Draymond GreenForward, Golden State Warriors

Draymond Green Weighs in on Pistons Center Jalen Duren’s NBA Playoffs Struggles

15 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this commentary, Draymond Green addresses rumors about his playoff performance and contract, explaining that the primary reason for his and Jalen Duren’s scoring drops in the postseason is the deliberate reduction of lob opportunities by opposing defenses. He notes that he averaged 19.5 points per game in the regular season with 4‑5 lob attempts per game, but when teams stop stepping up and deny lob passes in the playoffs, his scoring falls to around 10‑11 points per game—the same level Duren is experiencing. Green draws a parallel to a past matchup against the Houston Rockets, where the Rockets limited Clint Capela’s lob threat, cutting his scoring in half. He concludes that Detroit cannot compete at a high level if Duren is neutralized in this way.

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Draymond Green struggled a bit in these playoffs. And it's interesting because everybody's like, is he losing himself a lot of money? And the reality is, say if his max is $210, what's gonna happen is without an offer sheet, he'll get anywhere from $160 to $180 from the Pistons. Everybody's saying, oh man, is this mental? Why is he struggling like this? And the reality is this, when you get in the playoffs, the thing that you do best is taken away in the first round. But by the second round, the thing you do best and sometimes the second best, it's gone. Draymond Green averaged 19.5 points in the regular season. He get 4 to 5 lobs a game. Once you get in the playoff series and the team goes, yo, when somebody drive, we're not stepping up, we're not helping off his body, we're not giving up those lobs. And all of a sudden you go from 4 or 5 lobs a game to 1 if you're lucky. That would drop your scoring average from 19.5 to 10, 11 points a game, which is where Jalen Duren is. It reminds me of when we were playing the Houston Rockets. Clint Capela was one of the best lob threats in the league during that time. Our whole game plan, they drive, don't step up off Clint Capela body, take the lobs away. That cut his average in half. It's the same thing Jalen Duren's going through right now. I don't know that you can win at a very high level with Jalen Duren not in the game.