Draymond Green has been recovering from a toe injury ever since he addressed the media and played—poorly—in Houston following his beef with teammate Kevin Durant. He's missed more than half of Golden State's 27 games so far this season, appearing in only 13 contests before he suits up on Monday night against the Timberwolves. Despite missing so many games so early in the season, he still thinks he's got a chance to capture the second Defensive Player of the Year award of his career.
Dray cited Kawhi Leonard for his optimism, bringing up the time the current Raptors star played in only 64 games during the 2014-15 season when he first captured the DPOY hardware (he won again the next season); although, Dray got the number of games wrong.
However, Rudy Gobert was the 2018 NBA Defensive Player of the Year after appearing in just 56 games for the Jazz last season, so that's likely where Green got the number he inaccurately ascribed to Kawhi. If Draymond plays out the remainder of the season without missing another game, he'll have appeared in 68 games, so he's not wrong that he can still grab the hardware even after sitting out more than three weeks with the toe injury.
That's good news! If Dray wins the award for the second time (he won in 2017), he'll be eligible for the designated players' (aka supermax) extension for five years and around $235 million in the summer of 2020. A regular max would be worth closer to $200 million over the same half decade. Now, as to whether the Warriors offer Green the supermax (Steph already has one), is another story entirely. Remember, they can offer KD a supermax this summer.
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