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HOUSTON — Draymond Green, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, did not hesitate when asked for his reaction to being named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team on Wednesday.

“Pissed,” Green joked, before putting on his diplomat hat. “Nah, it’s an honor to make All-Defensive teams, All-NBA teams, All-Rookie teams. It’s an honor. It’s such a great league with great talent. A lot of guys are good on the defensive end, so to be one of the 10 guys named to the All-Defensive team is great.”

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But that honor could be considered something of a slight for Green, who has been named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team three years in a row. Also, Green wasn’t even a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year. He was the runner-up for that award in 2015 and 2016 before winning it last year.

Warriors’ coach Steve Kerr said anybody who understands basketball knows that Green is still one of the top-five defenders in the NBA.

“If you asked every coach in the league, ‘You could have any five defenders you want,’ I guarantee you Draymond would be one of those five,” Kerr said. “The fact that he didn’t end up on the first team, stuff like that happens all the time. Michael Jordan should’ve won MVP about 10 times. LeBron [James] probably should’ve earned it more than — how many times has he won? Four? Maybe he should’ve won more.”

Stephen Curry seconded Kerr, adding that he was surprised Green was not named to the First Team.

“Yeah, I mean the guy won Defensive Player of the Year last year,” Curry said. “I don’t know advanced analytics but, to the eye test, he’s still as dominating a force on that end as he was last year or the year before. A lot of that is mostly he wasn’t talking about it as much this year as he was last year. Maybe that had a little something to do with it.”

It didn’t help that the stats also weren’t in his favor.

Green’s defensive box plus/minus rating fell from five last season to 2.7 this season. He had 154 steals last season, while finishing with 95 this season. And he had 501 defensive rebounds last season, while finishing with 460 this season.

Kerr, however, said it was only natural for Green to have a bit of a dip this season.

“I think this year, given that this is our fourth year trying to get back to The Finals, I think our whole team had lapses this year where we didn’t have quite the same level of play, level of energy,” Kerr said. “I think Draymond has even admitted that to you guys. So what you’re seeing right now in the playoffs, yeah, that’s the real Draymond. And that’s what we’re excited about because he controls games with his defense.”

Kerr has a good point — whatever issues with apathy and engagement that Green may have struggled with during the regular season have completely disappeared in the playoffs.

Green is averaging postseason career-highs in defensive rebounds (9.1), steals (1.9) and assists (8.5). He averaged a triple-double in the Western Conference Semifinals against New Orleans, becoming the first Warrior to accomplish that feat in a playoff series.

Oh, and his defensive plus/minus rating this postseason is 5.3, up from 4.8 last season.

Kevin Durant has another theory on why Green fell so low in the defensive awards this season.

Said Durant: “I guess they get tired of seeing Draymond up there.”

Green added that there were a few other glaring omissions to the NBA’s Defensive Teams, including Klay Thompson, Durant and Paul George.

“Those are just the three I know right off the top of my head that could’ve been or possibly should’ve been, but wasn’t on there,” Green said. “But I know it’s a tough decision. Like I said, there are a lot of guys who can really defend in this league.”

Curry, however, said he’s actually kind of happy that Green was left off the First Team.

“That might give him a little bit of an edge or a chip on his shoulder,” Curry said. “He feeds off of that stuff.”

Green already proved Curry right. Afterall, he’s already planning to use that slight as blackboard material for himself heading into next season.