Draymond & Danny Green react to Celtics-Mavericks NBA Finals Game 1 + new Lakers coach | Champs Only

What's up everybody, welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. The NBA Finals are here. Best time of year. And you know, we here. Got some really special live episodes coming for y'all as a part of the NBA Finals. Champs Only, meaning if you not a champ, I'm sorry, but you can't talk after the Finals. I saw, I see some people be talking during the Finals and I'm like, you not a champion. So how are you talking during the Finals? So this is Champs Only. You can only be here if you a champ. And today's episode is brought to you in part by Hyperice. Myself, as a 12-year NBA veteran, you quickly realize that recovery is not the same. However, you get these young guys that come in and they talking and they yapping and you want to perform at that level, you know? And for me, my NormaTec boots has been a huge part of my recovery. I carry 'em on the road, always got 'em with me. And Hyperice has made that even easier with the NormaTec Elites. They've ditched all of the extra hoses and control units from the old model. This one is fully self-contained with a small set of buttons to select your compression level. Super easy to travel with and to get set up after a hard workout or after a game, after a hard work day. Not just for athletes, by the way. And on top of that, the NormaTec Elite packs 4 hours of battery life, which is enough juice to get full leg compression cycles in before games, after games, on the, on the plane, after work, before work, before your workout, whatever works for you. And as I said, it's not just for pro athletes. So everyone, you can get your hands on these to help with your recovery, increasing your circulation and reducing the swelling in the lower body. So shop all your warm-up and recovery needs at hyperice.com. Use code Draymond for 15% off of your order today. Exclusions apply. And now it's time to welcome our first guest of Champs Only. And as I said, you can only be here if you're a champion. Uh, this guy happens to be a 3-time champion. Um, as he just said before we got on here, Warriors fans are not happy that he's the first guest on Champs Only. Um, he beat us in the championship, and I am honored to welcome none other 3-time champion Draymond Green. Welcome to the show, my brother.

I appreciate you, man. I appreciate you having me. I'm glad to there's some type of love on that side of the coast. Well, I guess in the Bay Area. And I was asked earlier today, I was doing a radio hit. They're like, is there any organization that hates you? And I couldn't think of one until you tweet, they tweeted out that I was on your show. And I'm like, damn. I know there's only one organization, bro, that the fans are like, nah, they ain't messing with it. So, but you know, I understand, you know, I get it. 5 years ago, I was hoping some of them forgot about it or let it go. I'm not a dirty place. I can't imagine how it is being the villain every night in every arena. So a lot of flowers, kudos to you, brother, because I just have one organization that's— because I was thinking about teams where I've left and they might have booed me. And actually, they all received me pretty well. But the only one that does not like me that much at all is Golden State fans. But, you know, I still— a lot of love to the fans everywhere. So no love lost.

Yeah, no hate to love, brother. And you know, for us, there's no love lost, obviously. We know you're not a dirty player. Plays happen, bro. When you're competing on an NBA Finals level, on a championship level, I get it. Like, 2 points changes everything. And by the way, you know, unfortunate, you know, that Klay got hurt. Like, love Klay to death.

Yeah.

And like, none of us are ever trying to hurt anybody. It's very unfortunate. But like, basketball is also, very much so a game of inches, just like football. And if you come up with that block, what it does for y'all from a momentum standpoint in a game where we really had the momentum, what that does for y'all from a momentum standpoint, if you get that block, it changes everything.

For sure. I mean, we said, you, you know how, you know how critical everything matters, man, from loose balls to Draymond Green block, steal. And today's game, and we're gonna get to that, there's a lot of guys, a lot of plays that stuck out to me that started the momentum for Boston. And it wasn't necessarily the stars, you know, you know, I'm watching the others and I'm sure you are too. But I really think Al Horford kind of set the tone for them tonight. And he's the one that came out first basket dunk, hit a 3-ball. And then I think everybody kind of followed suit. Hauser, another guy hitting 3-ball timely. You get up that big— So Dallas found something, they cut it to 8, but those guys, set the tone. Then of course Porzingis was just unbelievable night. First game back in weeks, couple months. So, but it was interesting game to watch. I think it's gonna be a fun series. I can't wait to, to see what, what comes next.

It was a very fun series. I think it's gonna be a very fun series. It's a very fun game to watch. I, one thing that I want to keep my eye on is Porzingis. And the reason I want to keep my eyes on Porzingis is like that first game back, like you riding that high, emotions through the roof, you feeling good, like—

Adrenaline going crazy.

After that, when you no longer can ride off the emotions and you gotta ride off of the work that I've put in, not saying he hasn't put the work in, but your work has been limited, reason you've been out, you know? And so when you then gotta rely back on that and not necessarily the juice of like, I'm back out here, I want to see how he responds, you know, how that comes about, you know?

Yeah.

Because that's gonna be like, he was huge for them tonight.

I know you got a Boston fan on staff there. They played well tonight. Hell of a win for them. But Dallas found some things. I wouldn't be too confident after watching tonight's game. Kai didn't have a great game. And I don't think the energy, Porzingis is gonna be able to sustain that. Like you said, everybody has their group chats. Everybody's playing GM. Everybody's watching and criticizing. They're like, yo, There's Porzingis had a hell of a game, but there's no way he can sustain that. There's no way he can keep that energy. He had 3 blocks in the first quarter and that's where I was watching more so is what he's gonna do with defense, man. And he stopped the lob for Dallas. You know, that was a key thing for Dallas.

Yeah.

And you know, Kai and Luka weren't able to, you know, get to the rim as easy or, you know, find Lively and Gafford for lobs. That's a big change. But I think Dallas is gonna, they're gonna find something, you know, J Kidd's gonna find something. They had, they still, they switched. They didn't trap as much. I didn't see many of that. Both teams switched. And they're going to take advantage of that. Luka took him a quarter to settle in, but once he settled in, he's found something. He knows where he's at. Now Kyrie just has to settle in. Once that happens, so we're going to have a series, man. It's going to be a real series.

I agree with that. You know, funny enough, I thought, in my prediction, I said that Dallas will lose this game. And the reason I thought that they would lose this game was because the Celtics, like, and I, I played against this team this year, that their length, and you've played against them through the years, that the length, like Jason Tatum is 6'10", Jalen Brown is 6'8", um, Jrue is 6'5", Derrick White 6'5", Al Horford 6'10", 6'11". When you have that much length on the floor, there's no gaps, right? And they, they switch, they load up.

Mm-hmm.

Right? When you, Porzingis, 7 feet. Sam Hauser come off the bench, 6'9". Like the only guy that they play that's under 6'5" is Peyton Pritchard and he don't play.

Yeah.

When you have that type of length and you can speak to it, like that was kind of our team for all those years. That was y'all team in Toronto. You, Kawhi, only guy that played that was smaller than that Fred and Caleb. Fred and Caleb.

But we had Pascal, we had—

Pascal played way bigger than his size, right? But you got Pascal, you got you, you got Boucher.

Serge, Serge, Marc Gasol. Yeah, we had Norm come off the bench. We had OG didn't even play, but we had OG on that roster. But yeah, we had a really good defensive squad and we figured it out. But like you said, defensively, they have a lot of length.

Mm-hmm.

The only thing with Boston, I said, I'm not confident, because you know how they live and die by the 3.

Yes, they do.

They came out very hot, and they're always gonna have a game or 2 where it's gonna be dry, you know what I'm saying? They're gonna be cold. So when that happens, we're gonna see if that defense and Porzingis can continue to protect the rim, and if they can stay in a game. But ultimately, they're gonna drop a game or 2 just because they're not gonna shoot well. And then if Dallas can steal a game or 2, a game or so just because they, you know, play well and they limit them. This is gonna be a 6, 7 game series, man. And so it's one we've been looking for for a while cuz you know, finals hasn't been actually, no, I'm tripping. Finals has been pretty good, man, since, so y'all won y'all in 6 games before that it went to, you know, 6 games. So it's been pretty good. It's a good matchup.

For sure. So tell me this, so coming into this game as a coach, When you get to this level and you know it, you gotta pick something that's gonna beat you. And it is very evident what Boston said today is gonna beat us. Meaning Luka, we not helping on your drives. We force you to drive and we not helping take the layup.

You're gonna have to score 70 or 60, 60. So go ahead, you're gonna try to beat, beat us by yourself.

1 assist Luka has. That's unheard of. Luka got 1 assist. Do you think that game plan from Dallas— I mean, excuse me, from Boston— where they can— where they kept those other guys out tonight and gave up what they gave up to Luka, do you think that continues to work? Or what would your adjustment be if you're the Dallas Mavericks on how to get the other guys involved?

You know, we were talking before you got on. You were saying how blowouts are never a good thing and never an advantage for the team that won.

Yeah.

Because a lot of times you just don't make the adjustments. You're like, oh, it worked. But you should have a backup because obviously the team that lost is gonna make plenty adjustments and you need to make sure you have adjustments for their adjustments. I don't think it's gonna work. It, it worked early. Jaylen Brown played great defense early. First, first half plucking Luka a couple times, making a physical. Al Horford even contested, blocked a shot or two. Like, that's not gonna be sustainable. For the 7-game series. Al Horford and those guys switching on to Kai and Luka is not gonna work. I think they're gonna have to change up once Luka gets going early. They're gonna probably try to trap him. So if Kai gets in the rhythm— Kai just had a very off night, you know what I'm saying? Like when you have both those threats going, the other guys are just gonna open up. You can't just stay home and let those guys kill you because they will kill you and they can win games. It reminds me of— To bring not to bring back bad memories for you guys, but when Bron and Kai, you know, you don't see that often with guys, two guys can beat you. They did it. And then these two guys have the talent enough to beat you with just those two guys. So ultimately, I think Boston's got to have an adjustment. They're not probably going to make it right now or right away. It might take a loss to figure that out, but you don't want to take a loss going back to Dallas. You want it to be 1-1 going into Dallas.

Absolutely. No, I agree 100%. Like, and you could tell Kai was having an off game. Kai dribbled the ball off his shoe.

Yeah.

Kyrie don't lose the ball.

Never happen. He called a travel on him. I'm like, they call a travel on Kyrie?

Yeah. Yeah, like, so you could tell it was off. And I think for him too, like, for him, I think also he has to make the emotional adjustment, right? Like you go back in this place, NBA Finals, where they was expecting you to bring them to NBA Finals. Now you going back there, like, what's that like emotionally going back to a place where you've played and like, this is the NBA Finals. So this is an even different thing.

Yeah.

Like I think he has to adjust emotionally as well.

And this is why I was like, it depends on what, and we look at Kai like, you know, Kai's great. And I'm like, even though Kai's Kai, one of the strongest mentally, mental, you know, tougher guys in the league, no matter who you are, going back to a place you played before is not easy. Emotions just, you just never know how it's gonna turn out. And you've never experienced before, and I hope you never have to. But if you leave a place and you've been there for a long time and you go back and try to play there, even if they don't boo you, because we went back when I was with Kawhi in Toronto, they booed the hell out of Kawhi. They cheered for me. They still cheered for me, which was cool. But I don't think I've ever had a— I haven't had a good game in San Antonio since I left there. You know, it's just not easy to do. And it's just like adrenaline. It might take you the wrong way. Might shoot too much. You know what I'm saying?

Like—

Yeah. You just never know how the emotions are gonna make you play. It may make you play really well. I feel like there's no in-between. You're gonna play really good or fuck shitty. It's gonna be a really bad game. So I've had some good games against San Antonio at my home team's arena, but just not in San Antonio. And it's just one of those places. It's just hard to settle in. It's hard to feel comfortable or you feel too comfortable and it's like, damn, I don't know why shots aren't dropping. But I knew it was gonna take him a game or a quarter, at least a half to like, let those emotions kind of still settle, even though it's been removed. Still didn't leave in a great way. And I can't imagine playing your former team on this stage of how high, you know, you want to do, you want to do well so badly that it, you know, it may counteract, like, be counterproductive, may affect you differently. So either way, it's a— I think Kai's going to settle in. He'll be fine. But, um, this is not an easy place or easy situation to be in, bro. And I said, I hope you never have to experience it because it's it can get ugly for you and you'll be like, damn, you'll be thinking about it all night, all day, all year. And then said, Scott's mentally tough, he'll bounce back. But you just never know.

I got my fingers crossed. I hope not. You know what just dawned on me and thinking about you fucking beat me in the NBA, I mean in the NCAA championship too. I just thought about that.

We go back, we go back, bro. We go back some time. We go back some time, bro. Since college, yes. I've been fortunate enough to have some really good teams and some good teammates. Said I had Tyler, I had Ty, I had Wayne, you know what I'm saying? And then, so when I was in San Antonio, y'all were like, said, of course, you know, Steve came from there or Mike Brown came from there. So y'all were like little brother and eventually it's only be a matter of time before y'all start kicking our ass and we knew it and we got old, we got older. And then there's, you know, y'all playing 5 out, y'all changed the whole league to small ball and it was like, damn, I don't think we can, I don't think we played Timmy in the series. I don't think we could play Timmy in the series. We had to sit him. And, um, yeah, we had a chance, we had a shot. Then y'all went and got KD. We had Marcus and Kawhi, and then Kawhi, when he had the ankle go down, it was over for that. Yeah, we've gone back from some, some for some time now, bro. 15 years now, 15, 16 years we've been competing, bro.

It's crazy. Do you, do you still wish to play right now? Or like, do you think this is it for you? You just, you, by the way, you do an incredible, I enjoy watching you on TV.

I appreciate you, brother.

Nice job. And like, you know, like you don't need that from me, but I just enjoy watching. I fucking hate watching a lot of people on TV, but I really enjoy watching you on TV.

As much as I'm not a fan of Duke guys, there's certain guys that are good on TV and JJ was one of them because he backs us. You know what I'm saying? And I always like make sure that we, you know, we can criticize guys but not tear them down. And regardless of that, you know, I want to, if I can criticize you, I want to be able to do that and be in that space. —and I still have a lot to learn. I'm learning from everybody when I do it. Even you, you know what I'm saying? You handle yourself very well, bro. And for me, it's like, I know I got to slow down. I talk too slow. I talk too fast. I got to slow down. I got to be louder. Try to make some good points. Like, you're really good at that, grabbing the viewer's attention, making some good points, you know what I'm saying? Dropping some bars, dropping some gems. People like, oh, Joe, Dray got some bars with him, you know what I'm saying? So I'm learning from everybody. So it's been great for me. It's a new challenge. People don't understand how different it is.— it can be fun, but also how it's not easy. You know, it's not easy to do what people are doing it. So much respect to all those guys that do it at a high level and grab people's attention and do it as a profession. So now for me, man, I'm still trying to hoop, bro. Just unfortunate this year I was with Philly training camp. I thought I had a really good training camp. And to me, it showed me that, like, I could still hoop. You know what I'm saying? It was like—

Yeah.

The training camp was like, yo, I still belong here. I still can hoop. I still play. But James wanted out, trade happened, they brought in more guys than they sent out. And my contract wasn't guaranteed. You know, me and Darryl had a situation, whatever. So they were talking about Nick Nurse wanted to bring me back. It just didn't happen. But I feel like I have another, you know, few years left, couple years left to hoop, you know, because I can do TV at any moment. We can do that.

Right.

We're 40, 50 years old. And I thought about it. Now, something comes along where it's like, all right, they give me, a deal or a certain type of network is like, yeah, we want you. And they like, to hang it up, it's gonna take some more. But like, I'm not married to the NBA. If I really wanna play badly, also the conversation with the wife, I just had a little one. If she wants to play, if she's okay with traveling, 'cause going somewhere else to another country, I don't know. But it's like, yeah, we only got 2 more years, maybe 3 more years left of this, of hooping. And might as well make the most of it. If you wanna live in a nice country, it has to make sense though. If I go overseas, it has to be a really nice country where you living well. But if not, give another shot here, play, see what happens. But, you know, ultimately transitioning, man, just adapting, adjusting, and learning the media game. And, you know, making sure that I have something because I'm not going to be one of those type of guys where, I mean, we all want to save to where we don't have to work, but I just can't see myself sitting at home and not doing a damn thing. You know what I'm saying? I got to be doing something, bro. I got to find a purpose other than, you know what I'm saying, with the kids and coaching them, of course. But— I can't just be at home and being a, you know, a house dad or a house husband. But yeah, ultimately I still want to play. Hopefully somebody would give me another opportunity, another shot. But if they were to see me play and see me work out, they'd be like, you know what, he's still, he can still hoop, he can still move. And I think I could, you know, help a team. But if not, I'm healthy, bro. I think I'm 2 years out now. I was pretty, I felt really healthy this past year too. So training camp with Philly went really good.

Okay.

But yeah, just, The luck of the, I mean, cards just didn't play out that way. You know how teams with the taxes, the cap, you know, teams are scared. People don't want to go into the, you know, the second apron, whatever. Just, it's a lot of that. The politics come into play. So, you know, just how it plays out sometimes.

Yeah, no doubt. I respect that, man. A lot of people don't understand, like, they're like, oh, your contract would be this. Like, nah, I've been in the league this amount of years, so my number, Yeah, it has to be that. Then a guy, if you bring in in their second year, that number looks totally different than what it does for the cap. People don't understand that. They like, oh man, like he can't hoop no more. Like, no, he can't hoop for sure. Like, and they don't understand the numbers, how it works and the taxes and stuff.

For sure. Just, I pray that you don't, well, you can't fight getting old, but just don't ever get hurt, man. When you get hurt and you're old, the league just, they forget about you or they just like, ah, you know, your time is up. They ain't kind of really messing with it. They'd rather find a younger guy, groom them. And they said it's cheaper. So they're cheaper the younger. But yeah, man, I hope you don't have to. But I feel like for everybody, it's always like a culture shock trying to figure it out, trying to navigate. Me and you, we were kind of, you know, tapping into other things, but most guys don't know what to do after. That's a fact. And a lot of things, people were taking your statement out of context, I feel like, when you talk about, you know, the league doesn't really set us up to be wealthy after. You know, you talk about the fines and things like that. I think it's more so like that type of situation, but also the lifestyle doesn't set you up for, you know what I'm saying? I think that's more of the point that people are missing. It's like you're making a lot of money, but when you make a lot of money, ultimately your bills are just gonna become more natural. You make $5 million a year, you're gonna have $500,000 bills, maybe a million. You make $10 million, it's gonna be a million or $2 million. You make $20 million, you probably have like $2 or $3 million bills. Now you may save up 40, 50 when you're done, But if you don't work and you got $3 million bills per year, your bills are $3 million per year, you got 10, 20 years to, to make it last. That's about it. You still got to live to 80, you know what I'm saying? But everybody else, they don't realize you had to get a job to at least cover the bills, get another job where at least covers $2 or $3 million. You can let that save. You want generational wealth for your kids to have it. Um, you know, you can find a job to cover the bills, but a lot of guys don't prepare for that, so they don't have a job when they're done to cover the bills ultimately. They're not broke, but it's only a matter of time before that money runs out in about 10 years. And you know, you don't hit you until you're done playing. You realize how expensive shit is. Like, damn, that wasn't expensive when I was playing, but when I'm done playing, the checks ain't coming. Damn, fuck, that cost that much? When you're trying to budget, it's a different thing, man. So I'm glad I'm going through it. I'm glad I'm learning it. And then I was prepared for it. I had vets that taught me like, yo, try to tap into this and have other things to fall back on. And I have a lot of opportunities. People called like, seeing if I wanted to do coaching interviews, and I'm like, yeah, I'm not ready yet. Do media. Uh, so yeah, I've been blessed, man, to be around some great people and some good organizations that give me opportunities for after basketball as well.

Uh, no doubt, man. That's great to hear. Switching gears a little bit, uh, as a player who's, like you said, you know, want to do it, still can do it, probably will still continue to do it, but it's closer to the end than you are in the beginning. as I am. Yeah. And, and understanding as a former player, the opportunities that we have. What was your thoughts on the Lakers, the rumors that the Lakers zeroing in on JJ Redick, former player, you know, just like more former players getting these, these coaching jobs or being in the running for these jobs. What was your thoughts on JJ? You mentioned him being, you know, with that report coming out.

Yeah. I mean, I like JJ. I think we all love, respect what he does for us in the media. You know what I'm saying? He does a great job. I think he has a great basketball mind. You know, the reports are going around now. Dan Hurley is another candidate. But I think JJ does deserve a coaching job. I don't know if I would like it, that one for him. You know, the Lakers job is a tough one, man. And people think, you know, you, you're tough mental player, kid, coach, whatever you like. You know, I could, do anything. He was like, I've been through the ring. I can handle it. I'll be fine. Till you get in there. That ring is a different type of ring. And I've seen certain guys, even the most toughest guy, Russell Westbrook. There's not a guy that I know in this league that is as tough mentally than him. You know what I'm saying? That carries that confidence chip on his shoulder night in, night out. Don't give a damn what who says anything. And he went to LA and he just looked like a different person. And I'm like, damn, those lights are different. That organization, those fans are different. Yeah. It can change you. It can kind of break some people and it can make or break your career. And as your first coaching job for JJ, I was like, I don't know if that's the first one I want to get into, you know what I'm saying? But I think it's a, I think it's a good hire. I think it's dope. Obviously some conflicts with JJ and Bron having the podcast, you know, they're not sure if you're gonna get the respect in the locker room. If Bron respects him, everybody else should. I think everybody else respects JJ. Even as a player. Yeah, he was a really good player. He was a great player.. And he's so good at what he does media-wise. He's, you know, people kind of forgetting how good he was as a player. That's how good he is as a media head. But yeah, I think it's a good— I think he's a good hire anywhere, but I just— for JJ, I think it's going to be tough. And if I'm him, I don't know if I want that to be my first one. I don't know what your thoughts on it. If you have any other better candidates, who's assistant coaches over there? Y'all have some good assistants over there. Like, is there somebody you think would fit better in LA?

I think JJ would do a great job. And I think, you know, with the rapport that him and Bron have, like, at the end of the day, no coach in the NBA is successful without the backing of their best player. Like, if their best player don't back them, that coach ain't gonna be successful. So I think with their rapport that they have, I'd imagine that, Bron, you do a podcast with this man. I'd imagine you respect him, you respect his basketball mind, you respect all those things. So to your point, if, you know, if that's the case, then I think that ultimately helps. Where I think the business of the NBA happens is like when you, see, people don't understand the dynamic of having multiple stars.

Yeah.

And the dynamic of having multiple stars can be different. So there could be a dynamic where JJ, Um, like Bron loves JJ and wants him as the coach. Anthony Davis is a totally different start. They may want something else. I don't know the facts. I'm just saying how the dynamics could work. Because for me, when I see Dan Hurley all of a sudden come outta nowhere, like he's their guy, they're reporting, they're flying him out to LA. Like just a day ago they were zeroing in on JJ Redick. Now, Yes, these are reports, but this is Sham's report. Like, this ain't Fox News or like—

Yeah.

This is Sham's report. And so, you know, when he reports, when Woj reports—

It holds water.

That's a different thing. Like, they know what— and so for that to come out one day and then the next day it's like Dan Hurley, to me, like, how does that change that fast, right? And I just sit back and I'm like, whoa. Maybe this happened because I do understand the dynamic of stars in the NBA.

For sure. It's interesting also because I feel like we came in at a similar time early on. Social media wasn't as big when we first got into the league. It grew and certain things that were reported did not affect how people coached, how people traded, GMs looked at things. You can see now how the media is huge and it can get into locker rooms, it can get into organizations. I think when they put out the JJ thing, they didn't like the responses that they got and people were like, what the hell? Is this serious? I thought this was a joke. Or, you know, who's going to respect it? Like, they probably saw a lot of negative heat and was like, are y'all not vetting anybody else? Is there no better candidates? I like James Borrego. I had him in San Antonio. JB, good peoples. Everybody else that is really good has a job already or has been picked up. So there's not a lot of options. I think this was, I wouldn't say like a coverup, but it was something like, all right, we gotta do some other research and see other options. Now, does Dan take the job? I don't think he does. I don't think it makes sense for him to leave UConn, especially if he can get extended there for the same amount of money and stay in Connecticut.

Yeah.

Because it's a tough situation, but you know, who knows? I thought that, you know, maybe Kentucky would've threw some money at him when, you know, Cal left for Arkansas. But yeah, he's got the pick of the litter. He's in a really good situation and he can do whatever he wants to do. I don't know if he would take the Lakers job, but I think this is just them kind of like seeing the response they got from the media and like, all right, we got to kind of see what else is out there and see what the response is from like Dan Hurley. What do they think of that? I'm sure people are like, oh, this is probably a really good candidate because JJ, even though he's really great, he's never coached before. Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's like, we've kind of forget that. You would think that he, because of how smart he is and how he knows the game and how he talks it in media. It's like, yo, he's really good, but he's really never coached before. And I said, for him, I wouldn't want that job for him, having to manage that locker room with egos and that nature. I have a couple questions for you. Like, what do you think outside of coaching? What pieces do you think they need?

The Lakers?

Yeah, to like make, because I thought they had great foundation. I thought it worked. Obviously they match up with Denver, which is not the best matchup for them, but I feel like any other series they could win or beat teams, but obviously they're missing some pieces. So you keep AD and Bron. What moves— they talk about Trae Young, they talk about Dejounte Murray. What do you think they should do or make? Put your GM hat on. What do you— if you're the Lakers, what do you do coaching-wise and players-wise?

I think any young guard they can get would be like, would help that team because for them, if you got like a Trae Young or DeJounte Murray with the backing of Bron and AD, like that's a totally different thing. And that young guard is in point— in Bron's point guard school because Bron is a point guard.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Point guard. He's been a point guard his whole life. Like, so not only, um, with, with their skill, you know, and whoever that young guard can be, it don't have to be a DeJounte or Draymond Green. That's just the names you mentioned. But like any young guard, you have talent, you have skill, you're dynamic in the way that these young guards are in the NBA. And you get to go to Bron point guard school and you get to play with one of the best bigs in the NBA and Anthony Davis. Like you and I both know for a long time, teams were built in the NBA on having a great guard and a great big, and you fill everything else out in between. Then it start changing with like us, but you're starting to see that shift back again. Like that is starting to shift back to like—

It's just a different big now. It's like a Wemby, Chet type of big now.

Absolutely. And so with that shift kind of happening, like, So now you say you got a great big in Anthony Davis and you get, you got like a guard, young guard that can go to LeBron James point guard school. Oh, and by the way, you still got LeBron James who can get great at any moment. Don't, don't gotta be there all the time. He's in year 27, like, but can, can be great in the blink of an eye in any moment you need. In between that, like, I think that's, I think that's, that's dangerous.

For sure.

None of us would want to see that, you know? So I think, you know, I think they, you know, it's going to be interesting to see what they do. But if I'm not mistaken—

Get a young guard. They got to get a young— They got, they got pieces. They got stuff they can do. Ultimately, I think they need to start preparing for the future. And that's if Anthony Davis stays there. They do need somebody to replace Bron instead of a guard. That's a young guard that could kind of do some of the similar things or give you that type of dynamic of the, you know, the one-two punch. So yeah, they, it's going to be interesting, man. It's a tough job. I'm glad I don't have it being that GM. But I also have—

Incredible job though.

Yeah. Yeah. RP, RP's been doing his thing, man. Big shout out to him. But I do have one other question for me to take over your podcast.

Oh, I love it.

But for you guys, man, I think you guys are still a contender. You keep the group that y'all have together. What is it you think that y'all were missing this year? Obviously you had some ups and downs, you being in and out, some injuries. What do you, what changes do you think might need to make or what do you think you need to do for y'all to get back to where y'all were for next year? Like—

I think for us, like, it's gonna be very important for us to define who it is that we gonna be. Like, we changing, bro. Like you said, we getting older. Like, we are not the same basketball team that we were in 2019 or even in 2022 for that matter. Like, it changes, you know what I'm saying? And I think, you know, we're adjusting to that change, which is great. Like Steve, I think Steve is doing an incredible job of where he's becoming more open to like Jonathan Kaminga having the ball more and like Kaminga being in the pick and roll and like running some isos for Kaminga, whereas, You know, it takes some time to adjust to that when you've had the level of success that we've had doing what we've done. Like, it takes some time to adjust to that. And it also takes, you know, everybody wanna come in and do things right away. And I think what Kaminga end up learning, and I commend him, I commend the young fella because he stuck with it, is you come in and you're looking at like a Draymond Green or one of those guys that's in Houston, or, you know, one of those places that, You know, they got in, they got the ball right away.

Draymond Green, just do whatever they wanted to do.

Right. And you look at that and you like, man, I wanna, you know, I wanna show what I can do. And you don't realize, and like I said, this is no knock on Jonathan Kamenga. That's my young fella. I love him to death. And again, I'm crediting him. You don't realize that A, when I'm in a great situation, respect is earned.

Yeah.

B, they've done things a certain way and it's on me to show them that doing this work my way where I can be successful will work for them and they should do that. And you know, when I watched the young fella's growth, is it for a little while it was up and down because I don't think he understood that. And by the way, how do you understand that without going through it? And then I think it clicked for him.

Mm-hmm.

Let me do the things that I need to do to get on the court. Once I'm on the court, I can then do a little more of what I know I'm capable of doing. Oh, and by the way, when I do that, now all of a sudden Steve Kerr trust me and I scored 20 points in 17, 18 straight games in a row because he trust me. Oh, look how that works. And so I think, you know, that has helped like young guys, you know, we got the young guys coming along and BP and Trace. Like I think as the year went on, you started to see like, man, Trace is a real live threat. You know, we went through the early part of the year without a, without necessarily having a live threat, you know what I'm saying? And me and Luke. Mm-hmm. Me and Loon got a certain chemistry that's great. I love playing with Kevon Looney, man. You know, but like with the league changing and getting bigger, we ain't that athletic together. You started to see, all right, you know, they start like separating me and Loon. Like, all right, I'm in the lineup. When I'm out, Loon's in the lineup. You know what I'm saying? Loon's in. When I'm out the game, Loon in.

Yeah.

Because you just start to see the league's changing. And so then all of a sudden incorporate that young lob threat. And that changes our offense. It changes our defense and things start to change. And so I think for us, it is just important for us to shore up. I always tell people, and you know it, championships are won 6 through 10.

Yeah.

And champions— championships are not won 1 through 5. And so it's just on us to shore up and make the decisions of what does our 6 to 10 look like? You know, what does our 1 to 5 look like? Does that mean Draymond Green, you're out of the starting lineup and Kaminga's in? Although I think Kaminga's a better 3 than necessarily a 4, right? But like, these are the decisions that we have to make. And you know, like you said, I'm happy I ain't got the job. It's all—

Yeah.

But in those situations, I think he'll make them. I think Mike's doing a great job. It'll be very important for us to try to get Klay back, you know what I'm saying? I think, you know, that's huge. What, what, what does Klay do? If Klay decides not to come back, then what does that look like for us? Right? Like, are you swinging to try to get another big guy? Like, what does that look like? So.

It'll be weird, man.

I just think there's some decisions that have to be made for us. And I trust and know that our, our front office and our coaching staff will make the right decisions. But I think we still got a small window to make something happen. And you know, I know this organization will honor Steph and myself and Klay. I know they'll honor us in that way of giving us every chance they can to help us win.

Yeah. Dunleavy's done a great job, man. So has Steve. I love what they've done. I said it would be weird to see Klay in another uniform. I hope he doesn't leave. It would just be weird. And as much as I fucking hate y'all winning so much and competing against y'all, it's just weird to see a group like that special to have to break up because of, you know, some other things. But yeah.

No doubt.

End of the day, ultimately, we talk about the young guys. I do, like, I hope y'all keep your core. You said fill it in with some pieces because if y'all just stay consistent and healthy, y'all just had some, and like, y'all would definitely a playoff team. It's just getting back to the level of contention. And if y'all are healthy, I think y'all can compete with any, like, any given night. Like, y'all can win a series or beat a team for 4 games. Just finding the right pieces. And so a lot of the young guys don't understand, which I like so much in Derek Lively is that you don't have to do what Jalen Green does to show your value. You know what I'm saying? Kaminga is like, yo, people, you don't have to do all those things. People know how valuable you are. You can still do the other things since baby steps, work your way in, work your way up. But just because you're not, you don't have to do that and you can still make a lot of money because people can see that in you before you have to show it. They can see you can grow into that and they'll eventually let you get there. You just have to kind of wait, wait your turn, wait your time. But you can still be valued by doing what you're good at first and then kind of opening, you know, stepping outside the box and then, you know, adding some more things to the bag. But yeah, the value is not on, you know, let me show what I can do. Let me show the world or the fans. You don't have to do that. Do it.

It's only a couple guys they're going to let do that.

It's like 2%, if that, in the league. It's 1% of guys in the league is going to do that. And you can get there at some point. You'll get there. But ultimately, just win. Do what you're supposed to do to feed your family. You'll show your value by doing that. You'll keep getting paid and getting years in the league. And then you get to that level. But that's why I like Derek Lively so much. A lot of guys on Dallas, and I think they have a really good shot because guys know their roles very well and know it early. And they're not tripping about having to be that guy yet.

That's a fact. Now we got a young guy like that also where like, I think he actually made it very tough on our coaches this year because when he plays, he plays well.

Moses?

Moses plays.

He's good, man. I liked his game. I'm like, yo.

Shoot well, compete, defend. You know, but like, as you know, it's a numbers game.

Yeah.

And sometimes the numbers don't fall your way, but like, you keep going back to this dude because you know every time he produce, the numbers just don't always fall your way. And that's like a young guy who, like even with Moses, right? Like, you're at that positioning in the young guy's careers where like, you have to make those decisions. And I think making those decisions help. Because it's like, you know what, Moses is our guy. He in the lineup. And when you start solidifying that stuff, it really helps the growth. And so, you know, Moses, I love Moses. That's my young brother. But nah, man.

That's huge. Yeah. Coaching staff backing you, encouraging young players. 'Cause you know, young rookies are just, that's the big confidence is making or breaking them in the league. And you have the right coaching staff behind you, the right group behind you, right? Vets. I think he's in a good spot, man. So is Trace. I think my younger brother played with Trace at IU. So I haven't seen him play for a while, but they're in a good spot, man, because you said— I see a lot of young guys, man, and they have the potential to be so great. They're just in the wrong organization with no, no vets.

And no one blames the organization.

It's always the player. So, and I don't want to point out any organization or players, but it's like, it is some— a lot of talent here. He's just not getting groomed the right way. He's not having the right vets around him. He just don't understand how to be a pro yet. First and then be a basketball player and then grow into being a star. It's a process, man.

That's a fact. Before we get out of here, man, I appreciate you coming on the show.

Of course. Appreciate you having me.

Who you got?

Before the series, I predicted Dallas in 6. I'm still gonna stick with that. If they don't get them in 6 and it goes to 7, it's gonna be tough for them to beat Boston at home. I just said Boston to me has been, they're really good. They're not as battle-tested as they should be. They, they will say they live and die by the 3. Porzingis played well tonight. I don't know how— said, I don't know if he can keep that up, him being healthy. I said I wasn't, I wasn't sure on his health, and that was gonna be a big part of how well they were gonna succeed. If he can stay healthy and keep doing what he's doing, they have a really good shot. But if not, I just don't see— you said Al Horford had a really good game. Hauser had a good game.

Mm-hmm.

Kai didn't have a great game. Luca settled in late and they cut it to 8. And that showed me that's the real part of the game where I'm like, all right, this is what the game is more like gonna be like instead of the 20, 30 point game.

Yeah.

And if it's close, I'm trusting more in Dallas's closers than Boston's closers. So I have Dallas in 6, but I think this is gonna be a good one. It's a toss-up. We just don't know how the emotions of Ky being in Boston, bro. Said game 2, we gonna see how he bounces back. I expect and hope that he does. But you just never know when you're in that scenario.

I hope that for him. I had saw some stat where it's like he's 0-10 in games in Boston since either he stumped on Lucky or since he left Boston or something like that. And that now makes 0-4-11. So I just want to see him get the monkey off his back. Cause you know, all it takes is one game.

Just one. Just one shot, one win, one basket. You're like, yeah, all right, we good.

The back. So I definitely wanna see Kai get the monkey off his back, rooting for him. But I appreciate you coming on the show, brother.

Of course, brother. I appreciate you having me.

Absolutely. And thank you to everybody for watching the show. We'll be back next Sunday, game 2. Do not miss Champs Only. There's only room for champions. So make sure you tune in, hit the subscribe button so you don't miss the show.

Yo, you can also catch my, catch your boy. I'm doing some stuff with Odyssey, Inside the Green Room with Danny Green. I'm doing some stuff with ESPN too. I'm gonna be on ESPN tomorrow. I don't think I'll be NBA today, but you know, I'm a free— I'm a freelance guy, so I'm able to do stuff with Turner, ESPN, Yahoo. It's been cool, man, to see which networks, if you get a chance to dabble in different ones, you see which one more fits you. But I'm enjoying the process, man. But yeah, Inside the Green Room, Danny Green, you catch me covering some of the final stuff as well.

I love that. By the way, I just want you to know also, Inside the Green Room, That's so fire. And I was so generic with just this Draymond Green.

I didn't come up with the name, bro. I can't take credit for it.

Okay.

The homie, he was, we grew up together. We went to high school. Well, not with mutual friends, but I've known him since high school. And he threw the podcast at me. And this is actually year 6. I've been doing it for 6 years. And I was in San Antonio. I don't know if you know much about San Antonio. They don't care for media or they didn't want to do nothing. So I was very skeptical about doing this podcast. I was like, bro, I don't know if they gonna let me do this shit, honestly. And I said I was gonna do it and we got traded to Toronto. And then I had the news. They thought I had the inside scoop on Kawhi, blew up, you know what I'm saying? We got a little studio in Toronto and from there it went off. So it was easy in Toronto. They did a great job organization and let me feel comfortable with it. But the homie came up with the name. I didn't really, wasn't sure if I was gonna do it. I'm glad I did. I got the reps. It's allowed me to like get behind, get, you know, build some type of resume on screen and learn ins and outs of media. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, ultimately it's year 6 and I said the name is dope, but I have to give credit to my, my guy Harrison Sanford, uh, who came up with the name and Amjad Osman, my producer. He was my producer at the time. So they, they came up with it, but it is, it's catchy. It's a good one. It's a good one.

Nah, that's fire. I would love to come on your show too, bro. If you have—

Bro, come on now. You know what time it is.

Yes.

We gotta get you on. Gotta get you on. So I appreciate you, brother. Uh, enjoy the finals, man. I'm sure you'll be out, probably have you fly out to Boston one of these days or Dallas. I know you're gonna be covering on the big screen on the panel. I'm gonna enjoy watching you.

You know I'm with Turner.

We done. Oh, y'all done?

So I'll be right here. I'll be right here on the Draymond Green show.

Okay. I mean, I was looking forward to you and Chuck and Shaq, man. Kenny, go at it. It's funny as hell, man. They gotta bring that show back. They can't lose it. They can't lose it.

They cannot lose the show. The show is everything.

It's very vital to the game of the sport and the NBA. So we need that back.

Absolutely. That's a wrap. Appreciate y'all. Peace. Peace.