Warriors former All-Star reveals hardest player he’s had to guard

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green was not shy about revealing the player who has given him the most trouble on offense in his career.

Warriors: Draymond Green gives flowers to former teammate

Per NBC Sports Bay Area’s Nick Avila, Green recently told streamer Kai Cenat that the hardest player he ever had to guard was Houston Rockets’ Kevin Durant:

“The hardest player I had to guard in my career is KD,” Green said, speaking of Kevin Durant. “KD in OKC. After that, I figured him out, right. Slim can’t score on me no more – nah, he going to score on everybody, but I got better and learned more about his game. But, in OKC and just coming into the league and figuring. No chance.”

Green has defended a handful of the best scorers in the history of the league over the course of his career. Nikola Jokic — who he named as his second-most difficult player to guard — in addition to LeBron James, as well as retired All-Star Blake Griffin, stand out as three of the Michigan State product’s most trying matchups.

Thus, his praise of Durant is all the more special as a result. The latter saw Green several times, including in the postseason prior to joining forces in Golden State.

Warriors: Durant made Green work on defense

Durant has averaged 28.4 points per game across 19 career games against Green. The former’s all-around scoring arsenal gave Green a gold standard to defend, including in highly pressurized playoff series.

Green helped hold Durant to 20 points or less twice in 13 battles while the latter was a member of the Thunder. Nevertheless, since leaving the Warriors, the Texas product has only scored 25-plus points once across their final six contests. Thus, Green’s assessment proves to be merited.