The Draymond Green Show - Dubs Beat Denver, Grizzlies-TWolves Chaos, and a Rant About the Media

Fan Duel Sports Book makes it easy. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to The Draymond Green Show. This episode and we are recording this starting a m Wednesday night after a big doubs winn closed the series out onto the next series. But before we move on, actually, UM, I would like to say congratulations to the Denver Nuggets on an incredible series, an incredible year. That's a very good ball club, missing to of their top three or four players, um, depending on how you want to look at it, So

uh gotta take your hats off to them. All of those guys played well, um Nicola Yoki. Let's start there. Let's let's just start there. Pay the big man some respect, give him the respect he's due. Absolutely incredible player. Um I mean five games. First off, I'm I'm happy it was only five games. I wish it could have been four. Could have saved me a few few bumps and bruises.

But man, he is absolutely incredible. I mean, he takes advantage of every little slight wrong movement you make, and it's I mean, it's absolutely a astonishing I mean his touch around the rim. If he gets the ball on the rim and it doesn't go in, I'm shot because he has such incredible touches, just bounces around the rim and it goes in. I mean, extremely incredible player. I think ultimately um down and we were able to get

him in ful trouble this game. It's funny because when when he took the first file, I was looking like, I wonder if we're gonna be able to get him in file trouble. And then short enough, a second file came. Shortly after that, there was a third and the foreth and and he had to come out of the game. And I think, you know, for us, we were able to take advantage of that. Now, it didn't show up in the League per se. But we we were able to get the game at our pace once he went

out the game. You gotta give a lot of credit to de Marcus Cousins. DeMarcus Cousins played an incredible game, actually an incredible series. He was a he was a huge problem for us this series. And you know, for a guy who's been through so much, UM, for a guy who spent significant time this year not even on the roster. Uh, teams will be absolutely crazy if he's

not on the roster going into next year. UM. Because if you think the Marcus Cousins can't help your team win, he helped him win Game four and almost carried them to a Game five win. UM. And so absolutely incredible. UM. I have so much respect and love for De Marcus and and the journey that he's been on and and the fact that he has not given us so UM.

I hope, my hope for De Marcus is that teams can see pass who he used to be, see the maturity and who he is, and more importantly, see the impact that he's had that he has when he's on the court. You know a funny thing, UM, I saw the Marcus after Game four and I said, Uh, we keep putting you in picking rolls, but I don't understand it because you actually guard the pick and roll really well.

And that was one thing that I actually noticed when he came to play with us, was that a lot people trying to put him in picking rolls as as if he's a liability, and he's actually not at all. Uh, he gets up on the screen. He has incredible hands to get into the passing lanes if you try and throw that pocket pass. Um, I mean really really really good in the picking roll, which we end up going away from it putting him in it a little bit tonight.

And then obviously once Steph got going, it don't matter who you put in and we're going to Steph and so um, kudos to the markets. Hats off to him how he played this series was a really really, really tough matchup for us, But like I said, we got it done. A couple of things I want to talk about. Number one is the lineup change. Uh. You know that that lineup has been has been the talk of the playoffs for us at least, and we we started with it tonight. Like you know, like we've been saying, Steph

Curry has been great off the bench. But you don't. You don't. You know, once the minute restricts, it's gone, you don't keep Steph Curry on the bench. You get Steph Curry back into the starting lineup and Jordan Jordan Pool has been playing incredibly well, and so we thought we wanted to start with that lineup, and we actually

got off to a pretty decent start. I think the change came once I picked up the early file because now I have to guard Joker and with one early file just can't really be as aggressive because I understood how important it was for me to stay on the floor. But definitely started with that lineup. Thought we got off to a pretty good start. Um. But Looney played really big minutes tonight, um as he has all year. As you know he's he's eighty two game. Loom got a

shout out. The boy been through what three hip surgeries I think, um, all types of issues and has gotten his body to the point where it could take eighty two games plus some more. Absolutely incredible and Loon was huge for us in this series. So shout out the Loom, keep going, big dog, love and appreciate your journey. But also more importantly, the Great teammate that you are. Uh. And one thing I think people don't understand about Luni is if you if you paid attention at all to

the quotes of this series. One of the quotes from from the Denmer Nuggets coach Mike Malone was that Draymond is not guarding anyone. He's just a free safety out there. And I know some people saw that and took it as disrespect, like what, like, what do you mean He's not guarding anyone. I didn't take it as disrespect, and I took it the way I thought. He mentioned minute minute, which was a compliment, and what he's saying is kind of this guy is just roaming around, mucking up things,

messing up our offense. And when Luni is on the floor, it really opens the door for me to do that. It really opens the floor for me to roam uh, muck some stuff up, take teams out of out of what they're trying to get to. Because Loom he knows how to read just the random stuff that I do on the defensive end at times and he'll cover for me. And so, uh, Luona has been absolutely incredible And one is one guy that I love to play next to.

Because he he'll cover up all the things that I may leave open when I go take a risk, and I think that's an important part of our defense. Um. The Nuggets in this game continue to be super physical in their battle. Uh. They completely destroyed us on the boards. Now, we cleaned that up there in a second and in the fourth quarter. I'm sorry, but they I don't know what the final tally was, but they absolutely annihilated us

on the boards. And even if we were able to pull the tally closer, that's not indicative of what they did the entire game on the board. So you gotta get them credit there. And that's what teams are gonna try to do, right, They're gonna try to be physical.

They're gonna try to beat us up on the offensive glass because they know their best bet is to go for the offensive boards because once we get out in transition, we have so many weapons and we're pushing the floor and that it's pushing the ball and that's what really opens up the floor for us. So I understand it.

But you know, we're able to pull it back a dollar back, do some of the rebounding back uh there in that fourth quarter, and we got out and we ran and we took advantage of cross matches and we're able to get it back to the brand of basketball that that you saw through Games one through three and some in that second half, uh in Game four as well. So we knew we needed to do that in order to win the game, and we're able to get back to that. Gary Payton was absolutely incredible. Uh Number one.

If I'm not mistaken, and I could be, I'm probably wrong on this, but it looked like deja vu. Bin Simmons last year passed up a layup and everybody got mad at him. However, there was a guy rotating across to block the shot, and so very similar possession today. Clay dropped the ball down to me and I kicked it out to Gary Payton. However, I think it was only I think it was flip flop. Maybe the sides and what bens was and what what what what ours were?

But Jeff Green one percent was about to send that shot to the third row. I mean I caught it. I turned. By the time I turned, he's already loading up to block the shot, and I kicked it off the g P. More importantly, I trust that GP can make that shot. Now was such a terrible pass, so he had no chance at even shooting it anywhere. The ball was on the nose dive right to the ground

was actually incredible cash by him. Then Wig he swung at the Wiggs Wig drove and Wiggs actually threw him another terrible pass that when nose diving into the ground, he got it. He kept as pois and he knocked it down. Uh. Good friend of mine, the media, Marcus Thompson text me. He said, g P might be like you. He just make all the big ones and all the all the big shots, and I I gotta give him

his credit. He he hit the shot the three that put us up eight eighty four when we took the lead, and then he knocked it down and put the dagger in and sent those boys back, sent those boys to can Koon. Gotta get GP a lot of credit. Also, gotta get Jema a lot of credit. Gemmen Um, I don't know how to pronounce pronounced Gemmen's last name, but you can look it up. Gemmen as a coach on

our Style, came over from Toronto. Absolutely incredible coach. Um runs the player development side of the things and he's working with GP on this shot every single day, and uh it paid off. I mean two huge threes, but not only that, dives, uh finishing at the bucket, and then what he did on the defensive end absolutely incredible, gets a bunch of deflections, MUCKs things up, rebounds well, GP was all over the place for us tonight in

a huge part. We're sitting here looking forward to who we play the next series, and the last thing I would say about our game was Steph Curry was absolutely incredible. Took over the second half, got every matchup he wanted and you know what, I loved Moses he got the three going, but then he said, forget the three. I'm gonna go to the whole every single time and he started getting to the cup and that put the game away,

And I mean, it was absolutely incredible. It's you know, I've been seeing the banter of uh, you know, clowns talking about stuff Curry doesn't show up in big games and blah blah blah blah blah, like shut up, that don't even make sense. But nonetheless, number thirty went back into the lineup and he carried us home and it was absolutely incredible. And one more thing I need to

point out Clay Thompson nine rebounds. See what you'll need to understand is we used to be on Clay times and he come out with one rebound to like, Clay, you gotta rebound, you gotta rebound. And now for him, I was the one with two rebounds and Clay was was the guy with nine rebounds. And it was absolutely incredible to see, especially with us being small, we need guys coming back in and cleaning up those rebounds, and

Clay was absolutely incredible. And you know that that that was one of the keys for us, and that was one of the things we hadn't improved throughout the course of the game to actually get to a space of where we could take over the game and eventually come out on top, putting that series away and moving on to the next one. Incredible games yesterday. I enjoyed them. Always try to enjoy the games on the off days. Uh, Minnesota Memphis. Minnesota is up for the one and yet

they're down three to two. I mean, it's it's absolutely incredible how those guys has put themselves in position where they should have already won four out of five games, and somehow they've managed to only win two of them. I mean, it seems to be it seems to go wrong every time Cale town say something on the mic, or he tell people to shut up or way. I mean, at some point you probably just should be yourself because it just don't like it hasn't been going eight for

him when when he does that. And I've never known call Towns to be such a big talker, and this year, especially as the last few months, it's been a lot of that. And and when you talk like that, you gotta back that up. And Memphis ain't hearing it. They're like, oh, he talking. The way it feels to me is they're like, oh, he's talking, all right, he turn it up. That's just how it ends up looking on the TV screen. Now. Obviously it's not that I was I was watching that game.

I was very shot down the stretch that they put dealing Brooks on him, and he caught the ball outside of the free throw line every time, and they was running like some high post split to he has dealing Brooks on him. He made his name scoring in the post, not shooting threes, not up out on the floor. I couldn't believe they didn't put him down, especially with the game going haywire, Like when the game going haywire, what do you do? You want to get to the free

throw line to calm the game down? Well, how do you get that? You put the pound of ball inside? Do you go to the whole? And they didn't do either.

I was extremely shocked by that. And and then at man, a man, you you when when when you say stuff, you gotta back that up, man, and you come out last week and saying the best defender in the NBA, and then you can give a guy who hadn't shown much confidence in this shot throughout the night, who we know gets to the cup and it's finishing with the best of them or the best, and you gamble and give him a straight line drive with three seconds to go.

If you come up and you guard him with three seconds ago, he get one move and then he got to look for a shot and to gamble for the Still I I didn't understand that. I was very shocked by But that's been indicative of the things that they've done all series long in Minnesota and the reason they're down three to two, and they probably should have a

are you taking a series four the one? But nonetheless I will be locked into that game on Friday, seeing if we will be headed to Memphis on Saturday or will we be chilling on Saturday and getting up to it they play at home and stay home on Monday and get ready for a Tuesday's game, or if we're head at the Memphis on Saturday. So I'm extremely excited as a basketball fan to watch that game, but even more importantly as a as a Golden State Warrior and finding out who we have next up. Um, So we'll

see and then the Suns and Pelicans. Incredible game. UM I thought with with that game, CP takes over a game and now you're you know your game plan is to take CP out. You can't at Michael Bridges go for thirty one points and you're and you're trying to win on the road. That's it's absolute. That's nearly impossible for a team to win on the road. And Michael

Bridges an incredible player. I love Michael Bridges. I think he's absolutely amazing on both He's amazing on the defense side of the ball and he's very good on the offensive side of the ball. And so he he did what what he's supposed to do. But if you're New Orleans and you're going in there and you're saying, we gotta beat these guys. Number one, you gotta take Chris Paul out the game. We all know that. But number two, you can't let other guys go for thirty and so

um looking forward to that game as well. I've I've enjoyed watching the young Pelicans team, a brand new team. Uh, they're putting it together. Willie Green is doing an incredible job. So this game six for them will be interesting. We'll see how it turns out. I think I think Chris Paul goes into Chris Paul mode and goes to New York and close those guys out. But Brandon Ingland might

have something to say. And Brandon Inglis has been playing incredible And if c J gets off like c J can get off that game, maybe headed back to Phoenix for a game seven, and no one wants to go for a game seven. I don't care who you're playing. It's a coin flip. Talking about as a fan, have you ever seen I'm not trying to be exaggerated, have you ever seen a playoff dunk as good as Johnny

RAN's dunk. That dunk that's one of the best dunks I've ever seen, never minded like in the playoffs at a big moment like that, that that dunk was absolutely incredible. I I can't recall um, and I'm sure there's something out there that I'm just not thinking of, but that, I mean, it was absolutely amazing dunk. I don't like to get into the it was the best dunk of all time, was the best playoff dunk of all time.

It was an incredible dunk. He punched on him. And you know what what we do know is is that wasn't the first time dropped Triden. It won't be the last time that he tried, but he finished him. And plays like that changes games, you know, it truly changes the momentum tone of games. And I think Jobs did last night. Um I thought, you know, he just that aggression and you know, you put a guy, you put a guy down like that and in the room, I mean that that's a momentum booster. And like I said,

we all know Jobs gonna try that. But I don't get off into like, oh, it's the best one ever, Like there's incredible duncer on the playoffs, But that was amazing. So if you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that last night I reposted something from Clutch Points and and I had a little something to say, and it was Bill Simmons saying, f Jalen Green. I'm not putting him on all right. For him to utter the words F someone out of his mouth lets you know

that there's a little bit of hostility there somewhere. The fact that that guy has a vote, and that guy who just said F Jalen Green will ultimately having to say if Jalen Green can sign a super Max deal from the Houston Rockets are not like At some point, and I'm gonna say this again, at some point, we have to start viewing athletes NBA players in particular, as businessmen, as as guys who understand the business they're in, and stop allowing guys like that to decide the money we made.

What work has Bill Simmons done in his life to decide the amount of money that Draymond Green can make, the amount of money or have say and how much I can make, or saying how much Jason Tatum makes a guy who didn't make all NBA and lost forty million dollars us say and how much Jalen Green will make the guy that he just said for you. At some point, the NBA has to has to stop this. You have to change it, like it's one of those old, outdated things that's like, all right, it's it's something you

used to do. Stop being lazy. Change that. There's absolutely Lebron James has four m VP Awards because someone likes that vote for it, and he gets tired of seeing Lebron dominate. You can't tell me Lebron James should only have four m v P Awards. That's another one. These guys are literally deciding what what happens with with a guy resume, what happens with a guy pocketbook. They are human beings. I don't like Bill Simmons. I'm sure Bill Simmons probably don't like me, and that's okay. He don't

have to like me. I don't have to like him. You go on your platform and you talk all you want, but for him to have a saying how much money me or how much money myself or other guys that play in this league can make that's utterly ridiculous. And at some point now this summer, the NBA needs to change it. Stop being lazy. Like I said before, put a committee together that can vote on these awards. Maybe players have said, you changed the All Star voting one

size opportunia almost made All Star. You change the way that works. Stop being lazy. There's no that's absolutely no reason why a guy who can fix his lips to say f him should have say and how much money he makes? Why? Why is that? What we do know is guys in this league make a lot of money, bunch of money. Not doubting that. Do you think that may not bother there's some of these guys who may put in more time and and think like what they're making this now you think like again, these are human

beings we're talking about that have actual feelings. This this, this isn't a robot. Like this robot watch at two games and he ultimately decided that who he thought who he saw looking the best, um, that's who he went with. These are robots. These are human beings that have real feelings that may not like a guy and he gets

to decide how much money somebody make and please. At some point, the NBA has to stop looking at us like we're idiots, value what we do, and stop allowing people that just you know, uh, maybe start writing columns and work their way up to decide ultimately how much money we make with all that we put our bodies through. That's how you're gonna decide. Oh man, this guy can make a hundred and ninety million dollars as opposed to

one for it. That's how we're gonna decide. Come on, now, it's utterly ridiculous that at some point like now, it needs to be changed. It has to be changed. Can't keep going for the old okay dope. That's an old system and it's time for it to go. And before we get out of here, ask promise we're gonna do a few fewmale bad questions. Jackson is going to read off the questions and who they're from. I will be answering these questions and trying to give you a little

insight on what you want to know. Jackson talked to me from Ali Castillo at I am Ali kas from your POV as an elite defender, what do you think is the most effective pick and roll coverage? I think for me and from my point of view, I it's it's all based on the personalities within the coverage. Now

not that. So I'll use an example form from this series games, not that if Monte Morris is in the coverage and Joker as opposed to Bones Highland and Joker, you you're going to make the coverage to stop the problem. Who like which guy in that situation is more of

a threat. Obviously it's Joker. Monte Morris played incredible, but it's Joker, like you want to take Joker out and so based up on his tennessees and what he likes and where he gets off at, then that's your coverage and that's the one in that situation that ultimately you're going to go with. Now and saying that, I personally think the best pick and roll coverage, regardless of what the actual coverage is, is that big man has to be up to the level of the of the screen.

You get guys sitting back. We see it a lot with Rudy Gobert and teams take advantage of it. You get guys sitting back in the lane and not up at the over the screen, and guys are just guards in this league are just way too good to come off with that much vision in that much space and shoot the ball too well and to be down the floor. So regardless of what pick and roll covers you're in. I think it's very important for the big man to

beat up at the level of the screen. And that simply just means, um, if my man is setting the ball screen on clay, I need to be up at the same level that my man is set in that ball screen in order to stop that guy from turning the corner and take care of the initial problem right at the point of attack. From I don't know how to pronounce this from maxing out underscore JP at Justin Powell five ten. Who did you watch growing up or even now to build your basketball i Q, I watched

a bunch of basketball, not just NBA basketball either. I watched college basketball. A watch w NBA basketball, women's college basketball, watch high school basketball. I watched little kids play. I just watched a bunch of basketball. Um My, i Q is is a gift from God that I enhanced over the course of my life, and it started with my uncle Benny. My uncle Benny was is a mastermind when

it comes to the game basketball. Dude still tell me different stuff today to help me out, and he's never coached past the elementary school level, but that is his passion. He actually loved to teach kids the game of basketball. So for me, my ir Q started way back then because he never just rolled the ball out to us and said, all right, let's go play basketball like we would go two weeks first two weeks of price and not touch of basketball, doing help side defense drills and

different stuff like that. And so I learned defense at a very young age. I learned help side at a very young age. And then it was about having great coaches and enhancing that as my career went on. But um, to build an i Q, you have to be a fan of the game. You have to watch a bunch of basketball. You have to play a bunch of basketball to get those live reads. And then, like I said, most importantly it you know, I think that's one of

my gifts. I promise I did not write this next question from Jackson's sequist At jackson Sequist, do you think Tatum has surpassed or is close to Luca in terms of overall impact due to his leap on the defensive end? Jackson changed his last name, y'all, he wanted to give a question off he didn't want and this is a Boston question. Come on now, Like we all know, it's you, Jackson. Come on, but Jackson, I will answer your question a right.

Let's do I think Tatum has surpassed Luca in terms of overall impact because of his leap on the defensive end. Who said Luca was in front of Tatum to begin with Jackson's sequest did? Apparently? I would have agreed before before Tatum has has locked up Kitty like this, and before Tatum averaged seven and a half sist assist per game this last series. Luca, Luca is the man. Luca is absolutely incredible. I just was actually in the question

like who who said that? But uh no, lucas absolutely incredible and his impact on any game he's in his JT has he passed him? I don't know. I don't really get into the whole comparing guys. They're two totally different players. They played two totally different roles on their team outside of just being the main scoring threat. Um. I thought j T took a huge leap in this series for sure, with the way he defended and with the way he passed the ball. Uh, he didn't settle

for many bad shots. I thought. I thought he definitely took a leap in terms of his growth. But that's also the same leap that I saw coming and playing USA Basketball with him. So I'm not surprised by that leap at all. Um, he's been absolutely incredible and he's

been you know, he's he's continuing to get older. Like I said before, we've been watching these young guys since they were nineteen coming into the NBA making into the Eastern Conference finals, and then expect then that every year, and the reality is they're just going through their progression and getting better as as day age. And now I think j T four years old, he's starting to put

it all together. And so I'm not surprised by that leap at all because one thing I knew is if he commits his mind on the defensive end, with the way he can move and with his lane, he's going to be an incredible defender. And he's starting to show that now and it's making a huge difference in their team. Last one and again, as I'm gonna say every episode, submit these questions on Twitter hashtag v Draymond Green Show. That's where I'm gonna pull the questions from every episode.

Last one for today from Caleb Bennett at Bennett Brawler, excluding the finals. What was your favorite playoff series that you've been a part of, and why, Caleb, I have to be honest with you, there's nothing that compared to

the NBA Finals. But um, my favorite, my absolute favorite playoffs series was when we beat the Houston It's um and the year before Katie went out of the lineup and they were like, oh, I mean the year before Chris Paul went out of the lineup, and they're like, oh, well, we we we missed Chris Paul, that's why we lost running back. We're built to beat the Warriors, blah blah blah. And then next year Katie gets hurt and they still lose.

And that, for me was one of my absolute playoffs series because for them to be so outspoken about we built this team all year. We built this team literally just to beat the Warriors. They get the opportunity, we lose one of our top players and they still go on to lose the series. Y'all told us last year when Chris Paul went out, that's why y'all lost, So we're not making that same excuse. And then they blew

it up. You know, to see a team built the beat you and then it get blown up clearly didn't work. So that was my favorite series by far, just because they were so outs ookin about it couldn't actually do it. And then all right, let's get Clint Capella out of here. And that was the first Domindo to fall, and every other one fell after that. And now the Houston Rockets are nineteen and sixty two, so whatever they are, Um, that all started with that series. So yeah, that's my

favorite one. K look that that will be the end of the episode of the Draymond Green Show. We'll see what happens and how this weekend plays out. But you bank sure you pay attention because I'll be locked down until next week. That's a rap from the Draymond Green Show piece.