Warriors player who just signed an $85 million contract says he is not in great shape on purpose
Green, who played a vital role in the Warriors' championship run and was rewarded with a five-year, $85 million contract, told reporters he's actually not in the best shape of his life.
Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle writes:
Draymond Green said his body purposely isn't in "tip-top" shape as he reports for the Warriors' training camp, which opens Tuesday.
The power forward wanted to give his body time to recover from last season's two-month grind to the NBA championship. He said he'll use the next month to get his body into regular-season form.
Green added, "If I was in tip-top shape now, my body probably wouldn't hold up through the end of next June."
According to Simmons, Warriors coach Steve Kerr was fine with this, agreeing that because the Warriors season went late into June as they won the championship, players needed time to let their bodies rest.
While it makes sense to let players' bodies rest, it will be interesting to see just how conditioned Green really is. Generally, players don't have much success at the whole work-themselves-into-shape thing, and playing too much while not in peak shape can lead to injuries, or at least slow starts.
Following the comedown of a championship and having to get back into tip-top shape, it seems there's the potential for Green, and maybe even the Warriors as a whole, to get off to a slow start even if the regular season is still a month away.