Getty Draymond Green #23 of the Golden State Warriors reacts after making a three-point basket.
After three blowout losses in its first five games, the Golden State Warriors (7-5) have begun to turn their season around. Since the return of their star forward Draymond Green on New Year’s Day, the Warriors’ defense has improved from one of the worst units in the NBA to open the season to now helping them close out some of the higher quality teams in the league.
This sudden spike in play could be attributed to the team beginning to find chemistry with one another. A secondary reason could be Green helping to direct the team’s defense. Acting as a coach on the floor, Green can spot mismatches, help out, and adjust when need be. It’s one of the things that have made him a defensive savant throughout his nine-year NBA career.
Yet still, the impact Green has on the floor can be largely overlooked. More articles and stories are written about the offensive side of the floor, and rightfully so, as scoring points does win games.
But when asked if he wishes more people would take heed and appreciate his efforts on the other end of the floor, the former Defensive Player of the Year gave an eye-opening answer.
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Green’s Explicit Comments on Basketball ‘Experts’
GettyGolden State Warriors forward Draymond Green
Most NBA defenders aren’t in the limelight the way the offensive talents of the league are. For example, the Atlanta Hawks Trae Young and Dallas Mavericks Luka Dončić, while vastly talented on offense, are unlikely to make an All-NBA Defensive Team any time soon.
When asked by NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke if it bothered him that people don’t appreciate the work and skill that goes into defending those types of playmakers, Green explained how most people don’t know enough to fully understand it.
“That would require people to know the game of basketball, and most people don’t,” Green said on Saturday night, via The Athletic’s Anthony Slater. “[That’s] wishful thinking, but most people will never learn the game of basketball. They think they know, but yet don’t have a clue. It is what it is. I enjoy being one of the not-so-many people that actually know the game, and being in that rare category of people who really know what’s going on in the game of basketball, as opposed to watching it and thinking they can dissect it because they realize who hit a shot. You know, it’s fine.”
His comments didn’t stop there. After a follow-up question, Green elaborated further, suggesting analysts would have to first admit they don’t know everything in order to learn.
“Well, first off in order to learn you have to understand what you don’t know,” Green continued. “Most people don’t understand that they don’t know s***. They’re just f*****, and that’s just what it will be. You know it’s like a drug addict. The first step to rehab is admitting that you’re a drug addict. So, when you have all these internet sensations thinking they know the game of basketball, they would then have to admit they don’t know basketball. No one is going to do that, so yeah, they’re pretty much just f*****.”
Warriors Chemistry Coming Together
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Finding chemistry with new teammates can sometimes be a difficult thing. With three new starters in the Warriors lineup alongside superstar Steph Curry and Green, it will take time for them all to learn how to play with one another.
Knowing this, the Warriors aren’t too fazed by their slow play as they believe, in time, it will all come together.
“It’ll take a little bit,” Green said of acclimating to new players. “But as long as we continue to defend the way we’ve been defending over the last week-and-a-half or so, we can give ourselves time for that to catch up just by erasing a lot of mistakes on the defensive end and creating offense off our defense.”
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