Draymond Green has spent this summer publicly courting LeBron James to Golden State, and on Sunday he took the pitch to a new, self-mocking place: he offered to disappear into the corner and let someone else run the show.
A fan asked Green on Threads who would actually run the Warriors' offense if James signed — Green himself, Stephen Curry, or James. Green's reply: "Bron. I'd become PJ Tucker. Greatest corner 3pt shooter ever."
The Tucker line is a running bit for Green. PJ Tucker built his NBA reputation less on scoring than on spacing the floor and guarding bigger forwards, and by Second Spectrum's count he made 704 corner three-pointers over a 12-season span, more than any other player in that stretch, with most of the damage done during his prime years in Houston. His career three-point mark sits at 36.6 percent, 38.4 percent from the corner specifically.
Green first made the comparison in September 2020, after a playoff series against Tucker's Rockets, calling him "perhaps the best three-point shooter in NBA history." NBC Sports Bay Area dug into that claim at the time and found the numbers didn't really back it up — which hasn't stopped Green from bringing it back out five years later as his own hypothetical role.
Fans and other outlets weren't exactly buying the vision of Green, a career 31 percent three-point shooter built primarily around defense and playmaking, morphing into a corner specialist. The joke spread quickly across social media, with plenty of ribbing rather than agreement.
It lands, though, against a very real backdrop. LeBron James has told the Lakers he intends to leave the franchise this offseason and is working through free agency, with the Warriors, Cavaliers, Heat and 76ers among the teams in the mix. Green has publicly angled for a reunion push all summer, including reportedly declining his own player option to help clear the Warriors' books for a possible James deal.
James, 41, has said he won't drag out his decision much longer. Until he actually picks a team, Green's version of a LeBron-anchored Warriors offense — with himself lurking in the corner, waiting for a kickout — remains exactly what it was on Sunday: a joke with just enough real stakes behind it to make people talk.
