Draymond Green knows that the Warriors won’t prioritize short-term success at the expense of long-term stability.
The Golden State veteran recently explained the franchise will not have a win-now mentality regarding team building.
“The beautiful part about being in the space that we're in is, Steve Kerr, Steph Curry and myself all disagree with mortgaging off the future of this organization, saying that we're going for it right now,” Green explained to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. “Bad teams do that. Bad organizations do that. We're not neither one.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
“So for us, if something is going to happen, it needs to be the right thing. We're not going to jump and make the wrong decision because we panicked. That's how you set your organization back five to seven years.”
Curry, Green, and Kerr are pillars of a Warriors dynasty that made six NBA Finals appearances in the last decade and won four. However, recent struggles have pushed Golden State’s front office to consider trading its young talent for a proven superstar to complement Curry and Green.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob famously touted the “two-timelines” approach, hoping lottery picks like James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody would turn into future NBA All-Star caliber players.
So far, the results have been mixed, but that doesn’t cause much concern for Green, who believes the Warriors are doing what needs to be done right now.
Golden State Warriors
Find the latest Golden State Warriors news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
“We’re still going to compete at the highest level,” Green told Goodwill. “We're still going to do all we can to win, but I don't know a single person that's played in the NBA for a long time that won every year. So you don't auction off your future because you're not winning in a said year or two.
“You have to continue to build. And for us, that will always be the focus. It'll never be, ‘Something's going wrong. Make the dumbest move you can make.’ We're not that organization.”
While Curry and Green still flash their otherworldly basketball skills, Golden State continues to be mired in mediocrity at 19-19, just outside the Western Conference playoff picture. The front office has expressed interest in trading for another player, but the restrictive salary-cap rules make it incredibly difficult to acquire premiere talent.
For now, Green and the rest of the Warriors will focus on winning games and getting the roster ready for a long playoff push.