In this conversational interview, Draymond Green and former NBA guard Baron Davis dissect why defending Nikola Jokic is uniquely challenging, highlighting Jokic's rare blend of scoring, playmaking, and rebounding that makes every defender "live" when he has the ball. They compare Jokic’s point‑center skill set to classic point guards like Andre Miller, emphasizing his ability to orchestrate the offense, hit high‑percentage shots, and dominate the paint. The dialogue then shifts to the Houston Rockets, praising their roster upgrades—including Fred VanVleet, Dylan Brooks, and veteran Jeff Green—and coach Ime Udoka’s impact, which have propelled the Rockets to a top‑Western record. They also note the contributions of young players such as Jalen Green, Alperen Şengün, and Jabari Smith Jr. Finally, the pair discuss the Golden State Warriors’ current 4‑game losing streak, the challenges of playing without Draymond Green, rotation depth, and the critical upcoming stretch of games (30‑ and 40‑game marks) that will determine playoff positioning. Throughout, they blend analytical observations with personal anecdotes, offering insight into player roles, team dynamics, and the strategic importance of upcoming matchups.
Chapters
When you're playing against the Joker, it's always a tough matchup because when Joker has the ball, he's one of the better scorers in our league. I think he's averaging right around 30 points a game.
Damn.
But when he has the ball, everyone on the court is live because he can find you and get the ball wherever you are. If you're open.
Yep.
And so everyone else, when he has the ball, is live. As opposed to say, let's just throw DJ out there.
It's different.
Let's say DeAndre, for that matter. If DeAndre got the ball, everybody not live because he can't necessarily make every play.
No.
With Joker, he can make every single play. So everybody on the court with him is live at all times.
And it's not even just on scoring. It can be on the pass, it can be on the pick. We've never seen something like Joker, a point center, strictly like he's a center in a point guard body with a point guard brain. You know what I mean? With one of them brains that, you know what I mean? You gotta be one of them ones to have one of them minds like that to be able to play the way he plays.
Yes.
It's so unorthodox. Right? But if you watch, he's really just a point, he's really a point guard. He's really a point, he's Andre Miller, dude. He's like Andre Miller in the, like his mind. Andre Miller was brilliant, like.
Brilliant.
Man, he knows how to set the table and then at the end of the game, he gonna walk you down in the post and then he gonna start setting the table. It's like Joker is lying all over the floor. Pushing it, which is a slow push. You're not ripping him, you know what I mean? Like, eh. That junker is something else, dude.
He is, man. He a tough cover. He a tough cover. And like I said, what makes him such a tough cover is in most cases you'd say, hey, that guy gonna get 30. It is what it is. You try to make it tough.
Yeah.
With him, he gonna get 30. And 12 assists. That's the killer part. And 13 rebounds. That's the killer part. And so he just, he causes so much problems for your defense because of all of the things that he does. And the ball is touching his hand every possession.
Every time. It's not even, the assists are not even like, they not point guard assists.
No.
They more potent because it's wide open shots.— are layups. So like, and it's coming from the big guy.
Yeah.
It's coming from the center. So to me it's mind-boggling 'cause yeah, he can throw out a double team 'cause he gonna get double teamed. But he also like hitting dudes on the backdoor cut. You know what I mean? But coming, jumping in there, finding people open and like, that's, that's his center, bro.
It's tough.
It's crazy. Man. Then you got the Rockets coming in on Thursday. Second best team in the West. As you know, I picked them as my underdog, my sleeper, you know, for the season. I mean, I like what they doing. You know, talk to me a little bit about the Rockets and like, you know, y'all played 'em already, right?
Yeah, we played 'em without Steph actually.
Yeah, and tell me what you see now. Oh yeah, that was a good game. I remember that game.
Yeah. They came back. We ended up losing in overtime, but they came back.
Yeah, Ethan, what was his name? Ethan, yeah.
Ty Easton.
Ty Easton, yeah.
Yeah, Ty Easton.
He was getting off.
He played really well. He played really well in that game. No, but I'm not surprised at all that they're at the, you know, right there at the top of the West, second best record in the West right now. Because they've made moves over the last couple years that showed you that that's where they wanna be, you know, bringing in the— Fred VanVleet, who's a proven winner, a champion. One of my favorites. Bringing him in with all those young guys. Bringing in a Dylan Brooks, who a lot of people hate, but you hate him because he play hard. You know, you hate him because he always in the mix. You hate him because he gonna fuck with your best player. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's one of those guys you hate to have him on your, you hate to play against him. People love having him on their team.
Yes.
Like, you bring in guys like that, even a signing that they made last year that people don't talk about because he don't play much, Jeff Green.
Oh man, that was big.
But you bring that veteran presence into the locker room with all those young guys. That stuff matters, you know what I'm saying? Jalen, I talked about Jalen Green earlier in our season. I mean, our podcast season, and just the growth that I've seen from him, you know? Sengun, like the guy who doesn't— I'm gonna tell you the guy who doesn't get talked about, but I'm telling you, and when I play against them, he is so important to what they do, but he don't get talked about at all much anymore. Jabari Smith Jr. Jabari Smith has turned into a guy who makes all the little plays, who he's always the guy that when you on the court out there with him, he like, come on fellas, we good.
Yeah.
Like he, reassuring them to keep going. Like he's turning into like one of the leaders of that team. You know what I'm saying? And he don't get talked about much, but Jabari Smith Jr., you know what I'm saying? And so I'm not surprised that they're having a good season. And then also obviously Ime Udoka, you know what I'm saying?
Ime— Ime is different.
Ime's an incredible coach, man. He's different.
He's different.
What you see in Boston, what you see in Boston, Credit to Joe Mazzulla and what Joe Mazzulla did.
Mazzulla is dope too.
But what you see in Boston, those guys are also a product of what Ime brought to them for that year that he was with them. You know what I'm saying? And the mindset that he brought to those guys.
That attitude.
Yep. Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? So I'm not extremely surprised that the Rockets are playing this well. And then just looking ahead to then Ant-Man and the Timberwolves after that, Yeah. They're starting to play better now, you know what I'm saying? They got off to a rough start.
Since they called him out. Yeah, they started to play better as of late.
And so that's gonna be a tough weekend as well. But on the flip side, when you look at tough games like this and us on a 4-game losing streak, you can also win those games and right the ship.
Like, it's one thing— Exactly.
You know what I'm saying? It's one thing to beat a team that has an awful record and think like, "Oh man, we got off the losing streak." But to have to get off the losing streak with a true team like Draymond Green. One of the ones, yeah. We're gonna be playing against. Those are the type of things that can right the ship and right the ship in a major way and send you on a run.
Yes, sir.
As tough as the opportunity is, just like when you invest your money or anything else in life, the bigger the risk, the tougher it is. The bigger the reward, the bigger the return. So tough, tough week for us.
And then not having you, you know, tonight, now you start looking at that 13-man rotation and you say, oh, now a fan can say, okay, well Draymond is out. Like we got other players that have been playing, you know what I mean? That can do stuff. And like now, now we feel like, okay, we still got a shot 'cause we've been playing 13. You know what I'm saying?
100%. Hell yeah, bro. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. I like Draymond Green.
I do too.
I like that. What, 12-7 or something like that? We'll be all right.
Yeah, and it's early. You know what I mean? Like, you ain't even hit 20 games yet.
For sure.
You know what I'm saying?
For sure.
Not yet. It's that 30-game mark. It's the 30-game mark and the 40-game mark. Once you hit the 30-game mark, Okay, these next 10 games are the most critical games that we can play when you get to that 40 game, 'cause then you know how many games you can win, how many games you can lose.
Yeah.
If you make the playoffs or not. That's when them calculations start.
