Paul Pierce: Draymond Green wouldn't make All-Defensive Teams in past eras

Draymond Green has been the talk of the town recently after his back-and-forth with fellow Saginaw, Michigan native Kenyon Martin — the latter said that there are 200 players better than Green, including 50 power forwards.

Paul Pierce seemingly supported Martin's argument on the recent episode of the "No Fouls Given" podcast, claiming that Green's biggest forte — his defense — is a byproduct of an era he plays in.

"Draymond is the greatest defender of this new era of this type of basketball because of the switching, because he can guard all five positions," said Pierce. "I don't think you could put Draymond defensively in any other era to where he will be an All-Defensive player, where he has to switch on Shaq, Alonzo, Dikembe, and KG."

Green in a different era?

Reacting to Martin's list, Green reminded him of his NBA accolades as a player, most notably those he received for his standout defense: four-time All-Star, one-time All-NBA second-team member, five-time All-Defensive first-team member, four-time second-team All-Defense and the 2017 NBA Defensive Player of the Year.

Pierce recognizes these honors as proof that Green is the greatest defender of the modern NBA. However, he feels the Golden State Warriors' greatness on that side of the floor stems from the style of basketball played in today's game.

Had he played two decades ago, for example, Pierce thinks Green wouldn't have been as effective.

"Now you can switch on non-post presence players now, it's easier to defend," the Boston Celtics legend added. "But when you have to switch to a dude, we gonna go to this every time down the switch, every time down we're going to the Dream, Shaq, on the switch with him."

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Heart (and angles) over height

On Martin's list of power forwards that he considers better than Green, nearly all the players he mentioned — aside from perhaps Charles Barkley and Elton Brand — were taller than the Warriors forward. This includes current stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Anthony Davis, as well as legends such as Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, Chris Webber, Amar’e Stoudemire, Rasheed Wallace, Pau Gasol, Tim Duncan, Chris Bosh, Zach Randolph and others.

Even Martin's "s–t and giggles" players, like Bo Outlaw, Popeye Jones and Reggie Evans, are officially listed as taller than Green and are physically bigger than him.

But according to Green himself, that's what makes his defensive dominance even more impressive.

"You can have athleticism, but the game is all about angles, and so where you can beat me in athleticism, I can understand and make up in angles and physicality. Athleticism can only be used and taken advantage of with space. If you close distance, close space. It's harder for that athleticism to be used to their advantage, so those are the couple of things I used to do," Green said.

"As for height, my grandma used to say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. It's not necessarily that, but when I see a guy that has me in height, that's also a disadvantage to having height. Most bigger guys can't get low. There's this saying, low man always wins," he added.

Would Green's angles have been effective against guys like Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, or Wilt Chamberlain? For all his greatness, that's hard to imagine.

However, that shouldn't diminish the historic defensive impact Green has had on the NBA, and particularly on the Warriors. The accolades speak for themselves, regardless of what cross-era comparisons might suggest.

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This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Nov 25, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.