EPISODE 23: Draymond Green Part 1

The Dallas Mavericks filed a protest over a play in the third quarter protest and I but I don't want to talk about all that because to me, the most important thing that happened was after the game, in the hallway near the Warrior's locker room, I ran into a famous podcaster named Draymond Green, and I made him a proposal, and I said, how about we do a home and home podcast where he comes on with Chris and I and then eventually down the road we go on his

pod and face the music and take some questions about the media that I'm sure he's been wanting to ask us. For a while, and somehow, some way I convinced him that this was a good idea. So welcome to this league, uncut A hearty welcome to Draymond Green from the Golden State Warriors. Siny. I appreciated my brother. I'm excited, Hayes, thank you. Drey definitely got the short end of that deal right there. I might get Executive of the Year for that trade, because this pod needs him more than

his pod needs us. Tell me about it. Try. I appreciate you brought up for coming down, man. Absolutely, Man, No, I'm excited. I'm excited. I you know, I don't. I don't ever look at it that way. Obviously, UM, my podcast has garnered a lot of attention, but I know that attention is not possible without support, you know, and that support from you guys in the media, that support from the NBA. Um, you know, that's support obviously from the fans and listeners. So I don't. I don't take

that for granted at all. And I never look at it, um that way, although I know you are half joking, but I never look at it that way. I see this, you know, um, and I always speak about old media and new media and The thing that I always think is lost in translation is there there's a space for both. And I think you know that's everyone always lose that side of it. And so you know, like you guys know, I maintain a great relationship with you guys because I

I think it's totally necessary. And then now you hands but Stiney, I love Stiney to death. That's understand, No offense taken, No offense taken. I understand. Now I gotta hype man, I needed to. Um, Well, let's just get to it. Um. This is obviously the fourth time that the Warriors have defended a championship. Where would you rank it in terms of has this been the hardest title defense? That's what it looks like to me as an outsider. It's been the hardest UM title defense. And quite frankly,

I think, um, it's warranted. It's warranted in several ways. Uh. You know, when you get when you get to a space of like where we are, where we've won now four championships, that get between you and other guys, it continues to grow and grow well with that gap. Growing is also the experience or lack thereof, And I think for us, where we've done this now, like you said four times, for the vast majority of our group, this is the first time and learning how to defend a

championship while growing into different roles. Like for instance, I'll use Jonathan Cominga as an example. Jonathan Cominga is defending his first championship. Jonathan Comminga is also growing as a player and as an individual as a young man, you know, learning how to play a role in the NBA, learning the things that you need to do, get in consistent minutes,

whereas he didn't play consistent minutes last year. And so there's a learning curve that comes with that, and I think you know you've seen us be a product of that learning curve. By no means that my saying our season is Johnathan community as far, I hope no one takes that that way. But there's a learning curve that comes with learning how to defend the championship, and we've

experienced that a bit, Dreen. When you talk about defending championships and this season being the hardest, I'm I'm talking about you individually. Now when you look at your defensive run, you know, tell me this, Dre. So I've always thought about this, like when it's time for voters to put in their ballots, when it's time for righters putting their

ballots for all defensive teams. Defense is always probably the toughest award to try to, you know, get a CADID finalized, because unlike points, you know, defense, there's not a stat like so you got defensive, you got defensive rating, you got team defensive ratings. But I think, Dre Marley, let

me know what you think about this. I think there needs to be not an advanced analytic, but just a regular analytics on a regular stat I should say, on let's see what an opponent's field goal percentage is against Draymond. Let's see how often Draymond can make them miss, make them either pass the ball or turn. And that's an easy stat you can, you know, because you know it's it's hard to if you're not watching Warriors get out

of play. But if there's another team out there and the player is dominant on a subpart team, a lot of writers are voters are not watching that game, and so they they can't tell if a guy's a good defended because defense is not all about steals and blocks. Absolutely, it's about shutting your man down like doing the best to limit is um defense, but there's not a stat

for that. What is the best way for you? You think that voters can look at that a defensive player and try to judge on if he's good or not. But I think, I think one of the things that ends up happening and you kind of just hinted at it, it's like if you're not watching, it's hard to gauge it, you know, because like for instance, if you watch it, or if you watch stats per se steals or blocks,

it doesn't always tell the story. Quite frankly, there are a lot of terrible defenders that just play passing lays. And so if you get steals, like are you're playing a passing lain, how many all right, say you had two steals, But how many backdoor cuts did you give up? Or how many bad rotations did you forced? Because you're playing a passinglain and I faked you and went the other way and now you're on a position, And so I think from that standpoint, it's always hard to gauge.

Another thing that makes those things hard to gauge is this ninety percent of the time that my man run into a pick and roll, the guy waves him away, and now I have to go stand on the backside or try to involve myself in the action some other way because they won't bring me into the pick and roll. You know, they won't bring me into the action. It's like if the coach go out out and draw up an action, they're they're putting the guy who I'm guarding away from the place, so I'm not in the action.

Like if you watch our game against the Thunder, the most recent game against the Thunder, if you watch like the last eight minutes of that game, I was switching my matchup like every other possession because I knew what they were trying to do. They were trying to get certain defenders in the action, and they were trying to figure out who I was guarding and didn't go away from that. So I start switching my matchup like every other possession to get involved, just to get involved in

the action. And so I do think at some point if there was some stats or something that we can come up with to quantify defense, it would be great, like like people quantify points, you know, But it just hasn't happened, and I try not to worry about it

too much. But in the same token, I think it is a bit unfair two defenders, because you don't necessarily get that that notoriety or that thing that offensive player may get just by scoring points and just by gett an assist, because it's easy to just pick up the sheet of paper and read the number. Maybe this is defense, Maybe it's somewhere else. What do you do better at thirty three than you did at twenty five, And what do you wish you had from when you were twenty

five compared to now. I think something that I do a lot better now is I used to overhelp so much. I used to overhelp a ton, and you can kind of take advantage of that. I would be on three point shooters and I would still just go to help, and three point shooters just sit out there and shoot

my eyeball out. And I had to learn that. And that's something I would say over the last couple yours, like Coach Kerry used to literally struggle to leave me on a shooter and like try to get me off a shooter because I would struggle with that, Like that was an area that I would really struggle with. And I took that as a challenge because it got to a point to where I start feeling disrespected, a like coach would say, well, we can't put Draymond on this guy.

And it's like that guy actually sucks, like he just stands there and hope to catch the ball. What do you mean you can't put me on that guy? And so I took that as a little disrespect, and that was something that I wanted to focus not disrespect literally, but I wanted to focus on that and lock in and be like, like, no, I can guard I can guard anyone. And and for me, that was a challenge from within to say, like you walk around and you say, man,

I can guard anyone. I can guard one through five, and yet you can't guard the guy that stands there and spot up. That's an issue. And so that was something that I really took the heart and wanted to be much better at, was just learning how to guard shooters, because that was something that I just wasn't that good at. And what would Professor Green's theory be to explain? Every time I look, the Warriors are in the top five defensively at home and the bottom five defensively on the road.

It's been all season usually like third and twenty eight, and I don't have an explanation for it. Why is this happening? Well, I think I think when I look at it, I was saying this the other day to a couple of close friends at home, and I think over the last week or two, it's just started to turn the corner, which is our offense. I felt like our offense offense works in layers, especially our offense, like at certain points throughout the season, you unlock certain layers

to your offense. And I felt like until maybe two weeks ago, we were still on layer one, and and being on layer one, what happens is the shots that we're taking at home, maybe you know, there may be a little questionable, and but you can overcome that at home, you know, And and let's be let's be honest, you're gonna hit more of those questionable shots at home than you are when you're on the road. But only getting into layer one of the offense will require you to

take a bunch of tough shots. Bell out shots as what we like to call them. Yere Steph Curry to Bell you out, Klay Thompson of bell you out, Jordan Pool of bell you all the time. But on the road those shots aren't going to go in at the same rate as they do at home. Also, your margin for error on the road is much slimmer than it

is at home. And so I think when you watch this team in our offense until recently still being on the first layer, I think a lot of times that affected our defense in the major way, because now all of a sudden, those shots don't go in. You're giving up transition buckets because the floor is a balance on top of those guys who are you're playing with now on the road, they're shooting lights out, you know, as

opposed to when they're coming to your gym. Role players don't technically shoot that well on the road or play that well on the road. Now you go to their home and those same shots they're knocking them down their money. You couple that with turnovers and bad shot selection, which we've been pretty too, and I think we've started to get better at, and it makes it a lot tougher for your defense to survive. Then what do you face.

You face, You face bad body language, you face the letdown you face you know, Uh, Now all of a sudden, guys are feeling sorry for themselves, and you can't play defense that way. You can't shut anyone down that way. And I think it's been a mixture of those things in our home and our way defense, Drey. You bring up you know how body linguage gets down and start to have your head down, and you know sometimes I

can affect play if you get in that position. So I gotta bring this up because I had a front row seat to this game, Drey. It was a game you guys played the Pelicans. I believe it was last week, and I have to so I'm working sidelines for that game, Drey, I thought you was gonna get kicked out. I didn't think you was gonna last you. I'm telling you right now, if I can say what the stuff Dray Bard was saying to those Pelicans that like that was a master cancer,

I can't. I can't say it. I can't say it. Only Draken said if you wanted to. But I'm watching, I'm watching what he's saying to everybody, everybody on the Pelicans, and I'm like, I'm looking over at the Pelicans to see how they're gonna respond, and I'm being I'm being dead serious with you, like nobody wanted to take it there. You know you've seen it, and so the only thing I'm concerned about, I'm like, because dray already picked up a technical already, So I'm like, he's not making it

because Drey's still going. But I'm still looking. I'm looking. I'm looking at Zion, I'm looking at everybody. I'm looking. I'm like, who's gonna take that? Like, who's gonna take it there? And nobody took it there? The game changed. The game changed from that point on. And I kid you not, Stein, I would not have predicted the outcome

to turn out the way that it did. But I think Drey to your to your point, I think you have I think that's what people don't see is that I think people say that Drey loses is cool sometimes And and I will on the radio a radio show in the Bay Area the next day and I said, a lot of times, y'all gotta give him more credit. There's a lot of he has a method to his madness.

Could you just talk me through, Like, when you get in some of those I don't know what you would call them, you know, I don't I don't know what you would call those type of situations. But when you get in that mode. What are you trying to accomplish and what are you trying to see from the opposition. Well, a few things. Number one is how they're going to respond to you turning the pressure up against them, how

they're going to respond to you challenging them. And by the way, it gets to a point of where I'm challenging you at basketball or whatever else you want that

challenge to be in, I'm willing to go there. But I think the thing that people often miss is the challenge to my teammates, because just as much as I am challenging those guys in that situation, I'm possibly more even more challenging to my teammates because a few things has to happen, number one, and most importantly, you gotta ride with me, because if you're not gonna ride with me, then then it's over. It's off for nothing anyway, And so number one, I need to see who's going to

ride with me. And I think oftentimes that gets lost in all of it. I'm in that game and this one in particular, and I'm like, yo, we're dead, like we got nothing going, we have no energy. And like a couple of times I went to the bench and I'm like, yo, somebody brings some energy. Like someone said to me on the bench, like, yo, Draymond, we need you to bring like we need some energy. And I said, Yo, it can't be me every night that gotta that gotta

just muster up the energy. Somebody else gotta bring some energy at some point. That's one time out. Next time we go back to the time out and I'm like, yo, like what's up man, Like somebody brings some energy, like this is ridiculous, blah blah blah nothing. So now I'm like, all right, this is the last resort. I gotta go out here and like completely flip this game upside down to see if we'll respond to that, because with that being the last resort, if we don't respond to that,

our seasons over anywhere. Like I felt like that game, like we didn't win that game, that was it, Like from not just from a numbers perspective, but from a moral compass perspective. Emotionally, that was it. The scene was done if we didn't win that game. And so for me, I said, well, I'm going out here and I'm challenging everybody, but even more than I'm going to challenge them I'm challenging my guys. And when it happened, you could immediately see, Okay,

I knew right away, guy was answering the bell. It didn't quite change right away, like you know, stuff was going bad and we needed to really like turn it. But you can see the tie had turned. You could see they were no longer big and bolstrious. How they were all of a sudden. The very next place, CJ get a wide open lay up at the rim and throw it off the backboard right b I come in. He get to this spot that he gets to and he don't miss missed it badly, and so him like, oh,

we got him. We turned the ball over a couple more times. They hit a couple of threes and it got and it felt like, oh they responded. I knew right then, like, no, we turned it over. They got a couple of threes, they made them, but they hadn't responded. And so in that situation, I'm like, all right, like we got something. I walked into the locker room at halftime and I told our guys, I said, Yo, I'm

just telling y'all these dudes quit. They quit already. They just hit a couple of shots because we turn the ball over. So let's come out this high and I'm coming out on that same thing. I'm coming out just the way I left, and let's go. We could go take this game. But I had told Dante Defencenzo in that instant. Dante was like, yo, man, we can't have you get kicked out. I said, Tay, where I am right now. I cannot flip back. I'm too inn it.

I can't flip back. But I'm gonna tell you this day, whether I'm in this game or I get thrown out of this game, this game is won. Whether I'm in it or not, we are going to win this game. I got the game right where I needed that. They're about to fold. So whether I get thrown out or not take we're gonna win this game. And that's how I felt. And so, like I said, to get back to your question, I know I explained a lot, but so many times people people can't see the game within

the game. They don't understand the game within the game, and for me, I oftentimes have to play that game within the game, and it comes with backlish ship comes with people saying this and saying that, and quite frankly not understanding me. But if I spend all my time trying to get people to understand me, I missed the boat anyway, And when you talk about people that understand you, so I'm not gonna say I was in that boat.

But when I came from Joy, I remember I was covering the cavaliers and I came over to cover you guys. I don't know if you remember this, Dre, but you was looking at me funny. Initially, at what point you saying something. You call me a spy for the came you call me a spine for the cat. I'm like, yo, yo, we're spying on us. Man. I know, but I remember, so I believe it's that first year I covered you guys, and you put on and to me, this is me covering the league twelve years now. That was the finest

defensive years I've seen anybody play Individually. You end up winning your first defensive player the only defensive Player of the Year award, and I just see you in a new light, obviously being around you and seeing what you do and just seeing the like what you say. Like you know, there's times where teams called plays pick and role plays, but then they see you coming over. Now, We're not gonna no, we're not gonna use that action

because the little things like that. So the disappointment that I that I sense when I'm talking to players or hearing players when I don't see I get disappointment when I don't hear them giving the same praise because they play this game. So you know, you got a lot of players out here that that you know, take Dylon Brooks. You know, Dillon Brooks said what he said, and you know there's other players foot that way. There's people that say Draymond wouldn't thrive and on another team, you know,

he's only right for this team. Like when you hear that stuff like does that get like from your peers? Does does that bother you? And then secondly the second question of that dre after Dyllan Brooks said all that stuff. I don't know if you saw this, but there was a quote from him when he got drafted he wanted to beat unless you have the floor, Unless you have the floor. Do I get upset or does it get

under my scan when people say that? No, because I also understand that eighty percent of my peers don't even understand the game of basketball. Um and and So you know, I've said numerous times, you got guys in the NBA that don't know how to play um, which I do not understand and will never understand that. You always hear that guys don't know the plays. How do you not know the plays? Well, they know the plays because you've walked through them a million times, but they don't know

how to play. Like you know, you you turn on League Pass and rust as shore. You want to see some guys that don't know how to play, just start flicking through League Pass. You see it real quick. Guys don't know how to play basketball. So I'm very thankful to her uncle Benny and Coach Speedy and Coach Dawkins and Tom Izzo, you know, on laying a foundation and teaching me how to play the game of basketball, because

there's so many guys that just don't know how. And so when you speak and say um your peers, some of your peers are gonna say or they do say or feel like. You wouldn't be that anywhere else. It's easy to say that now, but I am one of the creators of the style of basketball that we play. So when I when I arrived at this team, this team won twenty three games and was not a dynast, was not a powerhouse. So how did I figure it out? Like?

Was it just um, all right, Stephan and Claire were here, so now you through Draymond in with them, and Draymond benefited, Like it doesn't really you know, like it doesn't really add up. And so when when when guys do say that, I just have an understanding of how misguided they are,

how much they don't understand. But quite frankly, another reason why it doesn't get under my skin because there's not really many guys in the league, if any, that can say that with any merit, or say that with confidence that they've done something to outdo me in this league, or to have a better resume than me, or have one more than me. There's not many people with a better resume, And you don't build the resume I have just by benefiting off being on the team like that.

Just it doesn't work that way. And so no, it doesn't get under my skin at all. When Dylan Brooks said what he said, I found it quite funny. I wasn't even going to respond to it. And then I was sitting there doing that podcast and I'm in Memphis, and I'm like, I started reading it and then I just started responding to like every sensor, Like why not, I'll just go sensors by sensors and respond to it. And that's kind of what happened. But it doesn't get

under my skin. And like you know, I've had conversations with Dylan Brooks, like you know, telling him what he needed to do, and I'm I am, I take really seriously on trying to teach young guys in this league the next thing and trying to show them the way and trying to be a vet and the guy that they can look at. I always say I had Pete Myers was an assistant coach but also like a vet to me as well, my rook first couple of years in the league. And Pete used to tell me, he said,

Draymond just want you to never forget two things. Number one is you get paid in this league for the next guy to get paid. Number Two, you have a responsibility in this league to leave the league in a better place than you found it. And so I take that to heart and I try to teach guys and I've had conversations with Dillan Brooks telling him what he

needs to do. There's pictures out there and me talking in this era after we beat his ass and different you know, and different things of that nature, and you know, helping him. And by the way, I don't have any hard feelings. Man, We're playing basketball, bro, like this, this is basketball. At the end of the day, I'm gonna go home and be with my family. You're gonna go home and be with your family. I still have things that I could teach him. The thurs An opportunity, I

was still teaching those things. It's a very competitive league, man, And I love that you want to compete in that way. I love that you know you're willing to put yourself out there that way. That don't bother me at all, Like it doesn't get under my skin at all. But if you're going to do those things, know that it's some heat that comes with that, and know that I'm always gonna be willing to go there, and I'll go

there with you as much as you want to. But you gotta build a resume if you're gonna go there. And you can't say stuff like that and then have clips around the internet floating around like that, because it's just it makes you look like the fan that I had already said he was. Mark Stein back with you. We were so fortunate to get a good hour with Draymond Green over the weekend and hit on so many good things that we we've decided to split this one

up into two parts. So that was part one and we'll be coming back tomorrow with Part two and just more and more insight into what this season has been like for the Warriors and for Draymond Green. He talks about the Jordan Pool punch in practice, He talks about his future with the Warriors. He gives a very broad and detailed assessment about what this Western Conference looks like

heading into the playoffs. So lots more with Draymond Green coming tomorrow with steid In Haynes here on This League Uncut, and that'll do it for us. See you next time. This League Uncut is and I Heeart Radio Production, Boomsucker, Loca, Christine and Mark Steyne