Gilbert Arenas Drops 'Brutal’ Draymond Green Warning After Stephen Curry's Injury Leaves Warriors Searching for Answers

Draymond Green faces a bigger challenge as Stephen Curry recovers from an oblique injury.© NDTV GALLERY

Gilbert Arenas believes the Golden State Warriors could struggle to find answers without Stephen Curry. The star guard has suffered an oblique abdominal tear and will be re-evaluated in two weeks. His absence puts more responsibility on Draymond Green, but Arenas believes the forward cannot have the same impact when Curry is not on the floor. He has also questioned whether Steve Kerr needs to change his lineup to help Green. With Golden State coming off a 115-108 loss to the Houston Rockets, the Warriors now face questions about how they will manage without their leading scorer.

Gilbert Arenas Questions Draymond Green's Role Without Stephen Curry

Speaking on Gil's Arena, Arenas explained how much Curry's presence means to Golden State.

“How do you sustain without your Superman, right?” Arenas said.

“That means now you're powered by a rookie, and this team gets their energy from Steph, right? The building gets their energy from Steph, right? When we talk about when Luka came to town and he was being the bully of the group, who comes and saves the day? Steph. It becomes his show, right? They're missing that.”

Curry suffered the injury during Wednesday's game against Houston. He left in the first quarter after making a three-pointer and holding his right side. An MRI later confirmed an oblique abdominal tear, with the Warriors announcing that he would be re-evaluated in two weeks.

Arenas believes Curry's absence also changes how opponents defend Green.

“How does Draymond be Draymond if he doesn't have the pieces? If he doesn't have the pieces, we might have to switch our lineup to fit best for how we're gonna play. Because if there's no Steph, how does Draymond do what he does? Because we don't have to trap that guy over there for you to get the ball back, for you to then go and, you know, give hockey assists, do what you do, right? We can just go wander; we can just do whatever we want; we can stick on you now. How are you affecting the game on the offensive side?”

Gilbert Arenas Wants Steve Kerr To Change The Warriors' Lineup

Green often benefits from the extra defensive attention Curry attracts. When opponents no longer need to send two defenders toward Curry, they can focus more on Green and make it harder for him to create opportunities for teammates.

Arenas believes Kerr needs to find another approach before the Warriors lose more games.

“That lineup has to be altered. And if you're not going to alter it, you're going to take a lot of Ls. Draymond's going to do what Draymond does, right? And that becomes a problem anytime Steph is not in the game, right? It becomes frustration, right? Because he only knows… You know what I'm saying? He only knows winning. If you are out there not playing smart basketball, a frustrating guy like that, right? That then means he has to do so much defensively to make up for the offensive lack of execution. He's going to get frustrated. He's going to be frustrated. But it's easy to play frustrated when you have Steph.”

Arenas also joked that Green has an “85% rate” of getting ejected when Curry is unavailable. That figure was an exaggeration. However, Bryan Kalbrosky's 2023 research found that seven of Green's previous 11 ejections had happened in games Curry missed.

The Warriors are now 8-4 after their loss to Houston, and Curry's absence leaves Green and the rest of the team with more responsibility.