The NBA's best center stands 6-foot-5 and three quarters in bare feet and began his career as the third-string small forward for the Golden State Warriors.
Draymond Green certainly doesn't look like our vision of a dominant NBA center. He doesn't necessarily play all that much like one either. But regardless of his style, the results when Green plays center speak for themselves.
During a period where Marc Gasol and Dwight Howard are aging and younger talents like Andre Drummond, Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Hassan Whiteside aren't yet ready to claim the throne, the Warriors' starting power forward also merits the title of league's best center.
Warriors at their best with Green in the middle
As long as Golden State has some combination of Green, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson on the court, the Warriors are going to be an elite team. Since Steve Kerr began experimenting with Green as a small-ball center last season, far and away their best results have come with those lineups.
Adding those up, Green has played 594 minutes at center over the last two seasons, including the 2015 playoffs. Golden State has outscored opponents by 31.2 points per 100 possessions during the span.
For context, the difference between the league's best net rating (the Warriors, at plus-16.8) and worst (the Philadelphia 76ers, at minus-12.1) is 28.9 points per 100 possessions. That's the kind of mismatch opponents face any time Green moves to center.
Of course, the success of Golden State's so-called "death lineup" goes beyond just Green. Small forward Harrison Barnes also has to move up a position and defend bigger opponents (we probably won't see Green at center much during Barnes' absence with a sprained ankle). Replacing centers Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli with wing Andre Iguodala gives the Warriors more quickness to trap and double-team on defense. And the shooting and playmaking of Curry and Thompson help Golden State exploit defensive mismatches.
Still, as other NBA teams seek to replicate the Warriors' small-ball success (a trend detailed by ESPN's Zach Lowe last week), it's clear that Green is the most difficult player to duplicate because of his ability to fulfill the responsibilities of a traditional center while giving Golden State many more skills than the typical 7-footer.
Green's defensive big-man skills
While Green hardly looks like a center, standing half a foot shorter than Gasol, for instance, the Warriors play league-leading defense with Green in the middle.
The most important job responsibility for a modern NBA center is protecting the rim, and that's become a Green specialty despite his size.
Blocked shots are how we have traditionally judged centers on the defensive end. With Whiteside averaging 4.7 blocks per game and DeAndre Jordan, one of Green's chief rivals for the designation of NBA's best center, averaging 2.7 BPG, the traditional defensive center is not dead.
At 1.4 blocked shots per game, Green is an above-average shot blocker for a power forward, though below average by the standards of centers. When we move to more revealing measures of rim protection, however, it becomes clear that Green has been difficult to score on around the basket.
In fact, SportVU tracking data on NBA.com/Stats has Green allowing the third-lowest percentage inside five feet among players who have defended at least five such shots per game.
It's early and Green is unlikely to remain quite so stingy around the rim, but he finished last season 17th in opponent field-goal percentage around the basket, so his rim protection is at worst fairly average for a starting center.
Then there's the matter of post defense. Green compensates for his small stature with upper-body strength and a low center of gravity that makes him difficult for taller opponents to move on the block. Among players who have faced at least 25 shots off post-ups, per Synergy Sports tracking on NBA.com/Stats, the 32 percent shooting Green has allowed ranks as the fifth-lowest percentage in the league.
Last season, opponents shot a fairly average 43.4 percent against Green, but they also turned the ball over at the third-highest rate in the league.
The one area Green might come up short as a center is on the defensive glass. Only an average defensive rebounder for a power forward overall, Green's defensive rebound rate drops from 19.8 percent of all available misses in general to 15.9 percent when playing center, according to NBAwowy.com.
And as the Cleveland Cavaliers showed in last year's NBA Finals, the Warriors' small-ball lineups are vulnerable as a group to offensive rebounders. The "death lineup" is rebounding 72.9 percent of opponent misses, which would rank 29th in the league over the course of the season.
Still, Golden State's defensive rating with Green in the middle (89.9 points per 100 possessions) would be the NBA's best, and his ability to fulfill the traditional defensive duties of a center is a big reason why.
Green's non-traditional offensive skills
While Green might be able to play like a center on defense, he doesn't play anything like one when the Warriors have the ball, and that's an excellent thing for their offense. This season has seen Green continue his development into offering the league's best combination of playmaking and shooting ability from a frontcourt player.
A 20.9 percent 3-point shooter as a rookie, when his limited ability to space the floor as a small forward was something of a liability, Green improved to nearly league average the last two seasons. In 2014-15, his volume more than his accuracy made him a threat -- he attempted 4.2 per game (seventh-most among power forwards and centers) while making only 33.7 of them.
Though it's too early to say whether his improvement is legitimate or just an early-season fluke, Green is making 40.3 percent of his 3-point attempts this season, making him nearly as accurate as Thompson (41.3 percent).
Green's development as a playmaker has been equally important and appears more sustainable. He leads Golden State by handing out 7.1 assists per game. If Green can keep it up, that would be the most assists for a player who played exclusively power forward or center since the ABA-NBA merger.
Besides players like Larry Bird and LeBron James who have swung between the forward spots, and Magic Johnson averaging 6.9 assists as a point forward when he returned to the NBA in 1995-96 after his first retirement, the modern record for a true post player is 6.2 assists per game by Boris Diaw in 2005-06 while playing for the Phoenix Suns.
Looking back throughout NBA history, Wilt Chamberlain is the only true post player to average more assists per game than Green this season, having handed out 7.8 per game in 1966-67 and 8.6 the following season. Fittingly, Chamberlain was the last Warrior before Green last week to have triple-doubles in consecutive games.
The case for Green
Green's unique versatility has made him a valuable player wherever he's played this season. ESPN's real plus-minus rates Green's performance sixth in the league, and tops among big men.
But can Green really be the best center in the league even though he plays power forward most of the time? Well, when the best team we've seen since Michael Jordan's retirement needs to outscore opponents, it puts Green at center. So he plays center in the best lineup in the league, he's playing better than any other center and that lineup is a key reason his team is undefeated. That sounds a lot like the NBA's best center to me.