Draymond Green Admits Problems Last Season Caused Doubt

Draymond Green Warriors

Getty Golden State Warriors big man Draymond Green warms up before a game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

With how much the Golden State Warriors were struggling heading into last season’s playoffs, anyone who was confident they would figure it out and win the title is probably lying.

Following the All-Star break, the Warriors limped to the playoffs, going 11-12 the rest of the regular season. Much of that had to do with the Big Three only playing together for two games (seven seconds of the January 9 game against the Cavaliers) during the regular season.

Klay Thompson returned from his lengthy absence of injuries on January 9, but Draymond Green then was out for weeks with a hernia injury that was slow to heal. Green finally returned on March 14 against the Wizards, but Steph Curry was injured in the next game against the Celtics after Marcus Smart fell on his ankle.

Curry’s injury kept him out of the rest of the regular season, but he returned just in time for the first game of the playoffs, and the rest is history.

Because the Dubs won the title, casual fans tend to forget the trials and tribulations that the team dealt with. Haters have simply pointed to the fact that the Warriors spend the most money in the league, so they are essentially buying rings.


Draymond Green Didn’t Think the Warriors Could Get Past the First Round

However, many within the organization had serious doubts about how far the team could get. Shockingly, one of them was the last person that anyone would expect. Green is usually one of the most confident people within the Warriors, but even he was not sure if they could go the distance.

During a conversation with DeMar DeRozan on the July 28 episode of “The Draymond Green Show”, Green thought it wasn’t meant to be with the bad timing of all the injuries.

“The day [Klay] comes back I go down,” Green said. “The day I come back, Steph goes down. It’s like, I started to think, ‘This ain’t supposed to happen for us. It’s not the year.’ I even told one of my homeboys like, ‘I’ma probably see you right after the first round because I just don’t see it happening for us.’”

The Warriors dismantled the Nuggets in the first round, and then managed to ride out a tough battle with the young Grizzlies. At that point, their swagger and confidence during their earlier title runs started to be more consistent, and they made quick work of the Mavericks, and then outlasted the Celtics in the Finals.

“The first championship we won, after that regular season, I knew like, ‘Yo, we got the best team,’ but we didn’t know how to win a championship,” Green continues. “2017 and 2018, it was literally just a matter of getting to the day that we could win. Once we got to that date, I knew we could win. This year was different.”


Warriors Are Not Favorites to Defend Their Title

It isn’t just their own self-doubts, but Vegas still isn’t jumping on the Warriors bandwagon.

According to DraftKings, the Warriors are currently at +600 favorites to win the title next season, tied for second with the Clippers. Their Finals counterpart, the Celtics, are favorites at +450.

Despite their interest in Kevin Durant, Boston has added Malcolm Brogdon and Danilo Gallinari to their rotation. On paper, they are projected to even be better than what they were able to accomplish last season.

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