Draymond Green is a system player, inasmuch that a system has been built around his abilities. Even if Stephen Curry is the Warriors’ best player, nearly everything the team does is made possible by Green’s ability to play and defend every position. 

What the Warriors do is impossible to replicate by any other team and nearly impossible to contend with because there are so few players able to run centers off the court, reliably knock down three-pointers, defend elite scorers, all while being a top ten passer in the league. There might only be two of those players in the NBA. One is Draymond Green. The other one is arguably the best basketball player on the planet.

There isn’t a single thing on the basketball court that Draymond Green is naturally better at than LeBron James, which is pretty stunning when you consider that Green has elite skills at basically every facet of the game. 

The story of James’ career has been an ability and desire to put his team on his back. When all the chips are down, he’ll be the primary scorer, passer, rebounder and defender. This only makes sense considering his dominance. Green, on the other hand, has found success playing whatever role the game dictates and doing so without demanding the ball. His impact is inevitable simply based on the mismatches he creates. The difference between their roles, and their personalities, is basically that James is determined to do everything while Green is willing to do anything. 

When James slid into power forward in Game 3, it opened up plenty of options for the Cavaliers. It naturally made them faster, and it allowed a little bit more ball handling and freedom for Kyrie Irving to showcase his deadly offensive abilities. By mimicking the numerous roles that Green plays for the Warriors, James might be sacrificing a little bit of control in favor of a potentially greater impact. As great of a passer as James is, Green is arguably just as effective passing out of the post or in limited touches as James is when he’s assist hunting. Part of that might be credited to all of the Warriors’ shot makers, but a lot of it is due to all the mismatches that Green is creating.

It sound like a bit of an ego check to ask James to adjust to Green, but the whole motivation behind the tactic is supported by the reality of how much better James is than Green.

The common perception is that basketball is a game of adjustments and the team that forces its opponents to adjust to them will always have the upper hand. This line of thinking has a lot to do with why the Warriors have been historically good this season.

But Cleveland can succeed in constantly adjusting to the Warriors because they have a player that is undeniably better than the guy who makes the whole system click in Golden State. If you’re wondering what role James should be playing in this series, the answer is that he should be playing whatever role Green is playing, even when that includes the center position. The second most terrifying part of playing the Warriors (behind Curry’s ability to hit 35-footers like they’re layups) is that Green always manages to find numerous mismatches within a single game. He’ll never have one playing against LeBron. The Cavaliers essentially have the one player that can take Green out of a series if he’s committed to it. It would basically be a “pick on someone your own size” scenario.

The Warriors can always beat a team strictly based on absurd shot making by the Splash Brothers, but the first three games of this series are proof that such legendary performances are far from a guarantee. Taking out Green would be an equalizer.

All that said, Green, even facing the challenge of one of the greatest players of all time, won’t go down that easily. He’ll put up a fight because he’ll do anything to win. Grit and competitiveness are intangible and immeasurable, but we can still admit that Green has more of both than the majority of the NBA.  He’ll grab rebounds and push the ball cross-court. He’ll play James physically and verbally assault him in an obnoxious bordering on detestable way.

This future of this series might come down to LeBron James taking on the toughest, meanest, (second) most versatile player in the NBA and having to dominate him in order to bring a championship to Cleveland. Considering the talk surrounding James has always been legacy-centric, such a challenge is only fitting. The question is whether he has enough faith in the rest of his team to treat that challenge as his primary role.