Report: Draymond Green was ‘very close’ to signing with Grizzlies in 2023

According to NBA insiders Ramona Shelburne, Tim MacMahon and Michael C. Wright of ESPN, Draymond Green almost left the Golden State Warriors for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2023. 

Green was an unrestricted free agent in 2023. 

“Green had even called Warriors coach Steve Kerr and teammates Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to warn them that he was close to joining the Grizzlies via a lucrative sign-and-trade deal, sources told ESPN, before Warriors owner Joe Lacob and new general manager Mike Dunleavy swooped in with a four-year, $100 million extension to keep him in the Bay,” Shelburne, MacMahon and Wright wrote. “The Grizzlies were just as serious about acquiring Green, sources said, believing his experience, basketball intelligence and toughness were what the franchise needed as it tried to move past a disastrous season in which superstar point guard Ja Morant had been suspended eight games by NBA commissioner Adam Silver for brandishing a firearm in a social media post, and then the Grizzlies endured a disappointing first-round series loss to the seventh-seeded Los Angeles Lakers.”

Green has spent his entire career with the Warriors, who have won four championships since drafting the Michigan State product. 

Meanwhile, the Grizzlies are a mess right now. They recently fired Taylor Jenkins as head coach and are only 3-7 in their last 10 games. 

Jenkins became the head coach of the Grizzlies in 2019. He went 250-214 in the regular season and 9-14 in the playoffs. 

“They run an unconventional offense. … What they’re doing is weird,” Green told NBA reporters after Golden State’s home win over Memphis on Nov. 15. “In the NBA, most rotations and patterns are pretty similar. What they’re doing is, like, I haven’t seen it.”

Green and the Warriors are 43-31. The Dubs are in sixth place in the Western Conference standings. 

Meanwhile, the Grizzlies are 44-31. They are in fifth place in the Western Conference standings.