When the Warriors went through a midseason lull, losing six of nine games in November, there was talk of bringing in Robin Lopez or Pau Gasol to bolster the backline defense.

Draymond Green had a different idea.

“Draymond texted me while we were in Cairns playing a game,” said Andrew Bogut, who was playing for the Sydney Kings some 7,000 miles from Oakland. “‘Hey man, question for you: Can you get out of your Australian deal and get here immediately?’”

Bogut and Green have a special connection — born from their unique understanding of basketball, strengthened by bonding over late-night poker games, and now, stunningly being rejoined seven years after the relationship started.

More than 14 months since his last NBA game and nearly three years removed from his last game in a Warriors uniform, Bogut was back at Oracle Arena in a home jersey Thursday night. The fans hadn’t forgotten the 2012 trade that first netted Bogut and represented the organization’s paradigm shift, or his selfless handling of being benched during the 2015 championship run.

Neither had Green, so he soaked up every indelible moment during the 34-year-old’s emotional return Thursday.

Green saw Bogut step out of pregame layup lines for handshakes and hugs with season-ticket holders. He joined in the crowd’s standing ovation when Bogut checked in with 1 minute, 46 seconds left in the first quarter. He watched as Bogut drew a charge and set a screen during fourth-quarter garbage time — just for the fun of physicality.

“One hundred percent. I’ve always felt it since the beginning of time,” Green said when asked how much connection he feels with Bogut on the court. “He’s so smart. He’s an amazing communicator. When you have someone communicating the way he does, that’s a comforting feeling for a defender. That’s where I learned to communicate, because you see how comfortable it makes me feel. It’s just spectacular. We can just read the same things and play seamlessly off of each other.”

During Green’s first training camp in 2012, Bogut pulled the rookie out of a drill and the mentor-student relationship started. College players often defend the post with their chests, and Bogut started explaining that Green would get torched if he didn’t adjust to using arm bars in the NBA.

Seeing that Green was eating up the knowledge, Bogut soon started talking about weight distribution and when and how you could get away with pushing and punching on the block. When he started the graduate-level courses, Bogut realized that Green sees the same game he does — something only a handful of people in the world can claim.

“I’m more than comfortable saying: ‘I have one of the best basketball IQs in the industry. Period.’ Whether that leads into coaching or front office, I have the utmost confidence in my basketball brain,” Bogut said. “Draymond respects that and relates to that. I think we’re on the same wavelength as far as understanding two or three steps ahead of what’s unfolding on the court, and we have that mutual respect for each other that we both know the game and study the game.

“We just know how to play with each other. He has my back when I over-help or get beat, and vice versa. He’s a great communicator, and he does a lot of intangible things that don’t show up on a stat sheet — much like myself. We just enjoy playing with each other.”

In fact, Bogut said he wouldn’t have returned for any other team. He hadn’t told his agent to shop his name in NBA circles and was enjoying life starring in Australia’s prospering professional league and spending time with his family that has grown with 2½-year-old and 8-month-old children.

He thought he’d win the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in his home country, try to push the Sydney Kings to the championship and then take vacation before reporting to the national team in August.

Instead, Green sent the December text.

That got Bogut thinking about joining the Warriors after Australia’s National Basketball League playoffs. Warriors director of player personnel Larry Harris, who drafted Bogut No. 1 overall to Milwaukee in 2005, went to scout and have lunch with Bogut a couple weeks later.

When the buyout market started to dry up, the Warriors’ brass asked Green if the team wanted to wait a couple of months for Bogut.

“Hell yeah, wait,” Green said. “We want him back.”

Bogut made the 14-hour flight to San Francisco on March 15 and found a house in the East Bay the next day, thinking he’d have nearly a week to babyproof the home. Instead, head coach Steve Kerr called and said the team needed him in San Antonio after DeMarcus Cousins was hurt.

A day later, Bogut was in San Antonio. Without a practice, Bogut started back-to-back games.

A honey-do list of tasks before the family joins Bogut in the Bay Area had to wait. He was too busy fitting seamlessly back into the Warriors’ flow, especially with Green, who credits Bogut for his 2016-17 Defensive Player of the Year Award.

They were back to barking at each other and quarterbacking the Warriors’ defense in no time.

“It’s just nice to have that rope tied to each other. We’ve always trusted one another to have each other’s back,” said Bogut.

His analysis of the Warriors, after watching from afar for the season’s first five months: “We’re a little up and down with our energy sometimes. People say, at times: Do we get bored? What’s going on? But, I have full faith that we have the roster to win another championship. I think once playoff time comes, and the games mean a whole lot more, we’ll be in the right spot.”

Either that, or Bogut and Green will point each other toward the right spot.

Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron