Dray on Durant's trade request, Gobert to T-Wolves & Brogdon to Celtics | Best of Draymond Green

There was something very interesting that I've been thinking about. And the reason I've been thinking about it is because immediately the first thing you saw when it was announced that Kevin Durant requested a trade was the whole narrative starting. KD's running from this, he's doing this. You know, it gets hard, he doesn't stay, blah, blah, blah. And I sat there and I asked myself, if KD did indeed request a trade, is that KD saying partially, I made a mistake? Yeah. And I answered the question for myself, 'cause obviously I'm not gonna ask Kevin that, or why would I ask Kevin that? But I answered it for myself and I said, possibly yes, possibly no, but regardless if it's yes or no, why does it matter? Like, If Kevin Durant says, I actually don't wanna be here anymore, I wanna go to somewhere else, why does it matter? Why does that make you weak? Why does that make you, why does that make him, you know, it means he's running from something. I don't understand that. And the reason I don't understand it is because players are in control of their situation. Players are in control of their destiny. And so why is it that it's just not— that's the next step in his career? Because again, I always go back to if a guy leaves Google or, or if someone leaves Google to go to Apple after 3 or 4 years, and then they leave Apple after 2 years to go to Tesla. Yeah. And then they leave Tesla after 4 years to go to DocuSign. No one's going to say that person ran, that person did this or that person did that. Everyone's going to say that person did what was best for their career and best for their livelihoods. But us as athletes, it's never viewed that way. And it's baffling to me that it's never viewed that way because— Yeah. Our lifespan in— with this career is actually way shorter than someone that's working at Google or working at Apple or anyone else in the world for that matter that's not an athlete for the most part. Why can't you do everything you can to get it right? Even if that means making a wrong move and continuing on. Why is it that athletes are viewed that way? I don't know. It's baffling to me. It, it really baffles me that we've put ourselves in a position. We have become the absolute best at what we do, which is if you're in the NBA, you are at the absolute top of the, of the, of the food chain when it comes to basketball. And if you are the absolute best, like someone at Apple would be, like someone at Google would be, why is it such a, bad thing that we control our destiny, but you work that hard to be as good as you can be to have that power. That's baffling to me, and I'm still trying to figure it out. So I saw the narratives and I saw all of these things, and I'm like, but why is that? And I personally think— I personally think it goes back to some things that I've said in the past and how people view athletes. How people can't accept, people can't accept the fact that athletes are now businessmen and no longer just playing basketball. And at some point people have to realize and be able to accept the fact that athletes are businessmen and we make business moves and business decisions. Because you are operating a business. I am operating Draymond Green Inc. or whatever you wanna call it. So why, if Draymond Green makes a move, a business move, is it not viewed as just that? Let's talk about the move that's made. Is it, is that a good move for business or is it not? But to start calling somebody weak and they run from challenges, That's baffling to me because that man has worked his entire life to be in that position to where he controls where he goes next. And by the way, everyone in the NBA can't control where they go next. So to be in that position, to have the opportunity to control what you do next, that's the American dream. That is the American dream. Yet. Athletes, Kevin Durant in particular in this situation, is killed for it. Let's talk about some of these trades. I thought the one that really, really, really shocked the world was the Rudy Gobert to Minnesota for Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Leandro Bolmaro, Walker Kessler, and Jared Vanderbilt. Okay, cool. But here's where the trade gets spicy. 4, 4, 4 first round picks. And I think 1 or 2 pick swaps. For those of you that don't know what a pick swap is, that means Minnesota traded their picks to Utah. If, if a scenario happens where Minnesota's pick is worse than Utah's pick, Utah can then swap that pick with Minnesota to take the higher pick. So trade swaps are actually very, very, very valuable. And I think that's what really tilted this trade is the draft capital that Utah received back. 4 first-round picks. That is absolutely insane. Now, what does this trade say to me? And I know Karl-Anthony Towns just signed a $224 million extension. But what this trade says to me is Minnesota believes that they have a superstar in Anthony Edwards. If you think about the NBA, what championships used to be was having a great guard and a great big. And it says to me that they believe in Anthony Edwards to carry the torch. Not that Karl-Anthony Towns is not important to what they do, 'cause he is important to what they do, or else he wouldn't have got $224 million. And you know, you could say, oh well, they gave him that because they don't wanna, you know, they wanna hold the value. Karl-Anthony Towns is an important asset. And if we have Karl-Anthony Towns locked up for 5 years and they want to trade him, you can get a lot of value for that. You can think about it from that standpoint, or you can think about it from the standpoint of Karl-Anthony Towns is an incredible shooter, shoots 40% from 3, so he can stretch the floor. You can think Minnesota's thinking ahead and they're trying to get back big because they may think the league is switching back. Yeah. To two bigs, but the reason it says to me that they want to build around Anthony Edwards is because you go out and you get, and you trade all of that away, that means we're in win now mode. We're not planning for the future. And the reason it says Anthony Edwards to me is because KAT's been there. And like now you're making these moves. Like they weren't trading the number 1 pick when Anthony, when they just had the number 1 pick. They weren't trading picks anytime before that or really after. But they're in win now mode because I think Minnesota thinks that they have a superstar in Anthony Edwards. And by the way, I believe they do. And so you pair him with Rudy Gobert You pair him, you know, you pair Rudy Gobert with him, Karl-Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell. You're saying I can win right now. Now, here's an interesting, here's an interesting thing for me also on why I think they went out and got Rudy Gobert is D'Angelo Russell, who's an incredible player, who's my dog. Yeah. I had the opportunity to play with him, as you know. D'Angelo Russell was essentially benched during the playoffs for defense. And so you cover some of that up now with the rim protection for, by Rudy Gobert. And, and, and you allow D'Angelo to be great at what D'Angelo is great at, which is on the offensive end. Now, yes, you still have to compete on the defensive end. Yeah. Of course you do. But you now have someone there that can erase mistakes. You can erase, you know, if you think about like, let, let me take you back for a second. If you can think about the, if, if you can think about that Memphis-Minnesota series, Ja dominated at the rim, dominated at the rim. They struggled to rebound the basketball. So when you think about those things, Jaren Jackson, dominated in that series. So when you think about that, they're saying, okay, we're gonna go get Rudy Gobert and there's our fix to cover up those things to where those things that they think cost them a playoff series. And so I, I thought that was a very interesting move for Minnesota. Now the downside to that move. Yeah. You have $450 million wrapped up in the center position. Now you could say, all right, Karl-Anthony Towns is moving to the 4, but I still can't view Karl-Anthony Towns as a 4 because 4s are 6'2" in the NBA these days. Like, I mean, I'm a center in the NBA these days. And so you have $450 million wrapped up into the center position. If there is a downside, maybe it's that, you know, it's your depth, you know. So how do you continue to acquire and have depth? Now, one way of doing that is to build your young guys. I think they're expecting McDaniels to take another step forward, which I expect he'll take another step forward as well. They re-signed Torian Prince. And so I think depth— is where that can hurt in having $450 million into the center position. But like I said, I think they also could see, like, you know what, we're not going to win going small. Let's go big. And give that a try. And like I said, most importantly, what that shows me is they are building around Anthony Edwards, who's a young star in the making. Mm-hmm. The thing that I love about Anthony Edwards is he got the game, he talk it, he walk it, he got the personality, he got what it takes to be one of those guys. And Minnesota see that, they're going all in on that. And I think it's a beautiful thing. Now, if you're Ant-Man, you gotta be in that gym this summer because essentially what that's saying is we think we have a star. Which means you need to be an All-Star next year. You need to continue to grow. And I saw, you know, earlier this year when Ant-Man said like, I don't know why I wasn't an All-Star. Now's your chance because they're going all in. You win games, you produce at the level that we all know he's gonna produce at, and there's your bid. And so that was a very interesting move. We'll see how it works out. I'm definitely interested in playing against those guys. I think, you know, for us, Um, and our skill set. I think we have some things that we can try to take advantage of against them. Uh, but in saying that, I think this move says a lot about where Minnesota is. And I'm not sure, uh, we've ever seen Minnesota go all in like this. So it's a very interesting thing and it's one to keep your eyes out for. Another trade that caught my eye in a major way, and rightfully so, was one of Jackson's Boston Celtics. And the reason that trade caught my eye is because they brought back Malcolm Brogdon, who's a very, very, very good player who's been 50-40-90 before in this league. Um, who is a point guard, can shoot the ball, great size, good defensively. The reason that trade catches my eyes Is because I think it adds to something that Boston was missing, which is number one, their depth. Number two is versatility and options at the point guard position. I don't think they had many options at the point guard position in this past playoff run that your Warriors just won. And I think that gives them that. Now let's look up, look at what they gave up. They gave up Daniel Tice, who probably played all of 10 minutes in the NBA Finals. Aaron Neesmith, who played probably all of 10 minutes in garbage time in the NBA Finals. And a 2023 first round pick, top 12 protected, which you have to assume is gonna be pick 28, 29, 30, 26, 26, 26 to 30. If the Boston Celtics have the year that most people will expect them to have, the year that they should have coming off an NBA Finals run, that pick is end of the first round. And so I thought that was an incredible move by the Boston Celtics. Uh, you gotta give them a lot of credit, um, to go out and find a guy like Malcolm Brogdon. And see, the thing is, you go out and you get a guy like that from a team that's not really trying to contend, um, right at this moment. And, and that's where you can swoop in and get a guy for not very much. Because sometimes teams would love to get off their salary. I think Malcolm Brogdon's probably making close to $20 million a year. So if you can get off that salary, get a first round pick back, even if it is 26 to 30, because you know, the reality is the Indiana Pacers will probably be in the lottery again next year. So now that gives you two first round picks and it helps them build the way that they're probably going to try to build with a young Tyrese Halliburton. You can continue to build through the draft. He's still on a rookie deal. And so I, I thought that was a very interesting and very good move. By the Boston Celtics. I can't say that I loved it being there. It's a possibility we may meet them in the finals again next year. But as an NBA fan, I think that was an absolutely incredible move by Boston. I think that's one that lets you know, hey, we're, we're not satisfied with losing in the NBA finals. Nor do you expect that the Boston Celtics, an organization with 17 championships, would be. They're showing you right away, we're trying to get better, we're improving, and we're trying to get back there. So take my hat off to them for that move. I thought that was a great move and probably top 3 best moves over the course of the last week or so. And arguably, depending on what happens, could be the best trade. Um, you know, if Boston go on and win a championship, you look back at this summer and you like, wow, that was the trade of the summer. Unless of course Kevin Durant does get traded, which there's no guarantee that a guy with 4 years on his contract will get traded even if they request it. So we'll have to see how that plays out. But right now as it stands, that could be the trade of the summer. We shall see.