Anthony Edwards looked “totally different” in Timberwolves win vs. Luka & Mavericks | Draymond Green

Welcome to the brand new Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our content. What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. They say we may have a series. The Minnesota Timberwolves take game 4 on the road. They are now headed back to Minnesota, which I was just recently informed when I was there that it's called like the state of lakes or Minneapolis is like the city of lakes or State of a thousand lakes or something of that nature. And it threw me for a loop because obviously I'm from the great state of Michigan and we are the Great Lakes State. And so I just didn't know like anyone had anything about their state that was anything about lakes. And so I gained a little more love for the state of Minnesota 'cause y'all a lot like us. So yeah, but they are headed back to Minnesota for Game 5. Game 5., and we will get into that. We will also touch on the Celtics sweeping the Pacers in what was a close series, yet not so close at all. We will talk Ty Lue and his extension. And last but not least, the great Bill Walton, rest in peace. But don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Appreciate you. Thank you to all our loyal subscribers. We appreciate you as well. T-Wolves beat the Mavericks 105 to 100 in Dallas for Game 4.

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It's funny 'cause on air, I remember hearing somebody say yesterday like 100 points probably won't win you the game and T-Wolves get to 105, Dallas only gets to 100 and 105 happens to be enough. Ant-Man comes back with a vengeance, 29, 9, and 10. 11 for 25 shooting, 2 for 5 from the 3, 6 turnovers. Uh, which we'll get into that a little bit as well. Not Ant-Man's turnovers, but the turnovers as a whole for Minnesota. Uh, KAT came back with a vengeance. 25 points, 5 rebounds in 30 minutes. Uh, while battling foul trouble most of the half, first half, and pretty much most of the game. Uh, however, finished 9 for 13 shooting, 4 for 5 from 3. Also ended up fouling out the game.

Mm-hmm.

Luka, another triple-double, 28, 10, and 15, 7 for 21 from field, 4 for 11 from 3. Kyrie didn't have a Kyrie Irving type night with 16 points, 4 assists, 6 for 18 from the field, 1 for 6 from 3. And so there you have it. In the words of the great Shaquille O'Neal, in the words of the great Draymond Green, Draymond Green, Charles Barkley, the stars gotta play well. And that's one side of the story. Doesn't quite tell the whole story. However, it does tell one side. Now, if you look at this, they ended up outscoring Luka and Kyrie. Cat and Ant ended up outscoring Luka and Kyrie 54 to 44. And if I am the Dallas Mavericks, You can leave that game feeling a few different ways. You can leave that game feeling like Luka didn't play well, Kyrie didn't play well, PJ Washington didn't play well, and we still had a chance down the stretch to win the game. Only lost the game by 5. You could look at it that way. If you're Minnesota, you can look at it and say, we've been in this position each game. This series could easily be flipped the opposite way. And we finally made the necessary plays we needed to make down the stretch. And on top of that, they scored 30 points off our turnovers. If we cut those back, we're smooth sailing. Now, There's a lot of ifs, and if if was a fifth, we'd all be drunk right now. However, if I'm leaving that game, my thoughts would be Minnesota always have a chance because Ant-Man's demeanor, and Ant-Man played last night the way that he, that we've grown accustomed to Ant-Man playing. Not in the first 3 games of this series. The first 3 games of this series, it almost looked like Ant was sick or something. Like, and like, I don't want to be one of those Instagram doctors or face, so like take this with a grain of salt. But to me it just looked like he was sick. Like he was gassed. Like for the majority part of all 3 games, he was gassed. Like wasn't playing with the same force. Was settling for a lot of threes. Like, wasn't getting downhill at all. And that's not the Ant-Man that we've grown to know. And I heard him say in his post-game press conference last night, he said, "You know, I just wasn't running to the corner and not getting the ball or shying away from the ball." And I heard him say that. And Ant-Man strikes me as someone that, A, he's never gonna make an excuse. So he's never gonna come out and be like, "Yo, I was sick." If somebody on they staff come out and say he's sick, all hell gonna break loose because then they gotta deal with him. And so I just don't, he doesn't strike me as, he's not an excuse maker. Like he is a leader. He is a young guy who wants it. And we, you know, we've talked about that all along. And so he just doesn't strike me as someone who'd come out and make an excuse. However, if you were watching the same game I was watching, he just didn't look the same. And when he came out and said last night, like, "Oh, I was shying away from the ball. I was just running to the corner." That's just him taking the blame on himself. Like, come on, put, place all the blame here. Don't go blame my guys. Don't go blame KAT. Don't go blame Rudy Gobert. Place all the blame here. So I was running to the corner, hiding from the ball. Ant-Man ain't never gonna be somebody that run to the corner and hide from the ball. As they, as the young fellas say, he running up the chimney for the smoke. He ain't running to the corner and like hiding from the ball. I've seen guys do that in this league. Superstars do that in this league. He don't strike me as one of those that's just gonna run to the corner and sit there because of what may go wrong. Don't strike me as that. That ain't who he is. So I ain't worried about it. We rolling with that. And to me it just looked like something was off. Long's wind was a little off. Didn't have that same burst that he had last night. Like you saw it right away last night. He got that ball in transition, boom. You like, oh, he here today. Right? Like he here. And—

Yeah.

When he did that, it also jolted their team. You could also see them, all of a sudden they went from like this to like, oh, we here. Because that is their emotional leader. Obviously he's their best player, but he's also their emotional leader. He's also their leader. He wears a lot of hats for that team. Yeah, that's just not a guy that's gonna do that. So everybody poked their chest back out. KAT continues his streak of playing awful in the first half, comes out with his chest poked out in the second half. Couple drives to the rim, layup. Another drive to the rim, layup. Sweet baseline and one. Then he hit the 3, right? So he worked inside out. Coaches have always told me like, you wanna play the game inside out. You never wanna play the game outside in. You wanna play the game inside out. You start in, you work your way out, you build a rhythm in, work your way out, the rhythm carries over. They've been playing the game outside in. Yeah. With a huge size advantage. So not taking away, you're not taking advantage of that size advantage. So if you can't take advantage of the size disparity, then the size just comes a liability because you're definitely not fast enough on the other end to keep up with those guys. So if you're not gonna punish them on offensive end for being that small, Then the size is kind of all for nothing. And for 3.5 games, that's exactly what we saw. In the first quarter yesterday, Minnesota outscored Dallas in the paint 14 to 2. Second quarter, Dallas evened that out. Now they didn't even the total out. The second quarter was just even. Yeah. Ant-Man ended up in foul trouble in the second quarter. Rudy Gobert ended up in foul trouble in the second quarter. KAT ended up in foul trouble. All of them was in foul trouble in the first half. And those numbers evened out. The second half started, they came right back out. And you can tell that their game plan was, we're not shooting many threes, we're getting to the basket. In turn, Ant-Man goes 2 for 5 from 3. He's been taking 11 threes, 12 threes. Cat goes 4 for 5 from 3. He's been taking 9 threes, 8 threes. He goes 4 for 5 and the first one doesn't come until he's been going to the basket and getting whatever he wanted. Now, I am not of the group that thinks Cat shouldn't shoot threes. Cat's a great shooter. Yeah. If you can do something as well as he can shoot the basketball, shoot the basket. However, the slump that he was in, I think over the last 6 games or something before, prior to last night, he was 4 for 32. At that point that you're shooting that bad and you're playing against a team that you actually have an advantage on if you go in the post, Then yeah, I'm not saying stop shooting them, but you can't lead with the 3. And KAT made that adjustment and he played his best game of the series. Now I'll tell you what, something that I do when I am in these playoff series and I face elimination, and it, 'cause sometimes this stuff is just mind games. Like it's mind tricks. Sometimes you gotta fool yourself. It's funny because Mav texted me last night, right when Luka got into it with Kyle Anderson. And Mav's like, look, Luka just does, like, Luka just finds stuff to get himself going. And I'm like, absolutely. And you can clearly see it because yes, it was a closeout game. Yes, all of that. Dallas don't believe that Timberwolves can beat them. And so they were kind of just like going through the motions. And I won't like say they weren't playing hard because it's the Conference Finals, like they, but it wasn't the intensity level that you thought you'd see. And Luka immediately like was getting feisty at a few people. And you can tell he's just trying to bring himself up. But anyway, I kind of have this thing where—

Yeah.

We go through, you know, say we down in the series, I'm wearing all black, probably some black Forces. And that's that. Why? 'Cause number one, I don't need to waste any time thinking about an outfit. We got a game to play. Number two, I can care less how I walk into this arena looking. I need to win some games so we don't get eliminated. Number 3, I'm in all black sweatsuit. Not the best looking black sweatsuit. Some black Forces, some black glasses. I'm going to war. Like, this ain't about how I look in the tunnel. I'm going to war. I don't got time for none of that. And so I think number one, KAT should probably take a page outta that book. Like, KAT be fresh walking in, gotta give it to him. He been putting his fist together for the last few years. I gotta give it to him. But sometimes it just ain't time to think about that. And like, that's something that I do, like, when our back is really against the wall. And quite honestly, I can't remember how, it's maybe failed me once or twice, but it usually come through for me. 'Cause it's just, winning is a mindset. Winning is a mentality. Winning isn't an X or an O. Winning is a mentality. And I just wanna remind myself and be sure that the moment I step out of this room or out of my house, or the moment I step outta the car off this bus, I got one thing on my mind. That's I'm going to war. I'm going to rob somebody for what they think is theirs and I think it's mine. And so that's the demeanor that Minnesota gotta have. Like, yeah, you got one. Nobody wants to get swept, but guess what now? Yeah. Minnesota not gonna have the same intensity that they had in game 4 to start game 5. Now I think they'll be happy to get back home. They'll have some energy for sure. There is nothing like facing a sweep. Nobody wants to get swept. Think about it. Shaq said, "I's been swept 5 times in my career." People can name off the amount of— I saw CP on ESPN the other night. Like, I've been swept one time in my career, named it off right like that. People remember being swept and people keep track of that. So nobody wants to be the team that didn't win a game in a series. Like, that sucks, man. And so they came out how we expected them to come out. Feisty, chippy. You saw Rudy Gobert, I told you I love watching the games within the game. Man, Rudy Gobert chucked Kyrie a couple times just running down the court, boom, boom. Luka a couple times, boom. Gafford, boom. I said, oh, he's setting the tone. I see it. I respect it. Nobody will give him credit for that 'cause people don't watch the game within the game. You know what they saw? Man, Cat had 25, Ant-Man had 29. Yeah, they gotta do that, don't get me wrong. Not taking away from them what those guys did. But you gotta set a tone. And I thought Ant-Man definitely set the tone Offensively, Jayden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert set the tone. Defensively, Kyle Anderson came in and took that to another level. Jayden McDaniels was all over Kyrie. Kyrie never was able to get it going. That's also a matchup that Kyrie hasn't seen much of. So Kyrie's gonna have to make that adjustment. Kyrie is a wizard. I have no doubt that he'll be able to make the adjustment. But Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert set a tone. Rudy like, nah, you ain't just running down the court getting a free run. Boom. Nah. And by the way, Scott Foster, Ed Malloy, Billy Kennedy, they was letting it go. They was letting it go. Yeah, those guys ended up in foul trouble, but I tell you what, they could have caught way more fouls than the foul trouble that those guys ended up in. They letting it go. It's an elimination game. You going for a sweep. You don't wanna call tiki-tak stuff. I saw a few people like, "Oh, Scott Foster. Scott Foster's there, we know what time it is." Yeah, we do know what time it is, Scott Foster there. He ain't calling all that tiki-tak stuff. That's what time it is. Ain't no tiki-tak gonna be called. If I was Scott, and by the way, you ain't gonna get him much complaining because you know what you gonna get with Scott. Told y'all Scott one of my favorites. 'Cause I know what I'm gonna get. I don't have to guess. You know, some referees come into the game, they act like they cool with you. You think y'all cool, you say something to him, boom. Like, yo, I just had a full conversation with you, bro. "How that happen? Like how we end up there? I just had full conversation with you." Before the game, end of the game, we had full conversations. And then you just hit me with a text that fast? Like, why you fake like that? You ain't getting that from Scott. You say hello to Scott, say, "Hey Draymond, how you doing?" "I'm great, Scott. How about you?" "I'm great, Draymond. It's good to see you." "Good to see you too, Scott." Family doing well? Family's great, Scott. How about you? Great. All right, Scott, have a good one. You have a good one too, Draymond. And then I know exactly what I'm getting from there every single time. Don't come up to me on no bullshit, I'm gonna tech you. You continue, I'm gonna throw you out. It's just that simple. You got something you want to talk about? Great, come on over here, let's talk about it. Tell me what you think. I'm gonna tell you what I saw. That's that. We ain't gotta go back and forth about it. You could say something back like, "Oh, 'cause Scott, I just checked it." "All right, cool, I got you." But if you go the wrong way, he gonna tech you. So you know what you getting with Scott. So I love to see Scott coming actually. I am not of the bunch that's like, "Oh man, Scott here, oh." Like, no, I actually like, because you gonna get the real and you know what you getting. Anyway, they let a lot go. And with Rudy Gobert setting the tone like he set with the physicality, Jaden McDaniels with the physicality, Hawken Kai, then their defense was set. Ant-Man set the pace on the offense, had a great first quarter if I'm not mistaken. I think he had 17 in the first quarter. And then Ant-Man ended up in foul trouble. But they stayed afloat. Nas Reid made a couple plays. Nikhil Alexander-Walker made a couple big shots. Mike Conley got inside the lane. And I think more, most importantly, Ant-Man got to the free throw line. So with them setting the tone that they was setting, Ant-Man getting to free throw line, now you're playing against a set defense every time. And they already set the tone. Dallas, However, so you get into the free throw line, but you're turning the ball over. They kind of cancel each other out, right? Like Dallas got some runouts off the turnovers, but they didn't get runouts off missed shots because Ant-Man was getting to the free throw line. Shot 8 free throws in the first quarter. We haven't seen that Ant-Man because we haven't seen Ant-Man attacking like that. And so it was just a totally different, totally different ball club. I think the absence of Derrick Lively was huge. Definitely makes a difference. He brings a certain energy to the group, certain bounciness, blocks some shots, obviously lob threat, great in the short roll. Man, he makes the reads in the short roll. He's even starting to finish outta the short roll. And so they miss Lively for sure. I'm not sure what happened to Dwight Powell, man. Dwight Powell was, Dwight Powell was good for many years and he just, he not giving them much at all. So much so that they almost, they brought Maxi Kleber back who pretty much said before the game like, yeah, my shoulder not right, but I'mma play. And I thought that was very interesting because They'll need Kleber, I think, against Boston. They're able to get through this series, which I think they will. And they'll need Kleber against Boston because Kleber will spend some time on JT for sure. They like to put Kleber on long wings that they got. And so you got, yes, you know, we know PJ, we know D. Jones gonna start on Jalen and We know they'll start on Jalen and Jayson, but you go to your bench, who those guys gonna be? I think Josh Green will probably be too small for those guys. And so you'll need the size. However, they had to throw him in harm's way because Dwight Powell haven't given them anything, which has been shocking. Like, Dwight Powell was good, man, for many years. Him and Luka had that connection. Mm-hmm. And it's just been bad. It's been bad. Not sure what it is, but they need Lively back. So I thought that was a big loss. What I think we've all have known and Minnesota has now figured out is going inside is their strength. Not shooting a bunch of threes, going inside against it. 'Cause you're not going, you're not a better shooting team than Dallas. That's for certain. They are not a better 3-point shooting team than Dallas. So you're trying to out-3-point them. The one game that you actually outshot them from the 3, you still lost because you're not doing what can make you successful against those guys, which is not shooting a 3. Yes, of course it's the NBA. You're gonna take some threes. Gotta take some threes. But again, it can't be leading with that. And so I think the players of the Minnesota Timberwolves finally figured out, man, I need to go inside. They even posted Rudy Gobert up a couple times. Now, couple of 'em, Luka has some bad fouls. Like, they've been fouling Rudy on the pocket pass, like floaters. They've been fouling him on the post-ups. And I don't understand it. Like, just make him make the shot. If he make the shot, great. Guess what? We get the ball out fast. We gone, boom. You get the ball in Kyrie's hand after. So after made baskets, if I'm Dallas, I'm like, yo, we want to get the ball to Kyrie. You know why? Because I want to see if Kyrie can give me a one-man fast break because he's more than capable. So let's see if Kyrie pushed this ball up the floor, what we get out of it. Even if it's not a one-man fast break, what it will do is it'll cause some cross matches. Minnesota's being very particular with their matchups. And if Kyrie gets the ball and go, it's gonna cause some cross matches because now say if you got Rudy shooting and he makes it, now Kyrie get the ball. As soon as the ball come out the net, boom, boom, Kyrie gone. Now Rudy gotta sprint back, which means he ain't gonna be able to catch up with Gafford, if Gafford take off, Derrick Jones take off. We saw it once where Luka threw Derrick Jones live, boom. And so I want Kyrie going one man fast break. Luka gonna then make his way down the court. Once Luka get down the court, if nothing there, we can swing the ball, Luka, we can get in our stuff. It's 20 seconds left on the shot clock, plenty of time. 'Cause Kyrie getting it up fast. And I think that's something that Dallas should do. I think that's one of the adjustments that they can make on any made shot. Kyrie's in the game, you sprint to the, ball, get the ball and go. See if we got something. If not, boom. Because I think now that Minnesota's gonna try to take advantage of their size, Dallas needs to put more of an emphasis on taking advantage of their speed, their quickness. And I think that's one way to do it. Ant-Man, as I said, had a much better shooting night. And I think that was all a product of him getting to the cup, him getting to the paint. Even some of the shots he missed, he missed a couple bunnies in the lane, which I think he can make. But even if you don't make 'em, it's the mindset, it's the mentality. And that mindset and that mentality is what those other guys follow. When Ant-Man body language was this, when he ain't have it, Guess what? Rudy Gobert's body language was this, and he ain't have it. Guess what? KAT's body language was this, and he ain't have it. So it's no surprise to me that KAT played well yesterday, because the aggression that Ant-Man came out with made it okay for KAT to say, "Oh, well, I can play this way too." It's almost like a rite of passage, like, "Oh." Yeah. Well, he did it, I can do it too. So that's all Ant-Man to me. That's all Ant-Man. Ant-Man started off going to the hole, Cat started off going to the hole. When Ant-Man was starting shooting off jumpers, Cat was starting off shooting jumpers. So that's no coincidence. As I've said before, these guys follow Ant-Man And that's a heavy, heavy, heavy load to carry, but he's more than capable and he did it last night. Now unfortunately, and I guess fortunately, you still got a chance. Gotta do that 3 more times. We shall see. Before we move on and I give you my prediction for game 5, There's a lot of talk about Luka's foul that he got, that fouled Cat out, and Luka hunting fouls. Here's what I'll say about that. Yes, Luka does hunt fouls. There are also a lot of other guys in the NBA that hunt fouls. I don't think Luka's game is built on hunting fouls, 'cause Luka is a tough shot taker and a tough shot maker. However, he's a very smart player. And if there's a spot where he can draw a foul, you can bet your bottom dollar he's gonna draw the foul. I don't think Luka is someone who seeks fouls because there's a lot of guys in this league that seeks fouls and turns the ball over and seeking those fouls. Luka is not a turnover guy because he's seeking a foul. So does he seek fouls? Yes. To his detriment? No, I do not think that at all. Um, the particular play where he fouled Cat out, everybody like, oh, he jumped forward. Did he lean forward a little bit? Yes. But Cat came forward so much that you make yourself susceptible to the call. Now, can Scott Foster say, oh, we took that out the game? Yes. You can, but like I said, on that one in particular, Cat leaned so far, jumped so far forward that you almost have to call it because he left his feet, got in the air, and when he made the contact with Luka, he's turned sideways. Now, I think he would've been better off if he jumped forward straight ahead and he made that amount of contact, but he was straightforward. I think he would've been better off. The fact that he was turned sideways, Scott Foster almost have to call that. I haven't seen the L2M report, Jackson, I'm not sure if you've seen it. I'm not sure if the NBA said that that should've been a no-call. But if I had to bet, and I'm not allowed to bet, so take it with a grain of salt, If I had to bet, I'd imagine they said it was the correct call. So that's my opinion on Luka hunting fouls. I definitely think Luka seeks to draw fouls for sure, by the way. Most great players do. However, I don't think he's one of the guys that does it to his detriment. I don't think so. My prediction for game 5. 3. Is Minnesota will win Game 5 by double digits, and then Dallas will go back home and win Game 6. The reason I think that is because Minnesota will come out swinging, and if they're able to build a lead, You see a lot of times in those situations, that team like, you know what? We ain't got it. We going back home. We'll close it out then. But let me tell you, don't make that mistake. Injuries happen. The longer these series go on, the unknown can take place. So you wanna close it out as soon as you can. And if I'm Dallas, We screwed up a golden opportunity last night. We can't screw up another one tomorrow. We gotta do all that. If I'm Dallas, I'm like, this is a must win. You know why? Because even if we don't win in game 6, guess what, y'all? This is a must win. I'm Dallas. This is what I'm saying. Because we have to reach, we have to reach their intensity level. They're down 3-0, understandable we don't reach their intensity level. Human nature. But we can't not reach their level twice. 'Cause if we can't reach their level 2 times in a row, then they get the confidence. And going back to game 6, all the pressure's then on Dallas. The reason why I'm comfortable with all the pressure being on Dallas, because Luka and Kyrie, we both know, we all know, both of them will produce when those moments are. Yeah. They're there when they matter, when the moment is the biggest, when everything's on the line, those two guys gonna come through. So I got Minnesota game 5, Dallas game 6. In other news, the Celtics sweep the Pacers, another comeback win. 3 out of the 4 wins were comeback wins. What do I make of this? I don't make much of it outside of like, Boston knew they could beat them. They toy around, toy around, toy around, get to the end, all right, here we go. They knew they could beat that team, especially once Halliburton went out. Now, game 1, Jaylen Brown hit the shot. Indiana should have won that one. But all the other games, Boston knew, like, we're fine. Just hang around, close it out at the end, and they did exactly that. Congratulations to Jaylen Brown winning The Larry Bird Eastern Conference MVP trophy. Well deserved, thought he played great. I thought it also could have went to JT. However, not upset at all about seeing Jalen get that award. Thought it was great for him. Him and JT combined for 55 points yesterday. And I thought they had a good showing. I do think if, You know, congrats to them on getting back to the NBA Finals. I do think if they match up with Dallas or Minnesota, but I don't think Minnesota's going on, I think that will cause some problems. And we'll get into that later more when it matters. But gotta give Andrew Nembhard a lot of credit. And I spoke about Nembhard on the pod before. Nembhard, man, dude is a soldier.

Like— Yeah.

Small, got that chip on his shoulder. Like walk around with his, like he got little man syndrome. But his demeanor he carries, picks up 94 feet. Like you gotta love it, especially at that size. I always tell guards that size, you come into this league, you wanna stay in this league and you that size, you better go pick up 94 feet. Do that mean you taking the ball from a guy? No, brother, this is the NBA. The likelihood of you taking the ball from an NBA point guard is very low, but you just gotta work 'em. Turn 'em a couple times, take a little bit of time off the shot clock. That's what small guards have to do in this league. And Andrew Nembhard does that. He plays with that chip on his shoulder. Like I said, what he's shown me is his ability to score the basketball. You know, I knew he could shoot the 3 decent. I knew he could get to the hole at, you know, straight line. I didn't know he can get in his bag and pull up midi, get stopped and get to the cup. I ain't know he had all that. But he continues to show more and more and it'll be interesting, you know, as his contract continues to play out over these next couple years, how teams will view him. What will his progress be over the summer? How does he come back next year? Because I think he can possibly one day put himself in a position to get a shot at being a lead guard in this league. You know, we saw Monte Morris get that shot recently in Washington. We saw Tyus Jones get that shot recently in Washington. Now, you know, some will say like, oh, I don't know if Washington was the right place for them to take that opportunity. When you get an opportunity at a starting role in the NBA, I don't care where it's at, brother, you take it. And so I think Nimhard will get an opportunity at some point or another, especially if he continues to play the way he's playing. I told you, I like Nimhard. I like his demeanor. I like his game. His game continues to grow on me because he continues to show more and more. And when a guy continues to show more and more like that, when a guy go out, I have even more respect for him because that means, you know, like, oh, I gotta play this role and I'm take a back seat and play my role. And I respect that. 'Cause so many guys come in this league and can't figure out how to play a role and it cost them. They think they supposed to be superstars. And it cost him. I think that was actually one of the things that was hurting Cam Thomas in Brooklyn when Kyrie and KD was there. He'd get some games where you like, oh man, he went off and then he wouldn't play a bunch, right? And I think that was in large part due to, 'cause he would never really find a role outside of just scoring the basketball. And if you don't in this league, it's hard, man. 'Cause very seldomly is a team just gonna let you go out there and score. Now he's in Brooklyn. They got rid of all their guys. And so he gets the chance to do that now. But say if you get traded, the likelihood of a team just like, oh, we gonna give you the ball and you gonna score is slim. And so you have to do other things. And I think Nimhard's mastering that. And like I said, to watch him these last couple games take on an even bigger role and show what he's capable of, against a great Boston Celtics defense. To all NBA defenders, you gotta give, you gotta give Nimhardt his credit. I like his game and he continues to grow. Celtics makes it to the finals with only 2 losses and everyone is saying their road isn't tough enough. Now if I'm honest, I don't ever think the East is that tough. But I've also made it to an NBA Finals and lost one game along the way, zero games along the way, maybe lost one in the Finals. Let's see, the year was 2017. You want to guess? You want me to tell you? And if I'm not mistaken, we lost one game in the finals. 3 straight sweeps and then up 3-0. Yep. I remember that. And no one will say, "Oh man, they road wasn't tough enough." So don't give me the Boston Celtics road isn't tough enough. They haven't been battle tested, all of that. Whether they get to this NBA Finals and win or lose will not be because they haven't been battle tested. Let me tell you that, okay? You don't get to the NBA Finals and at some point throughout the year you ain't been battle tested. Don't happen, won't happen, ain't happening this time. Congratulate them on their run. Whoever you've placed in front of them, they beat down. They let a couple games get away that I actually don't think they should have let get away. Nonetheless, they're in the NBA Finals with 2 losses. And as I said, we'll get into that later. So moving on. Ty Lue signs a 5-year, $70 million extension with the Clippers. Get the bag, T-Lue, get the bag. Well deserved, my brother. Congratulations to T-Lue, one of the best coaches in our league, one of the more respected guys in our league, continue to climb his way up and gets the extension that he deserves. Deserves to be paid right up there with the top coaches in the league because he is one of those guys. So shout out to T-Lou, shout out to Rich Paul. Clippers going into that new building, they going into that new building with at least— 3. Kawhi Leonard, and with at least Ty Lue, and I think that's a great way to roll into a new building. So congrats to them. Congrats to T. Lue. Like I said, well deserved, my brother. Much love to T. Lue. And before we get outta here, rest in peace to the great Bill Walton. I mean, I have many memories of Bill being around, especially during Luke's time here, but— Rest in peace, Bill. You know, he'd even come around a couple times here and there once Luke left here. And just always great, amazing outlook on life, incredible candor, incredible spirit, free spirit, super big smile always. Grin is— from here to here, just always brought great energy, man. And you know, I'm not old enough to act like I know how great of a player Bill Walton was. I've seen highlights, I've seen a couple games, but I don't, you know, outside of what I've read and heard, you know, I can't speak much to his playing career, but I can speak to— Yeah. The man that I've met, had the opportunity to spend some time around. And I can also speak to the color commentator because anytime I can turn on, like sometimes you'll be just scrolling through the channel and it'll be like Hawaii versus somebody. And like Bill Walton's doing the game and I'll stop and watch the game and I'm not really watching the game. Yeah. I'm listening to Bill Walton talk because it's funny. The things he say are hilarious. And like Reggie, you know, was saying yesterday, he'll be talking about basketball in a roundabout way, but you probably don't understand it because he's going about it in a roundabout way and mixing in some life and some one-liners and He'll hit you with an open-ended and leave you like, "Huh?" And absolutely incredible watching games with Bill Walton during the game. I mean, so amazing. Funny, lighthearted. I mean, just incredible. Like, he's not attacking anyone. Although Shaq said he attacked him, I never saw that from Bill. Just an incredible man. Raised an incredible man who I know really well, Luke Walton. As I said on the podium, Luke Walton, or at the desk, Luke Walton was the coach when I made my first All-Star Game. Luke started that year coaching 'cause Steve wasn't doing well. And we started off 42 and 4. It's actually the year we won '79. I mean, excuse me, '73. And Luke's incredible, man. Luke is an incredible basketball mind, but an even better human being. And he's every bit of Bill. Like, not as outspoken, although if you're around Luke, super outspoken.

Yeah.

Ah, but looks just like his father, carries himself just like his father, walks just like his father, same stature as his father, worship the ground his dad walk on. And to see Luke go through this hurts my heart. I send my love to Luke, Bree, their children, Bill's wife Lori, Luke's siblings, I send my love to all of them because the world lost an incredible man. The NBA family lost an incredible family member. And as Charles Barkley said, the world was a much better place 2 days ago when Bill was still in it. So we're gonna miss Bill.

Uh.

The spirit that he brought to the NBA will live on. And I know the NBA will do right by Memorials for him, keeping his name alive because he was great to the NBA, a great steward of the game. We love Bill Walton. Rest in peace, big man. We gonna miss you. That's a wrap from this episode of the Draymond Green Show. Peace. Peace.