First Team, 12 if you originally count Allen with that contingency.
Back in the day, when the game was more physical Steph Curry had not yet changed the geometry of the defense, it was more common for older players to be loyal to the defense. The 2007 All-NBA Defensive team was dominated by people in their 30s. Seven were named: Bruce Bowen (35), Jason Kidd (34), Marcus Camby (33), Ben Wallace (32), Tim Duncan (31), Raja Bell (30) and Kevin Garnett (30). Kobe Bryant, then 28, was the only first-team player under the age of 30.
But since the three-point era exploded with Golden State, which won the era’s first title in 2015, no more than three players age 30 and older have made it in a single year. At least, not until last season, when it was big Rudy Gobert And Anthony Davisboth then 31, and the then 30-year-old Caruso joined Holiday as one of the recognized top defensemen. Giannis Antetokounmpo will likely join them this year.
They represent a contingent of players who retain their place in the youth league because they are still on the ground. Especially on the edge. Dirk White, Jos Hart, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Andreas Wiggins, Norman Powell, Chris Dunn, Marcus Slim, Royce O’Neale, Gary Payton II – they are all in their 30s or will be by the end of the season. They are the enemies of this new wave of absurd, offensive talent.
There are more to come, including Mikal Bridges (28) and Bam Adebayo (27).
Their advantage is smart. They have seen so much and experienced almost every attack. Their IQ becomes a weapon. Old heads who make their money in defense don’t slack off in film. Especially in a league ripe with a steady influx of ballers.
“I can read people’s games better,” Holiday said, “and what they like to do.”
Caruso is surrounded by Gen Z hoopers on the Thunder. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the most unstoppable in the league. Jalen Williams And Chet Holmgren are also offensively dynamic.
But Oklahoma City also has a few with the same mentality as Caruso, the same spirit. They go after it defensively. They live on the margins of hustle and bustle and aggression. They’re excited for the ugly parts of the game.
“Lu Dort and Cason Wallace are two of the best ball defenders in this league,” Caruso said. “It gives me perspective, just seeing how good these guys are. … Honestly, I try to take things from them, just to try to develop my game and become a better defender myself.
The youth help keep the older defenders fresh. They need to practice what they preach when sharing defensive recipes with the next wave. If you are in the shadow of, for example Luka Doncic, Yes Morant And Paolo Banchero.
“All of them, really,” Holiday said when asked which young players are causing him the most problems. “They are all fast. They are all very athletic. They all play the game very differently than when I came into the league. So literally all of them.”
That’s why they are different. The game has changed significantly. They changed with it.
Defense is a calling, a science and an art form. It requires a lunch pail, a scientific calculator for a brain, and often rhetorical prowess.
Because this new era is bursting with confidence.
“These young guys talk a lot of s—,” Green said. “The ones who spoke the most this year were them Wizards young people. Kyshawn George And…”
“Bub,” Curry shouted from a distance, speaking of the Wizards starting guard Carlton Carrington.
“Talking the whole game,” Green continued. “Obviously I love it. I don’t mind at all. It’s just weird to come across that space where they’re like, ‘Man, I’ve been watching you all my life.’ And then they talk crazy. “Go to his old…!” … The year before Kelly Oubre got here, he said, ‘You had your run. You’re old now.’ But I was in year 8, year 9.”
Not old. But his age has finally caught up with his strength.
(Top photo of Draymond Green blocking Fred VanVleet:Tim Warner/Getty Images)
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