Draymond Green breaks down the Thunder's championship culture, crediting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Sam Presti's system for their consistency. He says they have the best defense in the Finals but notes their offense is less complex, and he shares stories from his own championship runs about how elite teams balance chaos and focus.
Questions this video answers
Draymond Green states the Oklahoma City Thunder have the best defense, citing multiple elite individual defenders (Tyrese Halliburton, J‑Dub, etc.) and disciplined coaching that emphasizes boxing out, swarming, and well‑executed defensive schemes.
Green advises that both young and veteran teams must embrace loss, stay hungry, avoid finger‑pointing, and collectively own the process. Young teams should go through hardships together, while older teams must maintain the winner’s mindset and never become complacent.
Chapters
@baller2223, you talked about OKC's seriousness earlier in the season. Now that they're in the finals, when did you notice they flipped the switch? I think as the season went on, you saw the interviews change, like the messaging in the interviews changed. But in saying that, I do think they still go about their business the same way. Like it's not like, oh man, they made some huge change. Like they go about their business how they go about their business. What works for you works for you. I personally still think it'd be incredible to see Shea in interviews by himself. I think it'll still do more for Shea's brand to see Shea in interviews by himself. But what works for you, the demeanor of your team works for you. When we were winning championships, if you came into one of our practices, The beginning of practice looked like a circus. You got Steph throwing full-court shots from one end, another guy throwing football passes to the complete opposite, kitty-cornered across two courts to the opposite end of the floor. Guys kicking balls from half court, kicking the ball, trying to make it into the rim. If you came into those practices, like, you looking, you'd be like, "There's no chance that's a championship team. Look how they—" Look, once we get our business going, we locked in. But then you might like, we used to have this little bench, or not bench, it was kind of a table, like a training table on the side of the court. We'd go sit over there on the training table during practice if you ain't on the court. They moved the training table one day, like one year or one day we came into practice and the training table was gone. You would've thought like whatever the wildest thing you can think of happened, you would've thought that happened. Everybody in there going crazy like, yo, where the table at? The next day the table's there. "Who was that?" Like, it almost come off as a joke. Like I said, when we're about our business, we're about our business and we're locked in and we dialed in, we getting our work done. But anything outside of that, music blast, like it's a joke. And so I said all that to say what works for you works for you. There are some things that they do that I don't like that as the leader of a team at this point in my career, I don't think I'd want our team doing that. But I also don't know the culture of that locker room. You know, I also don't know their culture. And so what works for you works for you and you gotta go with that. I do think they have a great young leader in Shea who has built a culture. Like Shea has taken part in building that culture back there. Obviously Sam Presti, they got a great culture, but Shea has built that culture there from the beginning, him and Ludorp. They built that culture. And so as the guys who's, who built that culture, you know how to lead it. And I respect Shea especially as a leader. Lou Dort, I don't know how he go about his business, but Shea is the clear-cut leader and I respect him as a leader. He's doing a great job. And so there are still some things that I see that I'm like, ah, but what works for you works for you. And nobody can argue what works for them is working for them. John emailed the question in, uh, who has the best defense in the finals and why? Uh, I think I think that's an easy answer. The best defense in the Finals, I think, is the, no question, Oklahoma City Thunder. I think, A, they have multiple incredible individual defenders. They're very well coached, which makes the team defense great, but they have multiple incredible individual defenders. Like, when you think about Tyrese Halliburton, He could face Lou Dort. He could face Alex Caruso. He could face Kayson Wallace. He could face J-Dub, who's an all-defensive team member. That's a lot of guys to be able to throw at one guy. They have that. And like I said, they're well coached and they load up boxes and elbows. They swarm to the ball. I think, so that goes without saying. I think where Indiana could cause them trouble is if the offense isn't clicking, because I don't think OKC run like a super complicated offense. So if the offense isn't clicking and Indiana's getting off to the races, I don't know that OKC's transition offense is that defense, transition defense is that great. And that's where Indiana could cause them some issues. If the transition defense isn't, I don't think their transition defense isn't that great. But who has the best defense? They have the best defense by a long shot in this NBA Finals. In the NBA, they have the best defense. @DeanChambers8613, how do you work on mental toughness as a young team and keep up the hunger to win as an older team? I think keeping up the hunger to win as an older team, like you, you've experienced success and you want that. You know, like if you were a winner, you just don't, you just don't stop and be like, all right, that gene is gone now. Like I don't care to win anymore. No, you always wanna win. That's the type of person. That's, that's how you keep that up. It's the type of people you have. As far as a younger team, mental toughness, you gotta go through it. And you gotta be willing to go through it. And you gotta be willing to go through it with the people you going through it. And it's a certain way to go through it. When you lose, you lose a certain way. You go back to what I was saying about the Houston Rockets the last month ago or whatnot, when they lost. You lose a certain way. You run off the court, you duck your head, you ain't ready to win. Yeah. Because you ain't know how to lose. You ain't ready to win if you don't know how to lose. Does not mean you have to lose in order to win, but if you don't know how to lose, you ain't ready to win. And so for a young team, you gotta be willing to go through that. And when you take them lumps, you gotta take them lumps. You don't start pointing a finger. Only way the finger should be pointed is here. How could I help better this so that we can do this. That's how you build mental toughness as a young team. You gotta go through it and you gotta stand 10 toes. And when you go through it, you look, you stand as men or women depending on the young team we're talking about. Obviously we're talking NBA. You stand, you take your lumps, you take it on the chin, you go back to the drawing board, you work a little harder to try to do it again. Yeah. You know what that looked like, you know what that felt like, you hold on to that experience. Channel that experience, remember that experience and learn from it. That's how you move forward. That's how a young team gains mental toughness. You go through it, stay 10 toes. Don't start pointing a finger. Ah, your homeboy is going on one. Ah man, it's they. No, it ain't. It was us. It was me. I did this. Because that attitude carries into everything that you do. And then you can win. And that's how you build that mental toughness as a young team. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
