What is up, fellow thermonuclear a ffers. I am Dampa Valley coming at
you with another mini segment here. I've been asked a lot about while we
haven't addressed the Draymond Green situation. It's because I am neck deep in team
look Aheads. We do have the Warriors coming later this week, but I
figured I would since I mentioned this. There might be a two pot day.
If you're listening to this on a Monday. I mentioned this the other
one. I had some cancelations and ghost things for other podcasts look Ahead,
so there will be days where I poly polish three or four podcasts just to
get out all those look Aheads before the season. I'm very much trying to
put out our bougiass previews for every single team before the regular season starts.
They might leak into the regular season at this rate I'm trying, though.
I hope you've enjoyed them. If you've not, go checked them out,
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Before we get into the Draymond Green stuff, just very quickly subscribe to
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The Draymond Green stuff, though, there was just a lot to digest.
You we all know by now that he punched Jordan Pool in practice. The
video was then subsequently leaked and it was not great to look at. I
mean, we hear about practice kerfuffles all the time, but the way the
warriors are reacting, you kind of knew this wasn't the norm. Green is
now taking some time away from the team. He said. He gave a
press conference and where he said many different things, some of which I will
touch upon. It's just a very awkward situation. So I think they're,
you know, we need to tackle this from tears a few of the things.
The initial reaction. There are players, a lot of them former talking
about, Oh, this happens all the time. I don't. I don't
buy that, and I'm not this is not sourced to this degree. I'm
knowing the reaction coming from the Warriors themselves and Kerr and Steph and we'll touch
on those as well. This is not this. This beats that level of
any other practice just you know, buah or whatever you want to call it.
And maybe it's because the video was released and so it looks just worse
on having that actual footage. To me, maybe I am falling victim to
that, but I would be shocked and just based off some of the current
NBA player reactions when you're looking at a Darn Fox or a John Moran or
a Trey Young from the same agency, by the way, saying Draymond trying
to get traded to La was actually hysterical. I'm even someone closer to being
more of a current player, and Isaiah Thomas remains unsigned right now. It
just tells me that this was something that was beyond the norm. And then
how fast Draymond's people camp went to try and do damage control, where it
was reported that Jordan Pool's behavior because he was going to get paident extension,
either in recent months or over the past year, impacted it. That again
tells me that this was not the norm. Even we know now Marcus Thompson
did a great job writing about this for The Athletic. We know that Jordan
Pool and Draymond Green are the trash talkers on the team, that a lot
of them might only be the ones talking during practice when you look at their
personalities. To me, though this was a thirty two year old man punching
a twenty three year old co worker, that difference matters. When Draymond is
build is sort of the emotional bell Weather for this team. We know that
he's had extracurricular stuff in the past, the Lebron getting suspended excuse me.
In the twenty sixteen finals, the Steven Adams shot that led it to a
point where he contributed to a point I should say, to where he could
be suspended. I'm getting into an altercation with Steve Kerr at halftime of a
game that might have been the same season or what, yeah, was it?
I can't remember. Then Kevin Durant sideline scuffle that a lot of people
attribute to, well, that was definitely why Kadi left in free agency that
year. I will say there's a way to overstate and understate both. I
don't know that you look at this and say, well, Drey has already
cost the Warriors at least two titles in twenty and sixteen, and then by
chasing let's say Kevin duran away in free agency twenty and sixteen, I just
totally agree with with the Kosts coming back from a three to one depsit two
Like the Kevin Durant thing, I just believe he was always gone, and
I think most people would agree. So I don't know that you can attribute
that entirely to Draymond, even if he factored into that calculus. And then
this season, we don't know what's gonna happen yet, But that is just
my primary concern here is I would love to know how Jordan Pool feels about
this. Maybe he'll talk by the time you hear this. I don't know
if the onus has to fall on him to talk. But he's the one
who got hit. He's the one where it seemed like, yeah, there
might have been trash talking involved, but the way that Steve Kerr was talking,
and then Steph specifically, who we know loves Draymond. Steph just seemed
fed up with his availability that this had happened. And even Steve Kerr when
he got into some of the questions and was giving just one word answers,
I think he said, like speculatory to to one of them whether Drey would
be able to come back and this would be okay. That shit matters,
and it again it to me. It tells you the scale at which this
took place. Forget the week, but the scale which this took place was
abnormal. Maybe not anomalist, but definitely abnormal. So that is what I
care about. It is I want to know Jordan Pool's thoughts because that's what's
going to probably impact this the most. If he can recapture the chemistry or
the emotional bond he has shared with Draymond, then the other team, the
other team's it'll be easier for them to fall suit. But this is on
the team to kind of just I don't want to use the word forgive,
to sort of call Draymond this cancer. But it's on the Warriors now again
to sort of look past. Okay, Yes, he is the emotional heart
and soul for our team, but it's also manifests in ways that are detrimental
to Draymond's credit. And I think that we're too not that we're too hard.
I think collectively we on social media at least we struggle to juggle multiple
truths at the same time, Which is Do I believe Draymond is sorry?
Yes? Do I believe that he's also sorry that it got caught or was
released on video? Also? Yes? Do I think that his press conference
was perfect on the matter? No? Do I think he was candid?
Yes? I do. I think there's no coming back from this. I
honestly don't know. There are things that he said that definitely rankle you and
should be made fun of. The whole shout out to his family, pulling
that David Ghetta thing just so weird. I punched him so hard his family
in fact, that his family it's just a wild thing to say. I
do also think press conferences are tough, even if in your head you've had
time to prepare. I can't tell you how much prep goes into some of
my podcasts for these. And I'm not comparing myself to Draymond. Let me
just get that clear. Draymond is on another level with being able to deal
and just mentally prepare for what he's doing with press conferences the game. So
I'm not saying that I have the same ike is Draymond. My point is
I trip over my words still. I say the wrong things and preps,
especially when it's interviews and I have these notes and these extensive outlines I usually
send guests, so you can prepare and stuff can still come out wrong.
It needs to be leeway shown at the same time, you know him harping
at all on the leak of the footage, which I actually do agree is
an issue because internally, like you want to feel that not players are already
under a microscope and the magnification on that microscope is beyond what I could imagine.
And so there's part of me where Draymond says, I've been dealing with
stuff off the court and hurt people, hurt hurt people. I disagree with
that just strongly. You're a thirty two year old adult, and you don't
shouldn't have to resist the impetus to go up to a twenty three year old
and punch them. Whether you think it's a sucker punch, I don't fucking
care. Because Jordan pooled every right to push Draymond, who got in his
personal space and came all the way up to him. That's just a natural
reflex. I don't know if Jordan Pool expected that the people around him are
going to intervene, which they really didn't, and Draymond was allowed to throw
that punch. It seemed to everyone was just going about business as usual because
maybe these two chirp and we don't have the audio. I also don't think
that matters. And if I had to guess, I think the audio makes
Draymond come off worse. That's just a guess. But I can't bring myself
to think, oh, well, Jordan Poole should have been prepared that Draymond
was going to swing at him. I mean, it's still on Draymond.
Whether you think that Jordan Poole should have been in more of a defensive stance
after pushing Draymond, which, given how close to Jordan Poole's personal proximity he
was and how hostile the interaction was Draymond coming I don't want to say threateningly,
menacingly is probably the better word. I could see why he would be
pushed away. I don't If you don't want to call the sucker punch,
that's fine, but let's not throw this on Jordan Pool unless he said something
actually so egregious that we don't know about. And again, based off with
her and Steph Curry specifically said, I just don't think that's the case.
I do think there's also been breadcrumbs that maybe the Warriors have been mentioning that
Jordan Pool is chirping more than usual, where Clay was sort of talking about
the three point contest, the exhibition three point contest that they had in I
believe they were over in Japan. There's just sort of clues that you could
tell. Yeah, but that also makes sense because if he and Draymond are
the guys who are trash trash trapping against each other while no one is talking
in practice, that sort of tracks and Steph and Clay aren't punching Jordan Pool
because of what he's saying verbally. This is all on Draymond Green. Would
be my point again, you're a thirty two year old adult. I don't
care the profession. There's no such thing as boys will be boy like.
That's fucking stupid. Like could we get in the year twenty twenty two,
please, and thank you? That's not an excuse that I would accept.
This is all on him, And I think that he said it that his
actions have to speak more than his words now because all his apologies just bring
hollow given how many different issues there have been. But this is just more
so. He's talking about a player in Jordan Pool that he took on his
wing, that he has this not father son relationship but like mentor mentee relationship,
and now you've risked that. And he even said it's tough for him
to kind of go to Jordan Pool right now, even though he did say
that he reached out to apologize to Pool and of course his family for just
again just wild stuff there, and he did. Draymond said he's made a
ton of progress as a person. That's not something that I think when you're
apologizing with this I don't think there can be butts or however's I think you
just own it and then you try and move on him stepping away from the
team. Don't know how long that wind's up lasting, but I do think
that it's fair. And I've actually been surprised, and I wouldn't use the
word in press, but just just surprised at how not again stream on the
Warriors family says, but how fed up they seem with this behavior. And
I do think a lot of that just comes down to, yeah, dealing
with stuff like this and not like this, but along similar lines in the
past, but also the way that Steve Kerr and it's more specifically Stephan Kurry
just seemed fed the fuck up. And so that's like that has to factor
in to this too, is that you don't want this being another storyline.
And you know, Dre says he's not counting other players or other men's wallets.
Okay, fine, I have a tough time believing that some of this
emotional heft doesn't have anything to do with the fact that he's the least likely
of anyone who's extension eligible to get an extension. I mean, let's just
face it, when you're looking at Wiggins when you're looking at Jordan Pool.
I would expect those two guys to get an extension before Dre And to be
clear, I think Pool is probably the only one who actually gets an extension
at the end of the day, but that has to be factoring into this.
For Draymond, I just think what he did was inexcusable. I can
appreciate a lot of what he says, and I do believe he understands the
gravity of it. I don't think it brings empty, it rings hollow,
but also sort of him alluding to well, I don't want to tell you
what was said, because that's the sympathy card. Just short of implying that
Pool was equally, if not more so, or equitably responsible, not more
responsible, but equitably responsible. There is a line you can't cross, especially
when you're talking about a specific dynamic and I know that they're coworker, I
mean lose sight of the fact. I think the way with whe critique these
players, myself included, could probably sometimes just be gross. They're so fucking
young. Jordan pulls twenty three and was just forcibly struck as the terminology by
a thirty two year old man. I get that's not your typical workplace stuff,
but like that has to matter too. This was a man punching someone
who is still like in early adulthood. So I do believe Draymond wants to
be better. I do believe that he's sorry, but I don't know that
I believe he can come back from this with the Warriors, and I do
think this makes him more likely that he leaves the Warriors. I would be
fairly surprised if they trade him, maybe in a sign and trade this summer,
but I'd be fairly surprised if they trade him, just because I don't
know where he get back for him at this point, he is so good.
I think if people say he wouldn't be so valuable on another team,
I do believe maybe not now because he's older, but I think that's unfair
to just how transcendent he's always been defensively. If he makes watching d defense
cool and exhaustive, and he was still super important in the way that the
Warriors defended right up until the end of the season last year. And there's
a tradeoff where if you just say, like, you know, if you
get rid of dray right now, let's just say we want to move on
from him. There's a tradeoff that you might not be immediately able to come
back from. Necessarily, it's you have Cavan Luni, still you have Wiggins.
But if you're trusting, committing and Moody to come along that quickly,
you already did lose GP two. I think your DVAS defense in the regular
season and the playoffs would suffer significantly without him because he's that important when it
comes to being instructive but also insightful and being able to sort of act on
that, and so you can't just he's still important to what they're trying to
do. I don't know, I honestly don't know if this becomes a distraction
for the team. I do not think it's going to be something around which
they rally to defend their championship. That's just kind of stupid. And to
the Warrior's credit, if you if you want to go this route, they
ranked in the seventy fifth percentile of defensive efficiency without Draymond on the court last
year. Now you're gonna have a full season of Clay. We know what
Wiggins is on defense now might be borderline elite. Still don't think he's a
top three defender in the NBA. Like some GMS and Warriors fans have told
me, yeah, you're missing Gary Payt in the second and even Oddo Porter
Jr. Who's probably more valuable to them on defense at points and offense.
But like Moses Moody, that's someone who feels like there's a lot of optimism
coming out of camp for him. I do, however, think if you're
going to move on from Draymond long term, it's because you believe that Cominga
and Wiseman collectively or at least one of them as the answer in the front
court. And I don't. You certainly can't say that now, and so
this season will be about gathering that information, which could become a distraction when
Draymond is just sitting there without an extension. But when you the odds were
probably always against these Warriors staying together and Steph and Clay and Draymond retiring not
the same year, but as all his members of the Warriors without playing for
a different team. And while Dre might come cheaper than he is right now,
and let's remember that Clay is going to be in the like the forty
plus million dollars this season. It just always felt like he believes he's either
underappreciated or that he was always I should just put it to me, he
was always the most likely one of the three to go elsewhere, and I
think that's now significantly more likely. And part of that just might be do
they view him as more replaceable because I don't know if he has the same
offensive value elsewhere. I'd like to see prime Draymond to play on a different
team. Defensively, I think he would still scale and have a ton of
utility on another organization. That being said, because you have Cominga, and
because you have Wiseman, and also because you have Looney and maybe even you're
thinking about paying let's we'll get to that in a second. But you have
those three if you hit on Comingo or Wiseman and Cominga definitely feels like he
is more backbone essence on defense than James Watson would. But maybe I haven't
seen enough of James Wiseman. Who am I have to say anything like that.
It's probably because they just believe they already sort of have his successors in
place, like to the front court, and you can't say that about definitely
can't say that about stef I don't care how you feel about Jordan pol.
You can't even say about Clay right now because he's better defensively than Jordan Pool,
who can just kind of get tossed around out there and be super stiff
and not do anything. Maybe he gets better still young enough where he could
I don't know. And so you look at what Jordan Pool brings as a
shock creator, a finisher, a shooter that might be more valuable to the
Warriors at this point because they don't have a ton of secondary scoring. Still,
they have Jordan Pool, who's I think he's probably he's come along as
a passer. I don't know if you view Clay or Wiggins as those tertiary
ball handlers. Maybe Wiggins has more to offer. Clay is still going to
be best moving away from the ball. So you could argue right now Jordan
Poole was also in a contract year or extension eligible himself, is more valuable
to the Warriors in the short and long term than Draymond. If you really
wanted to make that case, I would probably push it back against it.
This season when you're looking at the defensive but trying to project forward. Yeah,
I mean this title. This window could close at any point, and
Pool's younger, so that's going to help him as well. Then it gets
interesting if you want to go to Wiggins and Clay versus Draymonds, and I
just think as wings they're going to be inherently more valuable if Drey continues to
be limited on offense. And look, he's still dangerous out of the short
role, but he needs space to work with, and there were teams that
were able to give him a headache at points with that style. I mean,
you look at you know, Dallas gave him some fits. You look
at Boston definitely gave him some fits with that. In the the NBA Finals,
I still think he had some really impactful games, especially on the defensive
end. But Wiggins and Clay as wings on offense are just inherently more valuable.
They shoot threes and they make threes defensively, That's the question moving forward,
not next season. Draymond is still much better than them, I argue
moving forward, he's still probably gonna be more transcendent than Clay. But just
looking at someone who as a one on one wing defender, does Wiggins become
more mission critical to this team than Draymond I don't I don't know, And
there's so much prior to this happening. There's so much, you know,
intangibility that needs to be ascribed to the situation, and now I'm wondering that
that buoyed Draymond's case. I don't know if it does anymore after this,
And I don't think. I'm not saying he's a terrible human being, but
I also can't sit here and defend him. It was nice to hear some
of the things that he said, and I really do he was candid.
I think that he's sorry. I just don't know if there's any coming back
from from this this time, and I could see it being I think the
Warriors are going to still end up being in the top three conversation in the
West and put up a that viable defense of their title. But I don't
think this is something around which they're going to rally and become inspired. And
my guests would be at this moment if if Draymond Green is still on the
Warriors next season, it's almost because he picked up his player option and was
so bad that like there wasn't going to be a market for him in free
agency and that might almost be maybe I'm being hyperbolic there, but and being
too caught in the moment. There's so much that can change. We've seen
them overcome the game five sespecially in twenty and sixteen, and when you're looking
at the stakes of this specifically, that is clearly more pivotal than a practice
punch, if we want to phrase it that way. And so like,
maybe I am assigning too much value there, but we know the Warriors have
to pay all these other people, and that they can say We've already seen
limits to their tax bills and I'm not gonna I would just pay everybody,
you know, but I'm not a billionaire. My whole thing is they were
never going to pay everybody. That's the reality of the situation. And it
always felt like Steph would be here. I could see Clay either them just
deciding to pay him because he's Clay, or he would stay here no matter
what. And then it kind of comes down to you, are you willing
to keep two of Jordan Pool, Wiggins and Dre And at this point,
especially depending how this season goes, I think you would pick Wiggins in Pool
long term. I don't even think it's a question at this point, and
I don't Draymond is like the central nervous system to the way that they defend
and was one of the best defenders of all time, maybe the best defender
of his generation, depending on how you measure that up with Kauai or even
you think Janice is going to wind up factory into that discussion. So I'm
not trying to discredit how much he's meant to the Warriors, but there comes
a point where the math wasn't mathing for the Warriors already if you're looking at
how much he wanted to get paid, and now it's even harder to make
the math work when this happens. And I do think, though I'm not
gonna speak in absolutes here, I would leave the door open for anything.
I'll leave the door open for the Warriors to win sixty games with Draymond winning
Defensive Player of the Year at this point, I wouldn't shock me. I
think the big thing to watch is how Jordan Poole responds to this and what
becomes of their relationship moving forward, because there was just there was a line
cross no matter what, but it was a different sort of line this time
when you're just looking at the relationship he had with Pool, the backdrop of
the extension talks, with Wiggins being factored in there as well, and then
just I have to come back to I'm not Jordan Pool is an adult.
I'm not trying to give him a pass if he was to have done anything
just the way that Stephen Kerr we're talking, I don't know that Jordan Pool
could have said anything even remotely sinister enough to warrant that kind of a reaction
from Draymond. And that's just where I land on this. I am it's
weird, the whole stepping away from the team again that they probably don't want
to fall into the trap of, oh, the video came out, now,
let's suspend him. At the same time, I think there probably should
have been the suspension regardless if it's a mutual party of the ways for a
while. I don't know how he's supposed to work on himself then in a
few days, like he said, and so is this going to be a
protracted absence, I don't know. And the other thing is just like whatever's
happening with him, I hope he's okay. I don't want anyone in the
world to hurt. It still doesn't excuse you're a thirty two year old adult
like this, you know, if you were in nineteen year old rookie and
letting the emotions get the best of you. But like, we've been here,
done that, watch some iteration of this, like a handful of times
since he's been in the league, And I don't like using the word outburst
because I don't think that's what it is. I really hope that he is
like everything that's going on, his personal life is fine. He talks about
being a good dad. I don't think that Draymond is a bad don't know
him personally, but I don't think he's this terrible bad person. I also
think it's well within the rights, especially if you're a fan who only cares
about these players as athletes of your favorite team, to be fed up with
Draymond and take that stance. I think we all need to juggle the nmac
of athletes or people too, though, and so I wouldn't be just,
oh, we need to trade Drey for whatever. There's no coming back from
this. I won't rule it out, but increasingly so it feels like this
was just a breaking point that I don't it won't undo the Warriors this season,
but the idea of them looking even like, not remotely, but bearing
resemblance to the core four of drey Clay, Jordan Pool and Draymond that just
I mean, even the thought, it feels increasingly likely. Let's raise it
this way. As I alluded to already, it feels increasingly likely that this
might be that this will be the last season we see Draymond, Clay and
Steph Curry on the same team. That's where I'm at with this. Maybe
I'm reading too much in the moment. Let me know what you think.
Either on Twitter, you can follow me at dan fa Valley at hardware Knox
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