The Draymond Green suspension is warranted, over the top, ridiculous, a sign
of the end for the Golden State Warriors. Let's get into it, but
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This will be a shorter episode, Grant. I'll be coming back with some
full length stuff on Friday as trade season kicks off, but frankly, I'm
working through one of the busiest weeks of my entire life in terms of just
my actual workload, so we haven't had time to get three full episodes up.
But this will be like a minute. It's a two and a half
episode, and we're gonna talk about Raymond Green and the Golden State Warriors.
The League announced that Draymond will be suspended indefinitely after he punched, flailed,
knocked use of Nurkic across the face during Golden State's loss to Phoenix on Tuesday
night. It was disastrous looking, and Draymond Green afterwards said basically, I
don't apologize for my actions normally, but I do apologize to Yusuf. I'm
not he said, I'm not a flopper, but I do sell calls by
trying to basically flail my body, which equates to flopping. By the way,
I thought that was. That was bizarre. There was use of Nurkic
after the fact. Did say afterwards that he doesn't know what basically what's going
on in Draymond's life, but he hopes that he gets help. That's like,
you know, are we really gonna kick Draymond while he's kind of down
and being dragged through the mud on social media and from analysts. I'm probably
not the biggest fan of that, But at the same time, you were
just punched in the face, Like, if you're gonna see that opportunity to
I'll say, not take the high road because it wasn't necessarily a pot shot,
then sure, whatever, go ahead. I can't really knock him for
saying it. The reaction to Draymond being suspended indefinitely, it was not you
know, I feel like in years past there would have been pushedback of oh,
this is too long? How is it not clarification? There's talk that
he's going to go to counseling. He has to meet with the commissioner's agent.
Rich Paul from Clutch Sports will be there as as well. If he's
on the jah Morant therapy or counseling excuse me timeline, he should be back
in the lineup by by Sunday for the Warriors. It only takes like what
seventy two hours to really reinvent yourself. More seriously, though, when you
look at specifically the interview that Steve Kerr gave after that game, even the
Warriors seem just exhausted by this pre pubescent clownery that Draymond Green has been espousing
for a large majority of his career. And I do think, look the
whole counseling situation, I don't want to denigrate it, just because that stuff
is important and if you can go through it, and if Draymond actually thinks
that he needs help and wants to address it, great. You're thirty three
years old. I believe you've been in the league now in extremely long time.
You've won four titles, You've cost your team at least one other when
you look back at the kick from twenty sixteen, and then there's also a
lot of people think Kevin Durant was gonna leave in the first place, but
that public's bat at the beginning of the season with Draymond Green certainly couldn't have
helped things. This has been your stick for so long, and the Warriors
have put up with it because you are a generational defender, one of the
best defenders in NBA history. You are an exceptional playmaker. You are the
heart and soul of their team through so many seasons, and in some respects
he still can be a transformative defender. He is not worth the backage anymore,
like we have reached the point now where he is submarined Golden State's season
or their chances by basically, you know, jahn Morant was suspended for twenty
five games, and by the time he comes back and plays, there's a
chance that he just might have more minutes under his belt than Draymond Green.
And this stuff is just getting out of hand. If you were actually going
to address it, or if you cared about changing, then you would have
done so. Maybe after you cost your team a championship in twenty sixteen,
or were. They're driving force behind them not winning the championship, and I
get it, he was also the impetus behind them actually winning titles in the
first place. He's not that player anymore. And you have to, you
know, the baggage, as cruel as it sounds, it has to be
at least commeasurate with the value you're bringing on the court, and that's just
not what he's doing anymore. The Warriors are worse defensively with him on the
floor. For the first time in his career. He's allowing opponents to shoot
sixty three percent at the rim, which is not, by the way,
a terrible mark, but it is by far and away the worst mark of
his career. I do think a lot of that has to do with the
regression. Look at the minutes, the lineups that he plays in. Kevon
Looney has not been a great defender this year, and then Andrew Wiggins and
Klay Thompson on most nights have verged on abysmal, and so a lot of
that extra pressure is going to fall and Raymond Green's not going to be able
to cover up one for everyone like he used to, and two you shouldn't
have to cover up for everyone, and there are times just in that starting
five, which is still getting annihilated, where you seemingly would have to cover
up for everyone. And so I get that's too tall of in order,
but we're looking at someone who just signed a four year, one hundred million
dollars dollar deal over the offseason. He's in the back end of his prime,
or at least inching towards it, and you can't have things like this
continuing to happen. And it almost I mean, it dates back longer than
this, but it does seem Zach Low of Uspiana said this that the Jordan
Poole punch kind of broke something within the organization. It definitely seems like it
impacted Jordan Poole. But Draymond Green had come out and said, I have
to build up back that. I have to build back up that trust with
my teammates to a point where I can be contentious again, where I can
be the emotional bell weather, the the you know, the emotional guiding force
of this roster. I don't know if he's ever gotten back there, because
if you just look at the body language sometimes from Steph Curry, who everyone
knows loves Draymond, and I'm sure he still does. When you look at
how just defeat or listen to how defeated that Steve Kerr sounds, it kind
of feels like the Warriors are fed up with his bullshit. And that's what
it is at this point, is that it is bullshit. You're talking about
a team. It would be so much different because we're watching Klay Thompson just
get older. I'm not Look, I'm not gonna fall at Klay Thompson.
He's coming back from two of the most serious injuries in basketball. He's into
his thirties. He has the pressure of a contract year he missed out,
he passed on I think it was a two year, fifty six million dollar
extension, whatever it was that the Warriors offer him. So he has that
wearing down on him. The frustration here isn't that okay? The Warriors are
kind of ebbing, crawling towards the end of their dynasty. They're just gonna
play this out. They got their four championships. You're just gonna put up
with this because you want to keep the legacies intact. You want to keep
the players on this roster because they have so much emotional value. To the
organization. That would be fine if Steph Curry still wasn't one of the five
best players in basketball. He remains this transformative force who is capable of being
the best player on a title tender. He looked gassed by the end of
that Phoenix game, and you need to do something to prop him up,
and the Warriors have not done that. That is not on Draymond Green,
and we'll get into that in a second, but you, as Draymond Green,
as players on this team, you need to actively make sure that you're
not detracting from what you are able to do around him. And these are
diminishing returns now from Draymond Forget the off stuff again, that's a bigger,
a larger symptom of a roster that is suddenly deep the bench. When you
look at the minutes that Brandon Projenski has been giving you. Chris Paul shots
aren't always falling, but he provides a steadiness when he's on the floor.
Dario Stariz has been good, Moses Moody has been good. You need to
give out shoutouts. John Vi Kaminga still seems inconsistent, Still doesn't seem like
he knows what he's doing a lot of the time, especially on an offense,
doesn't feel like he has the trust of Steve Kerr. He's providing you
with with jolts of adrenaline. And so the Warriors are deeper now, and
that should put them in a situation where we had this starting five that was
statistically one of the you know, one to five best lineups in basket ball.
Yeah last year. Yeah, they're another season older, but they should
still be able to come close to that peak. And you're not how much
of that has to do with Draymond Green being in out of the lineup right
now. I don't know what to ascribe to it, but he's making things
way more difficult on Steph Curry and the Warriors than he needs to be.
And indefinite suspension is fine. And I kind of got the sense just from
what people were saying and how they were approaching this in the I wanted to
wait until after we saw the suspension to actually comment on it. You knew
it was coming. He already got five games previously this season. I thought
maybe it would have been like a ten, maybe a fifteen game one.
Perhaps it ends up being even shorter than this. Again, the way that
the John Morant counseling timeline worked out in the March of last season. I
guess it's feasible that Draymond Green could be back fairly quickly, but I just
wanted to see what was going to be. But the hints and kind of
the breadcrumbs that were being dropped, some were just expecting could he be suspended
for the rest of the year. I really don't think. I'd never thought
it was going to be that, unless the Warriors were just telling him to
take his ball and go home, unlike the Pacers who tried to take you
on it ball and go home. But that's not actually what happened. I
don't know if Grant I will get into that pot. You need to google
that whole Yiannis. The Pacers situation just absolutely hysterical. Anyway, This is
just like I'm not going to believe, and I try to be empathetic and
I try not to have these super blasphemous hot takes, especially when again when
the word the act of counseling is mentioned, and when a player themselves says
that they want to be better, they want to get better, I want
to give them the benefit of the doubt. We are now in year eighty,
two hundred and fifty seven of Draymond Green wanting to change or talking about
getting his emotions and reactions under control. Go back and watch the use of
Nurkic play. I will not buy that it was an accident. And even
if it wasn't you have not earned the benefit of the doubt. Just look,
would you choked Rudy Gobert this season? This is just like, how
are you still making these mistakes when you are one so integral to your team
that they can't afford to lose you. But at the same time you've been
you can be active damaging by either not being there or not being the player
that you were a few years ago. And look, you can't fault him
for getting older, that's just something. But you can fault him for not
being a better decision maker, a more even killed player on the court,
someone who is smart enough. And this is one of the smartest players in
NBA history, probably especially when you look at how he reads defenses. Excuse
me, how he reads opposing offense is one of the highest IQ players that
I've ever watched. In ninety nine point nine percent of the time, I
probably have no idea what's actually going on, and you can still watch him
and just be like, WHOA, this dude is a genius. You need
to understand how important you are to your team and that in that moment.
I'm not a fan of this heat of the moment bullshit. Yes, you
can say things that are heat of the moment, like Nicole Jokich calling a
ref of motherfucker and getting tossed on Serbian Night in Chicago, which apparently has
a very large serbian population. I didn't know that that was a BS ejection,
by the way, something else. Granted, I might touch upon a
lot of weird shit happening in the NBA lately. Anyway, for Draymond Green
to either one not be able to recognize how indispensable he is the Warriors,
or two and even worse, just not give a fuck and gonna continue to
be the author of these antics, it's just is he even worth the trouble
anymore? And I'm just at the point where, no, he's not.
The Warriors lack optionality, that's why you had to resign him. And I
still think he is a very good basketball player here in this moment right now,
But is he good enough to warrant having to put up with. I
guess the kindest way to put it is this wild card status of well,
what is Draymond gonna do next? How many games is he gonna miss not
because of injury, but because he gets suspended? How many games is he
gonna be tossed out of, ejected from with technicals or because he does something
like this. You shouldn't have to ask that question this late in his career.
He should have that under wrapped. And so, no, I don't
believe that he wants to change. I don't believe that he will change.
I hope for the sake of Steph Curry and whatever window he has left with
this team, he does. But it's not even just a believe it when
you see it. It's a believe it when you when you see him do
it and sustain it over the course of the rest of this season and beyond,
he's gonna have to work from. He's gonna have to work from that
deficit of conviction, basically from I would think Warriors Warriors fan should be absolutely
fed up with this guy. This isn't just a you know, someone who
covers the league at large or someone from another fan base who wants to troll
Draymond Green. I know Kings fans were getting, you know, a riot
out of this. Yeah, and look that's there right at this point,
But like, Warriors fan should be fed the fuck up about this because of
what this guy's cost you in the past, no matter how much he has
done, and now what he's costing you now without providing you with the necessary
to get back up to the level that you're so clearly not at this year.
That naturally leads into the question of, all right, well, should
they look at trading him when he's going to be trade eligible. I think
he's a December fifteenth guy by January Fifteenthie, I didn't check, but I
think he's a December fifteenth guy who's gonna trade for him. At this point,
the deal is not, you know, like too lucrative. Could you
talk? You know, I was trying to go through just as the Warriors
wanted to go to nuclear out and they won't. I want to make that
clear is if they do make a move, it's not gonna involve Clay.
I'd be shocked if I'd be shocked if it involved Clay. I'd be shocked
if it involved Dre and more likely be Chris Paul, young players, picks
or even just because of depending on who you're getting back if they're not a
ball handler or a facilitator. I know you trust Pods in this situation.
I know you have Corey Joseph, but it might just behoove you more to
go with Andrew Wiggins other salaries and picks to try and get that player,
with the caveat being you're so unathletic as it is right now that you don't
want to give up you know, one of your two most athletic players on
the roster, even though he's not necessarily looked at unless you're bringing back someone
who is not just comparable but a bona fide upgrade and basically every department from
Wiggins. But you go through the teams and it's like, you know,
Draymond and the Kings would be kind of fun just because it would be funny.
I don't love the floor spacing, but they can figure it out with
the way their offense is run and they need a defender like him. Would
he run into the same issues that he's running into in Golden State right now?
I don't think so, just because dearon Fox, that's a very physical
athletic guy. Keigan Murray has made a leap on that end of the floor
of the season, and Golden State is just like the silhouette of Klay Thompson
right now. Whatever the hell's going on with Andrew Wiggins. I know he
dealt with not only injuries last year but some serious personal stuff, So that
might be a better situation. Atlanta would be another. They just need to
change something. I don't know what the deal is there though. Can you
get them to give you DeAndre Hunter and Jalen Johnson? Is that too much?
Is that enough? Are they just saying, hey, we have younger
Draymond at home in Jalen Johnson who's hitting his was hitting threes this year before
his injury. Although Draymond to say his credit, I think I mentioned this.
He is hitting threes forty two point nine percent on the third most per
thirty six minutes of his career. He's also shooting thirty nine percent on above
the break threes, and so it's not just you know, corner stuff that
is buttressing his march just one of the oddities. He's one good three point
shooting season for his career, and now there's just the second one randomly when
he's in the midst of just having this full blown implosion. Like the Warriors
teams after that, Like, yeah, there might be interest. Could could
Houston? I mean, like they've built this culture of defense already and they
have one of the better defense in the league. Could you imagine Draymond,
Dylan Brooks, and Fred Van Vliet on the same roster. I just don't
if you're you know, the salaries get tough in this instance, a little
bit easier after December fifteenth? Who are you targeting? If you're the Warriors?
I actually would love Draymond on the Indiana Pacers. Again, it's just
what is this now? Bruce Brown and aaron Ne Smith. Are the Warriors
gonna want Ben mcmathren, Maybe they'll I think Jarvis Walker probably needs to be
in that deal. You're not gonna get Miles Turner. It just gets awkward
with your I mean, buddy here, Like they have the salaries to do
it, but what do you want? Are you just taking draft equity?
Is it a three team deal with the Pacers? Are sending out Walker and
draft equity to Toronto for Siaka Morandanobi and he's going to Golden State. But
at that point, it's well in Indiana. Just if Ananobey's getting moved,
Indiana needs to be involved in it, and so you shouldn't help the Warriors
get him necessarily. The Mavericks would be super interesting, but again, what
do you if you're the Warriors, what do you want from that team?
That's when you get into the territory level. We need to seek out a
third fourth team. We're sending out Draymond and stuff as the salary to then
bring back our Is it a Pascal Siakam? Is it an Ogann Andobi?
In that case, we know Dallas doesn't have the asset firepower to go get
an Ogannobi. Are we waiting on the trade market to develop even further?
Who's the surprise candidate that could emerge A player I've talked about a lot.
I don't know that I would predict it, but lowry market in just because
of what he's approaching in his contract. He's an all star, fringe all
NBA player, not super young, and the Jazz are at this weird point
in their rebuild. You can tell me you to do just anything. By
the way, the trade deadline that they traded Lowry market in or that they
went out and acquired fucking og and it just it wouldn't surprise they could go
with Danny Ainge and Justin Zanig running the show. Wouldn't surprise me with whatever
they did. Draymond and Utah be really funny, but they're not gonna they
have enough front court players. They do need the defense, So the suitors
are just I think they would be there. Maybe Detroit would just be like,
fuck it, let's bring Draymond back to Michigan and we have no idea
what we're doing. Anyway, you're not gonna get a kick hunting him,
and that you're not gonna get Asar Thompson in that deal. I don't know
what was the Warriors you would want? Yeah, Boye Madonna, it's just
fun. But what else? So there might be teams. I think even
Miami might talk themselves into it, even though Bam and Draymond I think is
a pretty bad offensive fit, even though a healthy Bam this year really made
some strides on more strides, I should say, on the offensive end.
So I want to be clear, there would be teams. I just don't
see the team that's gonna come and give you an offer that either replicates a
lot of Draymond's value in totality. I don't think you're ever gonna get his
defensive versatility and IQ. It's just that's not floating around out there right now
in get ability anyway, but just someone who in totality because maybe they're a
better shooter, a better ball handler, someone who just does more for you
on the offensive end independent of Steph Curry existing. I don't see that deal
sort of existing right now, after trying to think about it. I see
teams, like I said, I would love to watch Draymond Green on I
just don't know that they'd be willing to give up the assets necessary to go
back to the Warriors or just send to another team that gets them a player
they want. And if you are the Warriors, you do need to aproach
this with some semblance of urgency this this season. Now, Draymond Green is
going to be out for however long. You already have just faded to outside
the plane as I'm recording this in the Western Conference. This is not you
know, it does seem like this front office with with Kirk lacub and specifically
Mike dun Leeve is gonna be a little bit more aggressive and less married to
the original core core than Bob Myers was. We saw that with the you
know, Jordan Poole for CP three trade. Do they have the stones to
go out on the trade market and get that guy that is going to reopen
not even a title window, but a playoff window for this core. Are
they gonna get involved with a Pascal Siakam if Lowry market is on the table,
are they gonna go really hard after him? They absolutely, Ogannobi would
be a great fit on this roster, and you know twenty twenty nine others
including Toronto is uh they need to go after that. I would say the
worst player I'll frame it this way that the Warriors should be Those are I
think I just named them. Those are the three worst caliber of players that
I think could change the Warrior season. Where you're looking at I don't know
what Pascal Siakam is this year. The floor spacing is if he is he
still a top twenty five guy. So let's use you know, if it's
an og Anobi or Lowry market in are those top thirty five guys. I
don't know where Lowry might rest higher? And so it's sort of that spectrum
of top fifty where og Annobi is he could be higher than that. I'm
not trying to disparage og Anobi here through Pascal siaka Larry marketing. Where it's
like top twenty five to top fifty. That's like, you can't fix this
by saying we're just gonna acquire a couple guys here and there. Maybe we'll
try and get Otto Porter Junior back from Toronto, bring over Chris Bouchet in
that deal, or we'll see what other depth pieces are floating around at the
at the trade deadline, or our offense needs juice, like are we willing
to kind of talk about what the salary matching looks like to get Boyan in
there, or are we more concerned about keeping our bigger salary players because we
don't want to trade j We don't want to trade Clay and CP three has
just been maybe a little bit too valuable and comes off the books, and
how are we gonna upgrade from Wigans? So we'll keep those and we'll just
try and step ladder our way with salaries of Kevon Looney and Gary pay in
the second and if we attach Jonathan Domingo. What could we get? No,
you need this team needs an infusion of star power alongside Steph Curry.
It's not because Steph Curry is not doing enough. There's no singular player.
Well let's see, I mean, maybe there's like one or two guys I
don't even like Jokic with this roster. Okay, they're probably a contender,
Y're honest. With this roster, probably not not enough creation. So there's
maybe one player in the league right now that I believe could carry this exact
Warriors scre beyond where they are at the moment. And so this is not
on Steph. He is still good enough to headline a contender. And the
Draymond Green suspension is really just an extension of the Warrior season where they've now
gotten to a point where the dynasty is not reaching its conclusion. It's already
over. And if the Warriors aren't going to have the gall the courage to
go out and make a trade, they don't just run the risk, but
they're essentially co signing this season becoming a painful, drawn out goodbye to an
era that has run out of lightning in a bottle stores. It's over.
This team is done as currently constructed, and it needs to shake up.
I don't know that that needs to include a Draymond Green trade, but wholesale
changes really need to be taking place on the court, off the court,
and that ladder. The off court stuff begins with Draymond Green. I don't
think it's fair to expect him to change, or for this to not happen
again, or for another incident to not transpire this year. He has,
if nothing else, forfeited the benefit of the doubt long ago. When it
comes to this situation. We'll have to see how long he's out. The
Warriors are worse off for it, just as they always are when Green makes
his decisions. They were up by the way in that Phoenix game that cost
them ground in the Western Conference, and every victory is just important when you're
kind of looking at the forget about the top of the West, but like
even the meat and potatoes in the middle of the Western Conference, these games
matter. Even this Earlynk could come back to bite the Warriors later on.
So the Draymond Green suspension is fair, expected, warranted. I don't know
how long and definite is going to be. You'll have to let me know
if you agree with it. If you think it's too harsh, where do
you think the Warriors should do here? Now? Hit us up in discord.
You could join it the links in the podcast and YouTube description, or
comment down below let me know what you think. I will be reading the
comments, even if I can't respond to all of them until next time,
which will be very soon. And as always, I've un with the shout
out to the one the only, Frank, Neila Keina. Get well soon
with Frank and apologies too, still gonna do this, I have to give
him. Apologies to mister Rick Jis