Dray reacts to Jaren Jackson Jr. blocks controversy + Warriors-Thunder game | Draymond Green Show

What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. We have a great top of the show today. A few things going on around the NBA. Our win yesterday versus the Thunder was a good win for us. I think that's our first time winning back-to-back road games, they said this year. Winning 4 out of the last 6 games. And the 2 we lost, we gift wrap to teams. But we'll get into that first. Uh, let's get some housekeeping things out the way. This is your reminder that the top of our shows will be live as this one is live today on Amazon AMP before they go out on your regular podcast platforms. You'll be able to get a first listen at Amazon AMP if you want to check that out. And we may be doing some merch giveaways on AMP, so there's an incentive for you to possibly check it out on AMP. Merch giveaways. Fun stuff. Also, Jackson will be saying what's up to y'all in the chat. If you love the Dubs, you know that January is a key month for us. 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Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. But let's get straight into the business. Warriors roll win over the Thunder. That moves, like I said, that's 4 out of 6 for the Dubs. That moves us into 5th. Wow. 5th place in the West after all of that. Let's not get our hopes up too high. As we all know, the difference between 5th and 11th is like one game. Maybe 11 is an exaggeration, but you get the point. So it's important that we continue to put these wins together. But I thought last night in OKC, we got off to a really great start. I was looking, I saw something interesting on the box score yesterday. OKC won the second, third, and fourth quarter. Now albeit one of them was like by a point and blah, blah, whatever. They won the first, second, and third quarter, but we got off to such a great start. I thought in that first quarter especially, like we had the ball humming. Defensively we were locked in. Offensively the ball was just flowing. We were getting out in transition because we were getting stops. We weren't fouling. And they struggled to keep up with the speed a bit. I thought it was very interesting. Their coach didn't call many timeouts and tried to run with us. I knew that would change when at the end of the first quarter I looked down at their bench. Now shout out to young fella, he's having an incredible year. All-Star, will be an All-Star as we all know. Shout out to young fella, Shea. I looked down at their bench at the end of the first quarter and Shea was down there like this. Now he had both hands stretched back. Like this. And I said, whoa, they gonna keep trying to play at this pace. I also thought it was interesting because they had been starting, you know, as you know, they have two Jaylen Williams on their team. They had been starting both Jaylen Williams and they took the bigger Jaylen Williams out, the big man, and they started small. Now me and Loon always had this running joke about all these guards in the NBA. And how there's no more big man. So Loon and I laughed about that, but I thought it was interesting because what they were pretty much saying was that they were gonna match speed for speed. And they actually fare better when the bigger Jaylen Williams is on the floor. He shot the ball really well last night too. But it was just interesting to see the theory, like— Yeah. Most teams usually go bigger. They tried to match small and I felt like if they would've kept matching us up small, like trying to match small groups, I thought we were about to run them out the gym and beat 'em by 40. But they switched their game plan and you know, Shea got going. I think we had him bottled up really well in the first quarter. He got a couple buckets there in the second quarter. They kind of got him going and then he finished the game with 31, pretty much right around his average on the year. But man, I was really impressed with the development. You know, we've all been watching Shai develop at this rate since, pretty much since his rookie year. I remember playing him in the playoff series with the Clippers before he got traded for Paul George in the Paul George trade. And he's been improving. But I was really impressed with the improvement of Josh Giddey. Last year when Josh Giddey first came into the league, he was really a pass-first guy. And still pass-first, still looking to set other guys up. But it's like that he's gotten that floater down. Like if I'm watching the game, mid-ranges and floaters, He's gotten that shot down and at 6'6" or 6'7" for him to have like, to be able to get into the lane and shoot that floater consistently like he's been doing, that's gonna be dangerous. Because what that'll mean is if he can continue to do that, you have a guy in Shea and him who can get to their spot and get to the shot they want to get to. At will, which as you continue to build that team out, let's not forget they got Chet Holmgren on the bench. As Chet comes in and get his feet wet and, you know, obviously you still gotta become the player that everyone think you are, which I don't doubt that he will. Just the raw skill that he has at that size, I think is absolutely incredible. Josh can really get everyone else involved. So you still have a traditional point guard in a sense that will come down, not even think about his shot at all, get everyone else involved. But that ability to get to that shot when you can't get everyone else involved, that's gonna be very critical. And as his career goes on, even if he just plays the traditional point guard and get others involved and never go shot first, He'll, with having that, he'll average somewhere between 14 and 18 points a game. That's without even having a score-first mindset, he can do that. Now he continues to get better, that shot continues to get better, and it can be even more. So I think, you know, that OKC team and what they're doing, it can get interesting. It can get very interesting. And then as you know, they have some young guys like Zhang who we really can't even tell yet if they're gonna pan out or not. So say they do, can get interesting. So I, that was, you know, I really enjoyed playing against those guys last night. You continue to see their growth, they're right in the thick of things. You know, I spoke about the game apart or— Yeah. You know, they're right in the thick of things in the playoff hunt, which I think is absolutely amazing. So very fun game to play in last night. Like I said, I thought our start was great and the way we closed the game out was great. Obviously they had made their run. They cut the lead to 2, possibly even tying the game up. And you know, we made our run, pushed it back out to 8. And once we pushed it to 8, you know, that was kind of a wrap and they couldn't get back in after that. Mm-hmm. But definitely fun game and a much needed win for us. Put 2 in a row, you know, 2 in a row together on the road is big. Now, in saying that, to start this road trip 2-0 with a win tomorrow in, here in Minnesota would be great. So that's important, you know, and looking ahead to the Minnesota game, obviously you're still without Karl-Anthony Towns. Anthony Edwards is having an incredible season. And since Karl Towns has been out, he's really picked up his scoring. He's picked up his aggressiveness. And you know, it's very interesting because it's almost as if the paint was clogged when KAT was playing. And obviously they have Rudy.— it's almost as if the paint was clogged. But as we all know, Karl shoot the lights out of the ball. But where it gets interesting is the spacing. Because the forward usually is in the trail spot, right? Like the forward isn't— especially not Karl-Anthony Towns. Most of his threes come from above the break. And so he's not really in the corner. He's always in the trail spot. And what that does for driving angles for Ant, like even if you have to honor Karl Towns, if you have to honor Karl Towns and maybe not help as much, it still clogs it up a little bit. It puts someone in gaps and takes away some of the driving angles. So to see that now there's only one traditional big out there with Rudy and Ant's flourishing. And I also think when Rudy missed some games, the cat was playing and was flourishing. It's an interesting take because my first take when, when the trade happened with Rudy was that you're going two traditional bigs and you have a very dominant guard, young number one pick, kind of showing you he's ready to take the reign and putting him out there with two traditional bigs. What's that gonna do for his driving lane? And so it's been interesting just to see that dynamic on like whichever big has been, he's been more aggressive and been able to get more into the paint. And so that's gonna be something to reckon with. We have not played this group yet with only one big. So it will be interesting to see the difference in Anthony Edwards as opposed to the Anthony Edwards that we saw at the beginning of the year when we won here in Minnesota. Looking forward to that. But in saying that, as I always say, we come out, we take care of our business, we play Warriors basketball. I have no doubt in my mind that we'll be successful in that. Now for a little bit of your NBA controversy this week. It came out the other day that Memphis bookkeeper, stat keeper, Is under fire for padding Jaren Jackson Jr.'s stats. That's interesting. The reason that's interesting is because number one, if you don't know, I mean, we live it every night. Apparently I needed to get 7.5 points last night. I only got 7. How do I know that? Because people talk so crazy on your social media when they bet and they don't successfully, when they don't successfully complete their bets. Like, oh, Draymond, you suck. You only have 7 points. But it's like, actually you suck at betting because just like I only had 7 points and it was 7.5, you could have very well chose under 7.5 and you chose 7. And a half over. Does that make me dumb and sorry, or does that make you dumb and sorry at betting? Because you actually made that decision. So I think more so you should credit Vegas for putting the line right there and like fault yourself because you chose the over. Like, you can't— people are notorious at gambling, like pointing the finger to someone else. Like, hey, You had a choice. The choice was very simple. I think Draymond Green is gonna score 8 points. I think he's gonna score 7 points. Regardless of what I score, you made that decision. So you're actually bad at what you do. Like just because I score 7 points doesn't actually make me bad at what I do. It makes you bad at what you do because you lost your money. You can't get mad at me. Anyway, back to what I was speaking about in the first place, which is the Jaren Jackson stats being padded. Number 1, let's say this. Super happy for Jaren. That's my young fella. That's my young Spartan dog. I'm always rooting for him. So do I think his stats are padded? I don't watch all of their games. I can't say if they are or not. But what I do know is Jaren is a hell of a defender. The majority of his stats are blocks and Jaren gets a lot of blocks. As I've said on this podcast before, one of my problems with Jaren is he goes for every block and being as great a defender as he is, he doesn't have to go for every block. So if I see a game where I'm like, oh man, Jaren has a lot of blocks, that's very realistic because he goes after a lot of blocks and he's very, I mean, much more than capable of getting a ton of blocks. That's a skill that he has. So I can't sit here and say, oh man, his stats are padded. But the reason that's interesting is because Number one, you think when you're speaking of Defensive Player of the Year votings and all of those things, quite frankly, blocks and stuff matters, which is crazy. And you know, it's just like points. Like, you know, people will see, oh man, this guy has 17 points, da da da. That guy may be playing awful and may not be helping that team at all and may be getting garbage points. But if they see they have 17 points, it's like, oh man, that's great. People look at defense like, oh, look at that. He has such, such blocks and such, such steals. That doesn't necessarily mean this guy was good defensively. Not saying Jaren, just saying in general. Stats don't always tell the story. I've had games this year where I've completely locked down the defense side of the ball, anchored the defense very well, and had 1 steal and 0 blocks. Now what we calling the question is if I really only had 1 steal and really had 0 blocks. But in saying that, that is what's on the stat sheet. And I know what I did on this game defensively. But voters, they look at those things. Like you look at Rudy Gobert, he won like what, 3 Defensive Player of the Years because of blocks. And you know, it matters to people. It really matters to people, the stats that someone has. And so, It's interesting from there. Back to the betting, it's very interesting from a betting standpoint because one block or one steal or something like that can really change people, the outcomes of people's nights. In some cases it can change the outcomes of people's lives. And you know, when you think about the money that people are betting on these FanDuel sites and Hot Streaks and all of these other things, it's really like, it really matters. Now I personally, I've noticed all year that like I'll get a steal, I'll knock the ball away. And so for instance, if I, if somebody comes down the lane and I knock the ball away, right? And one of my teammates go pick it up, that's my steal. Or I've noticed it on rebounds. Like I'll go up for a rebound and like I'll just tap the ball to one of my teammates instead of grabbing it. I'll just tap it to my teammate to start the break. And like I'll look up and I didn't get the rebound. And all year I hadn't really said anything. I'll just like kind of let it go or whatever. My mom, has said something to me for like, for a while about this. Like, they're not counting your stats. And also my guy Charlie, who watches defense like a hawk and always watch things, he always says it as well. And so when this came out, I was like, well, maybe, maybe I should acknowledge this because the reality is to say that I'm only averaging 0.8 blocks and 0.7 steals or something like that. Like, I know that's not accurate. That's not accurate at all. And so, yeah, the NBA has to do something about this stat, this stat thing. I would like the credit for my rebounds and credit for my blocks. I'd be interested to know if somebody went back and counted up all the blocks that I have, all the steals that I've had that didn't get credit for, all the rebounds that I've had, what would that actually come out to? I'd be interested in seeing. Like for instance, last night I had 2 blocks. Somehow I finished the game with 0 blocks. And it's just like, yo, like 2 steals and 2 blocks in the game. That's pretty impressive. Like I would like my 2 blocks. So like I said, and what you're starting to see is also is like, I remember our old bookkeeper, his name was Fred Katz. Fred Katz. He retired. He was incredible. What you're also starting to see is like a new wave of stat keepers, bookkeepers coming into the game. And quite frankly, they're not as experienced as the Fred Katz of the world. And so like maybe they just gotta get up to speed and realize that, hey man, if this guy knocked the ball away, that's his, that's not someone else's. Or if he tapped that rebound and somebody controlled tip, that is his rebound. That's not someone else's because quite frankly, I really, like I said, I haven't really said anything about it all year because I just kind of go on about my day. But it does matter. It matters in a major way. So someone need to get that right. Not quite saying the Memphis bookkeeper was or was or was not padding stats. I can't just throw allegations on there, out there like that on people. It's a stiff allegation, so I'm not gonna throw it out there, but I do know I've been missing some stats, and I just kindly like to ask if someone can help me out here and just make sure I get my stats. I'd very much appreciate it because I'm missing some stats here, and like I said, they do matter. So if y'all can see to that, that'd be great. However, that's a wrap on this episode of the Draymond Green Show. We have an interview coming up later this week with Mr. President himself, CJ McCollum, leader of the New Orleans Pelicans. As we know, Zion Williamson is an All-Star starter. Steph Curry is an All-Star starter. Luka Dončić is an All-Star starter. LeBron James is an All-Star starter. And Big Yolk is an All-Star starter coming outta the West. Outta the East, you got Donovan Mitchell, you have Kyrie Irving, you have Kevin Durant, Giannis, and JT. Shout out to the All-Star starters. We actually have the All-Star reserves coming up tonight, I think. Um, if I'm not mistaken, it's tonight. I could be wrong and it could be Thursday night. Thursday night. So don't quote me on that. It's possibly Thursday, Jackson. Okay. Well, that's on you to do your research on that. It's Tuesday or Thursday. Don't miss it. That's a wrap from this episode of the Draymond Green Show. Peace. What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward.