Even though they don’t make it straight out of high school anymore, the NBA has become younger by the year. One-and-done players are the rule nowadays in college, and not many second or third-year guys go in the first round of the NBA Draft.
Of course, having younger players allows the teams to keep them for longer, which translates into more money. But as good as that might seem, they also need proper guidance.
That’s why Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green believes that most teams should consider having several veterans on their roster, so they could teach the ropes of the game to all the youngins.
Draymond Green Says NBA Teams Need More Veteran Leaders
“When you got teams struggling with leadership, struggling with veteran presence, struggling with people with winners’ mentality. And, like, you had that guy sitting there the entire year,” Green said.
“That is actually a huge problem in the NBA,” he continued. “It’s why we see a lot of the things we see in as far as off-court issues because there’s no veterans. There’s no veterans showing these dudes how to move, showing them the way. So you think that you’re just gonna go young, think that’s just gonna work. That s**t don’t work.”
Green Knows He Failed As A Leader
Likewise, Draymond admits his altercation with Jordan Poole was the main reason behind his team’s woes this season, citing that he didn’t try and lead because he knew that incident had taken a toll on his reputation:
“We’re not playing right now because when you speak about the foul and all the slippage we had on the road as a team, not being able to come together,” Green told Stephen A. Smith of ESPN.
“None of those things happen if that (punching Poole) doesn’t happen because of the voice and departments I lead this team in, there was a ton of slippage due to me sitting back, not saying anything, me allowing that situation to play itself out and giving it time to heal,“ continued Green.
“Why are you giving it time to heal? I would say by February I started to feel like myself again but guess what, there were five months of the season where slippage kept occurring,” Green added. “By February, if the slippage has been going on for that long, you are who you are. You built those habits, so try to correct them then. You may get a little better, we ended up in the second round of the playoffs, but not at a championship level.“
Young players need to listen to their veterans, but they also have to lead by example, and that was a prime example of that. Hopefully, more teams and GMs will understand this and consider it when building their rosters.