Draymond Green Jokes He Would Change Playstyle If Lebron James Joins Warriors

Draymond Green jokes he would change playstyle if LeBron James joins Warriors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Draymond Green has seen this movie before — he’s just casting himself in a different role this time.

A fan on Threads asked Green on Sunday who would run the Warriors’ offense if LeBron James signs with Golden State: Green, Steph Curry, or James himself. Green’s answer left little room for interpretation about where he sees himself fitting in.

“Bron,” Green wrote. “I’d become PJ Tucker. Greatest corner 3pt shooter ever.”

It is not the first time Green has made that exact claim about Tucker. Back in Sept. 2020, following a Houston Rockets playoff loss, Green tweeted that Tucker “may be the best Corner 3-point shooter in NBA history” — a claim NBC Sports Bay Area’s Ali Thanawalla examined in detail at the time and found did not hold up.

Curry and Klay Thompson both posted significantly better corner-three shooting percentages than Tucker over that stretch, even with a fraction of his attempts, and six other players in the league that season alone out-shot him from the corner as well.

The real number behind Tucker’s reputation is volume, not efficiency. He has made 704 corner 3-pointers over the past 12 seasons, the most in the NBA during that span, according to Second Spectrum — built largely during his prime years in Houston, where he led the league in corner threes three straight seasons. His career 3-point percentage sits at 36.6 percent, with a corner-specific mark of 38.4 percent.

As for Green actually pulling off the transformation himself, the numbers offer a mixed verdict. He has shot better than 32.6 percent from three just once in the past decade — but he shot 38 percent specifically from the corners last season, and has topped one made three per game in each of the past two years after going seven years without hitting that mark even once.

Whether Green can realistically become the next Tucker is beside the point. The joke fits neatly into a summer-long recruiting pitch that has already included declining his own $27.7 million player option and jokingly offering to give up his No. 23 jersey number for James.

Six years after his first attempt at this exact comparison, Green still is selling the same pitch — he is just hoping this time it comes with a very different teammate attached.

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