Why Warriors' Start To 2025-26 Nba Season Is ‘frustrating' To Draymond Green

Why Warriors' start to 2025-26 NBA season is ‘frustrating' to Draymond Green originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Draymond Green, like much of Dub Nation, is disappointed in how the Warriors have begun their 2025-26 NBA season.

He, alongside Jimmy Butler, has been extremely vocal about the team’s poor defensive performance and inability to close out games due to late-game collapses.

But there is another factor leading to Green’s frustration with the team’s start, and that dates back to Golden State’s up-and-down 2024-25 season, in which the Warriors were second-round playoff exits but the journey getting there was more turbulent than they would’ve liked.

“My Dubs, we are 11-10 [now 11-11] and that is a little bit frustrating because I think we have probably completely blown five games,” Green shared on his “The Draymond Green Show” podcast. “Maybe we blow one or two games, but even if you blow one or two games, you’re sitting here at 14-7, 15-6. It’s frustrating because we dug ourselves a hole last year [then] made the trade for Jimmy. And then from that point on, we were in the playoffs forever because you’re fighting an uphill battle.

“So with the goal being to not put ourselves back in that position so we’re not fighting an uphill battle, you’re able to possibly focus a bit more on the playoffs late in the season as opposed to trying to get to the playoffs late in the season. With that being the goal, it’s a little frustrating because you look back at those five games you’ve blown in those 20 games, and they catch up to you. They catch up in the end. When you’re talking about playoff seeding and you’re fighting for position and all those things, that’s when those games catch up to you.”

Green has a point.

The playoffs seemed out of the picture for a struggling Golden State team before it traded for Butler in February and finished the season 16-4 in games the six-time NBA All-Star played for them.

But after playing desperately and, as Green stated, in playoff mode for the final stretch of the regular season, the Warriors were committed not to make the same mistake this season.

“So it’s a bit frustrating that we’ve blown so many games. And the reality is at some point you’ve got to win games you’re not supposed to win to make those games up. The schedule isn’t getting any easier. It’s gotten easier from a travel standpoint, although we’re about to go back on the road. So it’s gotten easier from a travel standpoint, but from an NBA standpoint, it doesn’t get any easier. And we’re headed East, which is never easy.

“We’ve got to put together a great string of basketball, and I just don’t think we’ve consistently put together a great stretch of basketball. But I do think we’ve put together some good spurts. In order to win in this league, you have to play as close to 48 good minutes as you can play, and we’re just not getting close enough to that.”

Green won’t ever shy away from the truth, no matter how hard it might be to hear.

But the truth must be heard, as long as people are listening.

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