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In a previous episode of “The Draymond Green Show,” Green expressed how he feels he could have done more during his NBA career and that Kerr might have been a factor. “As much as he's done for me in basketball, a part of me thinks he's hindered me in my career and what I could have become,” Green stated. “But what he's also helped me become. Like you got to take the good with the bad, man. “You know, when I think of who I was offensively as a player and who I became, I think a part of that is due to him. I don't hold that against him. I'm forever grateful that he still put me in a position to be successful and that I could become Draymond Green despite my offensive role on our team.”
Draymond Green: “The big question is: what’s next for this Boston team? Is it the end of the Jaylen Brown–Jayson Tatum era? I would say no. I don’t think it’s the end of their era. Look at the success they had this year with Jayson Tatum out most of the year, and then with Jayson Tatum coming back and them having success, ultimately getting ahead to a 3-1 lead. Obviously, they squandered the lead away, but you got right where you wanted to be.
But, Warriors forward Draymond Green doesn’t think the performance was a “legacy game” for Embiid, who has now reached the Eastern Conference semifinals for the sixth time in his career. “I know a lot of people are saying, ‘Yo, is this a legacy game for Joel Embiid?’ and I say no, 'hell no,' ” Green said on “The Draymond Green Show.” “Joel Embiid is a great player, Joel Embiid is an NBA MVP, Joel Embiid is all of those things. Gold medalist, perennial All-Star, one of the best bigs in this league. “Joel Embiid, also for those same reasons, is the reason that a game in the first round, I don’t care if it’s Game 7 or Game 2. … It’s still a first-round game and we’ve seen Joel Embiid in the first round. In order for Joel Embiid to have legacy games, Joel Embiid has to get to the conference finals and then Joel Embiid needs to help push that team to the NBA Finals.”
Green said he believes the people stating that it was a legacy performance are the same ones who will be ready to blame Embiid if the 76ers fail to reach the conference championship – somewhere Embiid has never been since entering the league in 2014. “I hate when people try to set guys up like, ‘Aw man, this is a legacy game for Joel Embiid,’ only to set him up to try to tear him down in the weeks to come,” Green said. “I don’t like stuff like that. There’s no way a guy of Joel Embiid’s stature can have a legacy game in Round 1 and he still hasn’t accomplished, ultimately, what he wants to accomplish.”
Draymond Green responding to Austin Rivers - “Austin, you and I averaged the same amount of points in HS and I say HS cause that's when you were at your best. Should he really talk about my NBA career?… The guy received the biggest bailout in US history when his dad gave him 42 million dollars.”
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Warriors F Draymond Green will be making three upcoming appearances on “Inside the NBA” on ESPN, filling in for Kenny Smith starting on Wednesday. Green, who is repped on the media side by WIN Sports’ Josh Pyatt, will be doing so as a TNT employee, similar to the other members of the show. His other appearances for the postseason will come later this month, including during the conference finals.
Draymond Green: I have a player option after this year. Well, right now going into the summer, I have a player option. I'm never going to stay somewhere where I'm not wanted, right? So I'm not in a situation where it's like, ‘I got to opt in to get this money or it's over for me’. I'll have some other options, I believe, right? But ultimately I do know that they want me to still be here. That's great and a music to my ears and a pillow on my heart. Like I'm forever grateful for that.
Draymond Green: I don't see anyone beating OKC. They're just like a well-oiled machine. I see Phoenix complaining about the foul calls. So while you sit and complain about foul calls, they just gonna get at you. Like, I don't see anybody beating them. I've been thoroughly impressed and enjoying watching LeBron James just control the entire game. Like entire series, the whole pace of the game. I've just been thoroughly enjoying watching them.
That lottery pick is an important tool within the Warriors' plan to rearrange the roster this upcoming summer, which is part of the equation in Kerr's decision whether to return. At this stage of his life and career - 60 years old, having just wrapped his 12th season in the same role - there's an agreed belief that Kerr still makes sense as the head coach leading a firm playoff contender built around Steph Curry and Draymond Green, but not necessarily the fresh face of a reconstruction. "I still love coaching, but I get it," Kerr said the night the Warriors were eliminated. "These jobs all have an expiration date. There is a run that happens, and when the run ends, sometimes it's time for new blood and new ideas."
"The whistle that OKC gets. You know, I saw Shai had [17 or 18] free throws one game," Green said on the latest episode of his podcast, "The Draymond Green Show." "I I saw all of that. Quite honestly, Shai is great at drawing fouls. He uses your leverage against you. He has mastered the art of drawing a foul. If you watch them, most of them are fouls. And when I say most, I'm talking 90-plus percent of them, they do be fouls. Like he has mastered the art of drawing a foul to the level that James Harden had the art mastered before, but in a different way. "He's mastered the art of it. For a great scorer, I think that's a great thing to master, and he's done that. Now, some of them, I think back in the old days, officials would see that and be like, 'I'm not calling it.' And I think that's the frustration that some people have is it seems that he gets so many of these calls and just some of them the way they look, the way they happen, officials just, they wouldn't used to call it. Especially in the playoffs, they wouldn't call it. And so I can understand the frustration. However, I do think a lot of them be fouls."
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Underdog NBA: Draymond Green on Jarrett Allen's postseason play: "Jarrett Allen seems to get into these playoffs and get really, really, really soft." "He gets into the playoffs and turns into a completely different player. And not for the better."
Draymond Green: Joker has always — the one thing he has struggled with is length. If you go back and look at when the Lakers were able to beat them in 2020, the only reason they were able to beat them is because they had three guys that they could throw at Joker with length: Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee, and obviously, at times, Anthony Davis. They were able to throw length at Joker — length after length after length — and that’s why they were ultimately able to take the Nuggets down then, but haven’t been able to take the Nuggets down since. So Rudy’s doing a great job. You have to give him credit. In saying that, Joker’s still getting a lot of the shots he wants, but the length is bothering him. But he also can make these shots. So, yes, he could come out and go for 40 tonight. That does not mean Rudy hasn’t been causing him to have a tough time. The length is what he does have some problems with, if he has any problems at all.”
Draymond Green: “KD has played one game in this series. He’s had a knee injury, then a left ankle injury. A lot of people have made a lot of discourse about, ‘Oh, KD don’t really want to play. He’s quitting on his teammates.’ One thing you don’t question: Kevin Durant loves to play basketball. He loves to play basketball. If there’s anything that Kevin Durant loves, he loves to play basketball. To question a guy, injured, that has shown nothing but the love for the game of basketball, is bullshit. Regardless of what you all may think about the burner account, what you all may think about the Rockets’ chemistry, for a guy to play 18 years in the NBA, show the love for the game that Kevin Durant has, and to be injured in the playoff series and people say, ‘Oh man, he quitting on the team,’ I think is ridiculous. The respect around our game is just at an all-time low, because so many people have voices about the game that shouldn’t have voices. Like Kevin Durant not wanting to play basketball? What else is he going to do? Man loves hooping. So I just think that’s ridiculous.”
Draymond Green: Maybe he knows his team better than I know them, because they responded and they got a game. However, everybody made it about what Şengün said pregame, not necessarily what Ime said postgame of Game 3. So I would just warn Ime to be careful there, because in today’s day and age, I’ve had to learn to deal with younger guys. Guys will quit on you. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it all around the league. Guys just quit on the coach. I would caution Ime just to be careful there, because guys do quit. And you go at some guys a little tougher than they can handle, guys do quit. Like I said, they responded, so give them credit. But I would caution Ime to just be a little careful there. Ime is going to be who he’s going to be, and I know he goes about his business the way he goes about his business, which is what I respect and love about Ime. But I would caution him with these young guys, man. They just aren’t the same. It’s just a little different.”
