In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, host Matt Barnes and Warriors forward Draymond Green discuss whether the current Golden State Warriors roster is the deepest in NBA history. Green praises General Manager Mike Dunleavy’s offseason work, highlighting acquisitions such as D’Anthony Melton, Kyle Anderson, and Buddy Hield (referred to as Buddy Hill) that added shooting and defensive versatility. He emphasizes the team’s depth by comparing it to the 2015 championship squad, noting that multiple bench players—Moses Moody, J.K. Ivey, Kevon Looney, Jonathan Kuminga, and others—can start or play starter‑level minutes. The conversation covers the Warriors’ versatile offensive system that allows many players to act as playmakers, the impact of the second unit that mirrors the calming effect of past role players like Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, and the potential of fringe players such as Lindy Waters to enter the rotation. Green also reflects on past teams, including the “We Believe” Warriors and his former Clippers, to contextualize depth, ultimately concluding that the current roster’s combination of talent, flexibility, and multiple viable lineups makes it one of the deepest teams the franchise has fielded.
Chapters
I love the relationship you and Steve Kerr got, right? 'Cause it's just like quarterback coach, coach quarterback. And Steve Kerr in the postgame, he said that this is one of the deepest teams that he's ever coached. Andrew Wiggins said this is one of the deepest teams in the NBA. I agree with both Steve and Andrew Wiggins, what makes this Warriors squad so potent and so versatile in your opinion?
I think number one, Mike has done an incredible job of building this roster out in a summer where it was like, oh man, it's a bleak summer. Didn't get Paul George, didn't get Lauri Markkanen, like the Warriors lost the summer. Mike Dunleavy was working and Mike Dunleavy brought in a guy that—
Mm-hmm.
And D'Anthony Melton, who the Warriors been love. And I know the Warriors love him because during D'Anthony Melton's draft, that was the first time, I think, either the first or second time I attended the draft room with the Warriors. And when I did at that time, I was in there for like a week or two leading up to the draft, workouts, meetings, all of that. And I remember Kirk Lacombe, they were like, I remember Kirk in specific, Kirk kept coming to talk to me. He was huge on DeAnthony Melton and Mel ain't play since last year at USC. You know what I'm saying? So that was kind of the only thing of like, man, but we don't really know. He haven't played, you know, he didn't play this year, but blah, blah. Yeah. But they were huge on Melton. You know, come full circle, 6 years, a guy who was with the Memphis Grizzlies when we played them in the playoffs, and they let him go after that. And we said then, like, once they let him go, like, yo, that's a huge, huge, huge loss for them, man.
Huge, yeah.
Same for Kyle Anderson, another guy, yeah, UCLA Bruin.
UCLA, LA.
You know, he comes in, a guy who we've been trying to get for a couple years. He went to Minnesota last year. We've been trying to get him for a couple years. Mike Dunleavy go out and get Kyle Anderson. You know, big, big, big pickup for us. Buddy Hill, we lose Klay Thompson. You know, need to get some shooting on the roster. Go out and get a Buddy Hill who, I don't know if people remember, but Buddy Hill was being compared to Steph coming outta college, coming out the way he was playing at Oklahoma.
Talk.
And now coming to play in this offense. 22 points last night, 5 made threes, 66% from the field. Gonna con— and I have no doubt that Buddy's gonna continue to play like that because he's going to get—
Sixth Man of the Year. Exactly.
He's going to get shots because the way our offense, the way he moves, he move without the ball crazy. He gonna get shots and he shoot the lights out the ball. We all know that. So he gonna put himself in that, you know, we have a great year. He gonna put himself in that Sixth Man of the Year running. Shit, we have a great year, Steph Curry gotta be in all the runnings. And shoot, we have a great year. You know, AD wanna start campaigning for DPOY and stuff already after game 1. Shit, I'm campaigning too. We gonna have a great year, great defensive year. Put on a defensive clinic last night. I'm gonna keep on putting on a defensive clinic.
Yeah.
So, you know, that's kind of where we at with it. But this team is so deep, man. Adding guys like that and then the young guys coming along, Moses, J.K. stepped into a starting role. You know, you got Trace. Obviously you got who I call Old Faithful. You got Loon, you know what I'm saying? Loon, you know what you getting from Loon every day.
You know what you getting every day.
I always talk about, yeah, another UCLA Bruin.
You know what I'm saying?
I always talk about his professionalism and like, you know what you getting from him every day. Like forget every night. You know what you getting from him every single day, bruh. And so definitely a deep team. I think the only team that I can really even try to compare to it as far as depth is our first championship team, our 2015 team. That team had crazy depth. Like Ian Clark ended up being a rotational player in the NBA. Ian Clark couldn't really get on the floor much with that team. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. That team is the only team that I've been on that I would put next to this one as far as depth, but I mean, that's a championship team.
I think so. Y'all got that versatility. Y'all got versatility, and for, I would say for the first time I've seen, you have multiple people that are playmakers.
Facts.
You know what I mean?
Facts.
That's what make y'all kind of potent, is like the system allow you to make plays, but you got people that can be playmakers too and sneaky with it. You know what I mean? So, you know, Melton, Kyle Anderson, sneaky with it. You know what I mean? You have these kind of like mobilized guys, and then you got guys who just make plays.
Yeah.
Low. GP3, Kaminga, just because, you know what I mean?
Absolutely.
Trae, like all of the pieces is coming in, man. I love what I'm seeing because when you think about 82 games, the way you guys have been playing over the years, I think a lot of those games, like last year you would lose, a lot of those games, you're gonna win those games because just what we saw against Portland. There's not gonna be a, oh, they're clawing back. You know what I mean?
Absolutely.
I like that.
Absolutely, and what I like about this team is like, you look at our first unit, it's go, go, go, man. It's like go, it's force, it's meet force. That second unit then come in and it's like, it reminds me again of that team when Shawn Livingston and Andre Iguodala came in. You have me, Steph, and Klay out there running around like chickens with our head cut off. They flying around the court. I'm flying around defensively. I'm making the plays offensively. We wild as hell out there. And then Andre and Shawn come in and they calm everything down. And that's what I'm seeing out this second group, which is gonna be big for us, man.
That's gonna be huge.
Absolutely.
That's gonna be huge.
What would you say the We Believe team? 'Cause I remember talking to Stack Matt and they was talking about like, when y'all We Believe team got assembled, the moves that happened at the trade deadline and different things. Would you say that's the, one of the deepest teams you've been on or was your Clippers team deeper?
Nah, remember I wasn't on the Clippers team that won. I got Blake and DeAndre when they was rookies. So Blake, DeAndre, Eric Blesso, Eric Gordon, they was all rookies.
Okay.
When I say the Warriors team, the reason why I could assemble it, we was so versatile.
Yes. Yeah.
Right? And we was like 8 deep, but whoever that 9th or 10th person was, was somebody nobody was paying attention to. And we knew how to use them. You know what I mean?
Absolutely.
So the shit just started becoming like, you know, we had like, you think like a CJ Watson, like he coming in, picking up full, changing the energy. You got Azebuki, he coming in, he could score. You know what I mean? And so Nelly was smart about how he kind of mobilized. You got Matt who started, came off the bench some games. Al started, came off the bench some games. Peaches started, came off the bench some games. So it's a lot of interchange. It was like a lot of interchange in talent. But I would say like, as far as depth, like we didn't have, like a second 5.
Yes.
Yes. You know what I mean? It was like we got 8, maybe 9, but we didn't have like a full second 5.
Okay.
You know, like looking at how y'all got like 3 different sets of teams, 3, 4 sets of teams that you can put out on the floor and still look this, you know what I mean? Still look like they're all starters.
For sure, man. We got Lindy Waters who is not a part of the rotation right now. And could very much so be a part of the rotation. He played great in camp. Even when he got in last night, those guys at the, which Scott said today in film, I didn't know, those guys scored 25 points in 5 minutes when they got in the game.
That's crazy.
Like, man, so you got, yeah, you got like all these young guys, they've been in the gym working, man. They've been putting that work in and it's showing and it's helping round this team out, so. Yeah, man.
