Draymond Green: Bogut 'made me the player I am'

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Hall of Fame-bound Draymond Green said his career wouldn't be what it is with Australian centre Andrew Bogut and the impact he made at the Golden State Warriors.

"Andrew Bogut on my career is as valuable as anyone," Green declared.

"Andrew Bogut taught me how to play post defense the first day I got to Golden State. Andrew Bogut helped me understand different reads on the defensive end as good as anyone has taught me. Andrew Bogut — I can never overstate enough how much he meant to the beginning of my career, and the player that I’ve been able to become.

"When you talk the beginning of the Dubs dynasty and how important Andrew Bogut was, he was that force in the middle for us."

Bogut, now an assistant coach at the Sydney Kings in the NBL, won a championship with the Warriors alongside Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Green in 2015.

Green, a four-time NBA champion, was drafted by the Warriors in 2012. Bogut was the No1 overall pick by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2005. The Melbourne-born big man played in Milwaukee for seven years but was traded to the Warriors in 2012 for Stephen Jackson, Kwame Brown and Ekpe Udoh.

"We knew — going up against Dwight Howard, who was a great big at the time, and going up against the great bigs in the league at the time — we knew we had a guy that could guard and stop all of them," Green added.

"During that time, bigs were very valuable. And going into these series, we knew no matter what, at the five position, we were going to be solid because Boges got them.

"He was very vital in his leadership. He was very vital to the beginning of the dynasty — to what became a dynasty. Huge.

"And like I said, just everything that he taught myself, I could never thank Boges enough, man. Incredible.

"I was so lucky to come into an organisation that had Andrew Bogut to teach me the things that he taught me, because it’s paid dividends in my career and allowed me to become the defender that I’ve become. So huge."

The Warriors beat LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers in six games in 2015 but lost in seven in 2016 but Green said it would have been a different story in Bogut was healthy in Game 6 and 7. He was injured in Game 5.

"And as far as his injury in the 2016 Finals — no one ever talks about it, but it was big," Green said.

"We needed Boges in that series. He had a fractured rib, and he couldn’t go. And that was huge for us because when you lose a player in a series, trying to find that fifth guy can always be tough. And so we didn’t have Boges, and now you’ve got to try to find the fifth guy to plug in. And we just didn’t really have enough time for the adjustment.

"So that was huge. No one ever really talks about Boges being hurt and missing that Game 7, but that was everything. We needed Boges in that Game 7.

"I think if we have Boges, we’re a completely different story. Nonetheless, it is what it is, and we weren’t able to make up what we lost in his absence, and ultimately ended up falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers that year — 2016."

Bogut, in his exclusive column for basketball.com.au last year said: "I felt like I was playing really well defensively, especially protecting the paint. LeBron was kind of looking for me every time he turned the corner, which is what you want.

"It was really disappointing for me to have that injury because the Finals the year before, our small ball line-up was so dominant and I didn't have a great series early on in that one, so we went small and it won us the championship. Coming into the 2016 finals, I was in the mindset of, I want to dominate defensively and make Steve Kerr make a tough decision, whether he's going to go small or not. If you're doing well, he has to play you.

"I was playing 20 minutes a night in that Finals series and we dominated the first couple of games. Would me not being injured have changed the rest of the series? Would the Draymond suspension change anything? Who knows."

Bogut, 41, played 15 years in the NBA. He averaged 9.6 PPG, 8.7 RPG and 1.5 BPG.

He was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2025.