You're tuned into Heat Check with Triste Quick.
On this episode of the Heat Check, with Draymond Green set to return to the team today, we will have the final word on this incident to what I call scufflegates, and we will have a little news as well from around the league. We are also going to break down ten players you're probably not talking about. I made sure that this was under the radar. I made sure if there are players that are above board, maybe there's a couple, but these are all under the radar that are set
to surprise this year. I can't tell you how happy I am that basketball is back. I'm betting the preseason and I am winning money. Tell you what, let's drop that motherfucking beat. Okay, it's happening. Draymond Green was on Walkabouts.
Was he low key suspended? Was it all his choice? Steve Kerr said that it was mutual. Anytime someone says.
Something's mutual, it's really they decided, you know what I mean, or the one party really decided. Draymond Green makes his debut tonight in the preseason for Golden State after being away from the team for seven days receiving a fine of an unspecified amount. People in Jordan Poole's camp are saying that it could be roughly a fine worth around.
Checks notes sixty million dollars.
Cause a guy who's already stressed out about how much money he's making and the contract and is worried about money probably not.
A fun scenario.
So he's back with the team after what probably is gotta be his worst week of his NBA career and definitely the worst week of the Golden State Warriors tenure as a dynasty, probably Steve Kerr's coaching career as well.
He even hinted at this being just one.
Of the most tumultuous moments of the entire Warriors dynasty run. Very sad presser, very bad week for Dre. From the second that the video dropped pretty much changed the narrative on everything.
Drey immediately held.
A press conference where he said that he was stepping away from the team on his own volition, which we now know, according to Steve Kerr, not exactly true, not exactly accurate. As they say in the presser, Draymond's been about eleven minutes talking about why he was stepping away from a team, why he punched Jordan Poole kind of some context about things that were going on in his
personal life that he was very sorry. He also made it very clear that his reason for coming at Pool had nothing to do with the fact and people were speculating this that Draymond Green was mad that Jordan Poole was about to get paid a lot of money.
Here's what he had to say.
On a night where it should be celebration and love and it still will be. But there is like this, this this dark cloud in the room, and I caused that, you know. So I apologize to his family, uh, and just what they've had to deal with over the course of the last twenty four to forty eight hours. And I will do what I have to do to make that right to my family, you know, the things that
they had they've had to deal with. I know, you know my wife is you know, she's getting comments like he'll beat you at home and stuff like that, you know, as if you know that's the case. And so I apologize to my family as well for what they had to go through. And then most importantly, my brother's on his team who I've had apologize, who I've apologized to already.
But for me, that is the task at hand to rebuild trust in our locker room, pull everything back together as it needs to be poured together in order to compete and defend a championship. And although that is the least of my worries right now, it has to stay at the forefront.
He basically said he wasn't going to count the other people's money in their pockets.
But I think that's fair.
I think Draymond Green deciding to say, hey, I'm going through things right now. I'm going through things, and that's changing how I react to every circumstance. And from what I understand, what Draymond is going through is rough and something that as contracts loom over both of Jordan Poole and Draymond Green and all the things that are going on in his.
Own personal life.
Just a bad situation in a bad set of circumstances where now you've got to rebuild trust with your team, and now you've got to try to get back to a place where this team wants to pay you.
And that's tough because if you're having.
Any issues personally that make it harder for a team to pay you, you got to.
Get that sorted out.
Steve Kerr then followed with his own presser and man for a guy who's seemingly very open, very jovial, very honest, Steve Kerr wanted none of that. Steve Kerr wanted to answer no questions. He wanted to say absolutely nothing. He was not interested in the least in discussing what happened, what they're going to do. He was extremely cagey about giving support to Draymond or even admonishing Draymond. He was pretty much trying to close it all down.
Everything is internal. So my answer to that is we've had those discussions with individuals with the team, and those discussions will stay private as long as nobody leaks those conversations.
He's already talking about leaks.
Draymond indicated that he is not going to be with the team for a while.
Is that his choice or is that a team choice?
Mutual mutual decision based on everything that's happened and discussions, you know behind the scenes.
You guys have been through with stuff with Raymond.
Before you get to a point where you is trust in any way compromised already, are you nearing that or where you get with that?
No comment, Ah, that's the part for me, the no comment.
If we had to add up all of of times in Steve Kurr's career as a head coach where he has said no comment, I think the number the tally is uh check.
I think one. I think that one right there.
I don't think he's ever said no comment in the history of being a head coach, to my memory, very rarely.
Let's keep going really quick.
You talked last time about how good the practice was. Is that you are you getting the same energy that did that continue today? Yeah?
A good practice today, you know, nothing live got a game tomorrow, so we got some some good work and skill work and you know, conceptual stuff and ready to go for tomorrow.
I don't know if this is this is an internal question or not, but just is the team and all and he's sort of like having to get through stuff in any phase and he, you know, stayed a shock. I'm sure it's different for each player, but are you sensing that this is something the team is still going through?
Yeah? I mean, this is this is why it's so crucial to keep things in house. I've been in this league for thirty plus years. I've seen all kinds of crazy stuff as soon as things are leaked, you know, now all hell breaks loose.
No shit, Steve, all hell did break loose.
We all want to know what's gonna happen next. Draymond, though, now is back with the team. He's got some bridges to build. Kevon Looney said this, but ultimately to me, and this is where I fall on it. Steph is going to be Draymond's biggest advocate, Stephan Clay. They've got big time trust in Draymond Green, and it's very hard to imagine, very hard to imagine that this team.
Is better without him. But I think that this is the biggest adversity of the team has ever faced in its dynastic run. Very very bad.
Was the Kevin Durant Draymond thing, because Kevin Durant ultimately left, and we can say probably that had a big factor to it. But this is even worse. And I hate to break it to people who say, just get rid of Draymond and this team is better without Draymond.
They are not. They are not better without Draymond.
They are not okay without Draymond. They are not a championship caliber team without Draymond Green. Steph would face an immense amount of double teams. Without Draymond Green, You've got Klay Thompson, who would face an immense amount of double teams. Without Draymond Green, they would not be able to get loose or get busy the same way they do without him being able to see the floor, read the defenses,
and be an elite passer that he is. And also defensively, who do you have on this team that can guard one through five on the perimeter inside, be a small ball five who can play against legit centers who outside of last playoffs, Draymond Green has been elite. So stop the noise with Draymond Green being washed. Stop the noise with Draymond Green not being about piece of this championship team.
I would say, if you look at the statistics and you look at the wins and losses without Clay, without Draymond, Draymond is more important to this team than Clay, hands down. If you want to pay one, and this is outside of this nonsense, outside of the scuffle, if you were going to pay one, Clay coming up on his new contract, where he's at offensively, defensively, and what you have in Jordan Poole and Draymond Green you pay Draymond Green over Clay Clay, I'm sorry.
You already got your bag.
You sat out two years and never played a game, and so now you make the vet minimum and.
I think he would say yes to that. So ultimately, I.
Think Draymond is more important than Clay Thompson. And that is probably seen as a very hot take. And I mean where Clay is right now, not the Clay that we had prior to those injuries. That's a totally different story. Nobody knows where he's supposed to be at on the court more than Draymond. He's elite at spacing. He drags the other team's bigs out. He screws up their spacing big time. His passing, like I said earlier, is on
another level. People gush over Ben Simmons in his ability to pass, but Draymond Green I think he's better in terms of IQ passing the ball knowing where defenses are supposed to be over a ten game stretch, I look this up. Draymond Green had over one hundred assists and twenty two turnovers over one hundred assists in ten games. That is ridiculous for a big man. That this is not a point guard, he has more. He has more assists than Steph Curry. Night tonight, people joke about Draymond
being a triple single. That, my friends, is what makes him a Hall of Famer, nine to nine to nine. I don't care how many points he scores. Steph Curry goes insane, Clay Thomson can go insane. Points wise, Troydon Poole can go insane.
Hell, You've got other people who can pick it up on a night to night basis.
I don't need Draymond Green to score. What I need is his rebounds, his assists, and his ability to defend. And he changed the NBA because of him, the way that we play the forward position, the way that we see small ball five. There is a reason that guys like Zion and Ben Simmons think that they can be.
A point forward.
Right, And then on top of that two points to make about all of it one, the Warriors need.
Draymond because the offense doesn't function without him.
Right.
They were twenty one and seventeen fifty five fifty two winning percentage without Draymond Green last year and with him thirty two to twelve, that's a seven seventy three percent winning percentage with him fifty five percent winning percentage without him. I'd say that's pretty damn impactful. And on top of that, when Draymond was off the court with their injuries, Klay Thompson was playing. When Draymond was on the court prior
to his injury, Klay Thompson was knocked. So that'll tell you who's more impactful to winning on this team right now.
Two.
Yes, the punch was awful.
I think it was totally incomprehensible that we can't defend it in any way. But we can say is this We have to keep in mind where Draymond Green comes from, Sagan On, Michigan, very tough neighborhood, very tough upbringing. Someone puts their hands on you, which Jordan Poole did. If you're in a bad spot and you're going through something and your patience is shortened, no.
Excuse, but you push me. I hit you in the face. Sorry, that's the way it goes. And in extreme stress.
You revert back to where you came from. You revert back to the tendencies that you've worked so hard through fit therapy or you know, just personal development to work out at you. So the Warriors are internal right now. Do I think they're gonna be fine? I do, but they need to figure out how to put this all behind them.
No matter what.
There are gonna be questions moving forward. There's gonna be a lot of media buzz about Draymond Green. Every photo, every video of Draymond next to Jordan Poole is going to be scrutinized. That is going to be a thing. Are they gonna yell at each other on the bench? How is that going to be perceived?
And I don't see the.
Draymond Green and the Warriors as the biggest story of moving forward in the NBA season.
I did not see that.
But here are we are.