New Warriors forward JaMychal Green said during his introductory press conference on Monday that he had been preparing to join another NBA team before he received a call from Golden State head coach Steve Kerr that made him change his mind, as Kendra Andrews of ESPN details.
“He told me that (the Warriors) were interested, that they wanted me here, wanted me to be a part of the program,” Green said. “After talking to him, I couldn’t tell him no. The organization and what they built over here, I’d love to be a part of it.”
Following his conversation with Kerr, Green placed a call to Draymond Green, whom he has known since the eighth grade through AAU basketball. As Andrews writes, that phone call helped solidify JaMychal’s decision.
“He was just excited,” JaMychal said. “We both know what we bring to the table, and we just had a good conversation about everything and he made it easy for me to come here.”
JaMychal Green, who spent last season in Denver, was traded to Oklahoma City in June and was subsequently bought out of his expiring contract by the Thunder. He’s joining a Warriors team that lost a pair of key reserve forwards – Otto Porter and Nemanja Bjelica – in free agency, and sees himself as someone who can help fill the hole those departures created, as a complementary piece to the team’s stars.
“Just come in and play hard,” Green said of the role he expects to play for his new team. “Be a dog. Do the dirty work — help Draymond out with the dirty work. Knock down shots and play defense. I feel like if you come here and handle your business, you set yourself up for life.”
Porter and Bjelica were two of the Warriors’ most reliable three-point shooters last season, making 37.0% and 36.2% of their three-point attempts, respectively. Green converted just 26.6% of his shots from beyond the arc last season for the Nuggets after entering the year with a 38.0% career rate — he said on Monday that he’s confident in his ability to bounce back, noting that a nagging wrist injury affected his effectiveness in ’21/22.
“Toward the end of the season I just stopped shooting, period,” Green said, according to Andrews. “It’s all about rest and confidence. As long as I get my reps in this summer, I’ll be good to go. I was just fighting through some things last year… it’s going to get up.”
The Warriors didn’t disclose the terms of Green’s new deal, but it’s believed to be a one-year, minimum-salary contract. The 32-year-old would earn $2,628,597 (the amount he gave up in his buyout with Oklahoma City) and Golden State would take on a cap hit of $1,836,090.