Category: Basketball

Draymond's faith in Warriors' title chances grows daily despite decreasing odds originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Two. That’s the number of opportunities Draymond Green believes the Warriors will have to win a fifth NBA Finals under coach Steve Kerr.

And the second chance, Green believes, has better odds.

“I think this year we have a good chance of winning,” Green said during a guest appearance on NBC Sports Bay Area’s “Dubs Talk” podcast.

“I think next year we’ll have an even better chance of winning.”

Ahem. Green turned 35 this month. Jimmy Butler III is six months older than Green. Stephen Curry is two years older than Green. The NBA is a young man’s league. The aging process is a relentless stalker, and undefeated. The Warriors have the oldest core in the NBA – and it will be relatively ancient in the spring of 2026.

Green’s rationale is that Golden State took an immediate leap when general manager Mike Dunleavy acquired Butler in February from the Miami Heat in a trade that sent Andrew Wiggins the other way. With very little time to get acclimated, the Warriors won seven of their first eight games with Butler. Even after consecutive losses at the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat this week, they’re 16-5 since Butler laced up his sneakers with them.

Next year? Well, a lot can happen between now and opening night in October.

“That’s more time together,” Green said. “That’s knowing each other. That’s having a training camp with Jimmy. And as we all know, an NBA roster is never the same from year to year. There’s going to be some tweaks, some changes. That’s just the business that we’re in. Those tweaks and changes, whatever they are as you proceed forward, will be built around, ‘How does this fit around Steph and Jimmy, right?’”

No matter how long Golden State’s postseason lasts, there will be changes. Curry, Butler and Green are under contract through next season. Buddy Hield, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Moses Moody and Brandin Podziemski also are on the books. The Warriors plan to exercise team options for Quinten Post and Gui Santos.

Kevon Looney and Gary Payton II will be unrestricted free agents, and the Warriors are edging closer to a decision on the future of Jonathan Kuminga, who will become a restricted free agent this summer.

Green is placing his trust in Dunleavy to use the coming months to reshape the roster to better accommodate not only Curry, but also Butler.

“It allows Mike Dunleavy – who has been an incredible, incredible general manager – to go into the summer saying, ‘All right, I got Steph and Jimmy. I need to surround guys. Bring in some guys to surround [Curry], which we already have. I need to bring in some guys that also surround [Butler] well.’ So, the thinking process changes.

“I must say, I don’t think within the next eight months there’s going to be an extreme decline of either one of us three. And so, in saying that … I love our team. I don’t want anyone to be like, ‘Yo, Draymond don’t think this team got enough.’ That’s not that’s not what I’m saying.”

Exhibit A of Green’s belief in the current team is, he said, the guarantee made during the All-Star break, when he said the Warriors “will win the championship” this season. It was outrageous considering they were ninth in the Western Conference.

This was, went the general reaction, Draymond being Draymond.

Within two weeks, though, the Warriors climbed from ninth to sixth in the West. Moreover, they have since the break posted the second-best record in the West and the fourth-best record in the league. Their odds of reaching the Finals have taken a steep ascent.

But. Still.

Green’s faith comes from the postseason experience possessed by Butler, Curry and himself. The trio has played a combined 423 games, with 15 conference finals and 14 NBA Finals.

But NBA history is not in Green’s favor. No team with a three-man core averaging 35 years old or more has won it all. The 2011 Dallas Mavericks came closest, with Jason Kidd (38), Jason Terry (33) and Dirk Nowitzki (33) sliding just under the average.

To put this into context, the 2022 Warriors – with Klay Thompson, Curry and Green averaging just under 33 years of age – probably could not have beaten the Celtics without Wiggins, who was 27 and was as effective as anyone not named Curry.

These Warriors could hope to get such postseason impact from any one of the 20-somethings on the roster, but they can’t expect it. Maybe that will change in 2026.

“It’s always hard to win championships when you have midseason trades because it’s a hard adjustment,” Green said. “I think we’re doing as great a job as we can. I also think we’re going to win a championship.

“But in saying that, I still think our best year, our best chance to win a championship with this group will be next year. I don’t mean we’re not doing it this year.”

The Warriors have a lot of ground to cover beginning next month, even more after the ball tips off for next season.

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Draymond reflects ‘rock bottom' of Warriors career, strolls down hallway of mind originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Draymond Green is a villain. A mentor. A bully. A charmer. He’s a basketball genius, a restless soul, a four-time NBA champion, a four-time NBA All-Star and a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose unruly conduct last season kept him off the court for 21 games.

His spasms of disorder did more than that. The vehement events of the 2023-24 NBA season hurt Draymond, his family and, lastly, the Golden State Warriors. It forced him to check himself. To seek rehabilitation for the emotions behind his on-court violence.

And now, 14 months after returning from his last suspension, words are coming off Draymond’s tongue with the same passion and conviction with which he has played basketball for 13 seasons with the Warriors. The conversation is about life, and he is the tour guide for a reflective journey down the long and sometimes dark hallways of his mind.

“The bottom? Man. Oh man. How do you find the bottom?” Green says on NBC Sports Bay Area’s “Dubs Talk” podcast, which debuted Friday. “There’s been some moments where … Wow. Wow.

“The bottom, I would have to say, for me personally, the bottom was last year. And the reason that was the bottom is basketball is one thing. You can talk about basketball all you want. I really don’t care. I know what I bring to the basketball game. I know what I’m capable of. I know what’s going on. So that don’t really bother me.

“But last year, my character was under attack. Who I am as a human being was under attack.”

The tipping point came on Dec. 12, 2023, when Green whacked Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić in the face in the third quarter of a Warriors-Suns game in Phoenix. That led to a suspension deemed “indefinite” because one month earlier, Green jumped Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert – whose arms were around Golden State’s Klay Thompson – from behind and put him in a modified chokehold. The Green-Gobert incident was a five-gamer, so the NBA felt it necessary to increase the suspension for Green’s strike on Nurkić.

Public reaction was swift and heavy with presumptions, with opinions undoubtedly prejudiced by Draymond’s shocking punch to the face of then-teammate Jordan Poole in October 2022. NBA head of basketball operations Joe Dumars, a longtime friend of Green, delivered the indefinite suspension, explaining that he wanted to see Draymond get himself mentally and emotionally “right” before coming back to the game.

As Green attended to his business, speculation and allegations were rampant. He heard and saw it. His wife, Hazel Renee, coped with it. His children, his extended family and friends all were in the uncomfortable position of trying to answer for the man they knew and care for or even love.

“I take pride in who I am as a human being,” Green says. “I take pride in being a stand-up guy. If I see you and walk past you, I’m going to say, ‘Hi.’ I take pride in just being a great person. For my character to be under attack, that bothered me to my core because the things that were being said isn’t an accurate depiction of me and who I am.

“So, I would say that was the bottom. I couldn’t play the game that I love. I couldn’t play the game the way that I love. And by the way, ‘He’s beating his wife at home. He’s beating his kids because look what he does on a basketball court.’ That’s crazy … to have to live through that.”

“But then, for my family to also have to live through that,” he adds, “that was kind of rock bottom for me. Like my wife opening her Instagram and [seeing] ‘I’m so sorry’ [comments]. ‘I know you’re getting beaten at home.’ Beaten?

“I’m the guy that when my wife is on one, I walk into the other room. I don’t even want to go back and forth like that. It’s not even in my demeanor. I think it’s because people watch me on the basketball court and my intensity. I am probably as non-confrontational as you going to find. I’m going the opposite way.”

How does this not touch the heart of anyone who has one? How does this not force anyone to face their worst characteristics and try to seek peace within?

Green 35, says, he “hates” confrontation off the court. On the court, he lives for it. His willingness to engage in competition, usually with bigger players, is part of the equation that makes him great. At 6-foot-6, he’s the best small big man in the NBA and probably has considered having that description tattooed on his chest.

There is no question that this season has revealed a less combustible Draymond than the player he was the previous two seasons. He recorded a league- and career-high 21 technical fouls in 2022-23 and served a one-game suspension for planting his foot on the chest of Sacramento center Domantas Sabonis in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs against the Kings. Green this season has been assessed 12 technical fouls, but there have been no suspensions. The Warriors are 35-23 when he plays, 6-8 when he does not.

“With help, I worked my way out of it,” Green says. “And I’m back from it. But that was rock bottom for me.”

The noise related to Green’s antics has quieted because they are fewer. The Warriors are happier. And Draymond, among the leaders in the Defensive Player of the Year race, is performing better with his emotions on simmer than when they boil over.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

Draymond details ‘rock bottom' of Warriors career, strolls down hallway of mind originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Draymond Green is a villain. A mentor. A bully. A charmer. He’s a basketball genius, a restless soul, a four-time NBA champion, a four-time NBA All-Star and a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose unruly conduct last season kept him off the court for 21 games.

His spasms of disorder did more than that. The vehement events of the 2023-24 NBA season hurt Draymond, his family and, lastly, the Golden State Warriors. It forced him to check himself. To seek rehabilitation for the emotions behind his on-court violence.

And now, 14 months after returning from his last suspension, words are coming off Draymond’s tongue with the same passion and conviction with which he has played basketball for 13 seasons with the Warriors. The conversation is about life, and he is the tour guide for a reflective journey down the long and sometimes dark hallways of his mind.

“The bottom? Man. Oh man. How do you find the bottom?” Green says on NBC Sports Bay Area’s “Dubs Talk” podcast, which debuted Friday. “There’s been some moments where … Wow. Wow.

“The bottom, I would have to say, for me personally, the bottom was last year. And the reason that was the bottom is basketball is one thing. You can talk about basketball all you want. I really don’t care. I know what I bring to the basketball game. I know what I’m capable of. I know what’s going on. So that don’t really bother me.

“But last year, my character was under attack. Who I am as a human being was under attack.”

The tipping point came on Dec. 12, 2023, when Green whacked Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić in the face in the third quarter of a Warriors-Suns game in Phoenix. That led to a suspension deemed “indefinite” because one month earlier, Green jumped Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert – whose arms were around Golden State’s Klay Thompson – from behind and put him in a modified chokehold. The Green-Gobert incident was a five-gamer, so the NBA felt it necessary to increase the suspension for Green’s strike on Nurkić.

Public reaction was swift and heavy with presumptions, with opinions undoubtedly prejudiced by Draymond’s shocking punch to the face of then-teammate Jordan Poole in October 2022. NBA head of basketball operations Joe Dumars, a longtime friend of Green, delivered the indefinite suspension, explaining that he wanted to see Draymond get himself mentally and emotionally “right” before coming back to the game.

As Green attended to his business, speculation and allegations were rampant. He heard and saw it. His wife, Hazel Renee, coped with it. His children, his extended family and friends all were in the uncomfortable position of trying to answer for the man they knew and care for or even love.

“I take pride in who I am as a human being,” Green says. “I take pride in being a stand-up guy. If I see you and walk past you, I’m going to say, ‘Hi.’ I take pride in just being a great person. For my character to be under attack, that bothered me to my core because the things that were being said isn’t an accurate depiction of me and who I am.

“So, I would say that was the bottom. I couldn’t play the game that I love. I couldn’t play the game the way that I love. And by the way, ‘He’s beating his wife at home. He’s beating his kids because look what he does on a basketball court.’ That’s crazy … to have to live through that.”

“But then, for my family to also have to live through that,” he adds, “that was kind of rock bottom for me. Like my wife opening her Instagram and [seeing] ‘I’m so sorry’ [comments]. ‘I know you’re getting beaten at home.’ Beaten?

“I’m the guy that when my wife is on one, I walk into the other room. I don’t even want to go back and forth like that. It’s not even in my demeanor. I think it’s because people watch me on the basketball court and my intensity. I am probably as non-confrontational as you going to find. I’m going the opposite way.”

How does this not touch the heart of anyone who has one? How does this not force anyone to face their worst characteristics and try to seek peace within?

Green 35, says, he “hates” confrontation off the court. On the court, he lives for it. His willingness to engage in competition, usually with bigger players, is part of the equation that makes him great. At 6-foot-6, he’s the best small big man in the NBA and probably has considered having that description tattooed on his chest.

There is no question that this season has revealed a less combustible Draymond than the player he was the previous two seasons. He recorded a league- and career-high 21 technical fouls in 2022-23 and served a one-game suspension for planting his foot on the chest of Sacramento center Domantas Sabonis in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs against the Kings. Green this season has been assessed 12 technical fouls, but there have been no suspensions. The Warriors are 35-23 when he plays, 6-8 when he does not.

“With help, I worked my way out of it,” Green says. “And I’m back from it. But that was rock bottom for me.”

The noise related to Green’s antics has quieted because they are fewer. The Warriors are happier. And Draymond, among the leaders in the Defensive Player of the Year race, is performing better with his emotions on simmer than when they boil over.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast