Less than a month after news broke that San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama was done for the year, Draymond Green made a bold statement.
"I look around the league and don't see many players impacting the game on the defensive end the way I do,” the Golden State Warriors big said last week when asked about his thoughts on his Defensive Player of the Year case. “I don't see many players completely throwing off an entire team's offense the way I do. One thousand percent (I deserve to be considered).”
On March 18th, Draymond Green claimed he "one-million percent" had a case for Defensive Player of the Year after Golden State's win over Milwaukee.
— Covers (@Covers) March 26, 2025
Since then, his odds have swung from +1000 to the -130 betting favorite. 🤨pic.twitter.com/ATBPC8ej6r
Sitting at +1,000 in the NBA Defensive Player of the Year odds following a 104-93 win over the Milwaukee Bucks that saw him help hold Giannis Antetokounmpo to 20 points – a pedestrian mark compared to his season-long 30.2 points per game – it seemed like more of the same from the often abrasive and opinionated Warriors star.
An often talkative star running his mouth and looking to drop a buzz-worthy quote for a team jockeying for postseason seeding.
Just over a week later, however, it suddenly doesn’t seem so outlandish, with the oddsmakers taking notice themselves. While Green hasn’t quite seen his odds hit the “thousand percent” he suggested, the 35-year-old has made himself heard loud and clear. Green now sits at -130 at multiple retailers and is widely considered the betting favorite to take home his second career Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy.
“Especially with Wemby going down, it seemed like he had it won, and now it’s right there,” Green added. “So one-million percent I have a case and I’ll continue to build that case for these next 13 games.”
Last winning the award in 2017, it’s been an up-and-down few years for Green, who at times over the past several seasons has found himself in the midst of off-court distractions and even amongst whispers of planning for life after basketball. His late career bounce back, however, certainly seems to have shifted that narrative.
"He's the best defender I've ever seen," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr added the same day as Draymond’s initial comments. “The speed and recovery with Draymond is just stunning.”
"I think you have to respect the hell out of what he does, and it's so hard to do," Jimmy Butler, one of Green’s newest teammates and himself a premier defender said. "He has won at this level. He is a Hall of Famer for a reason. I just respect what he brings to this squad, what he brings to this locker room and how he affects winning in every single way."
Dramatic shifts across the board
In the immediate aftermath of Wembanyama’s injury, it seemed as though Cleveland Cavaliers star Evan Mobley and Memphis Grizzlies big man and 2023 DPOY Jaren Jackson Jr. were at the front of the pack to fill the Wemby void.
To a certain extent, that narrative has come to pass, but only in part. Jackson and the Grizzlies have seen their season taper off as the season has lumbered on. Jackson's award odds dipped as low as -110 at some books at the end of February before a lousy 6-8 March record sank Jackson to a distant +2,800.
Mobley, on the other hand, has held up his end of the bargain and then some, narrowly trailing Green with odds listed at +100 as the second favorite. His Cavaliers have continued their historic season, with Mobley serving as an anchor in the paint en route to Cleveland’s exceptional 59-14 record. They're on pace to shatter their franchise record of 66 wins in the 2008-09 season with prime LeBron at the helm.
"He wants to get to that next level,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said of his star big man. “Like, he wants to be one of the greats. And I don't say that lightly, I don't say that about everybody. And I know it might be not in the way everybody wants him to do it, but he's his authentic self."
