Draymond Green reverses his position on Victor Wembanyama as Defensive Player of the Year, citing a nine-block game against Denver and Wembanyama's ability to alter shots from anywhere on the floor. Green reflects on Popovich and imagines what a championship team around Wembanyama would need, drawing parallels to LeBron's supporting cast.
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Welcome to the brand new Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our content. Oh, by the way, I know I said on here a few, little while back that Wemby shouldn't be the Defensive Player of the Year and a lot. Wemby should be the Defensive Player of the Year because he is that amazing defensively. But they just suck. And I love Coach Pop. I think I've shared that with you all before. Like, absolutely love Coach Pop. And if I'm honest, I'm still a little hurt because I didn't get a chance to hug Coach Pop in the game. Didn't get a chance to talk to him before the game and after the game. Everything was kind of going on. I got to sign Wimby jersey for DJ, which was absolutely exciting. One that he can hang in his bedroom. And for the next 15 to 20 years, he'll be watching arguably the best player in the league with his jersey on the wall. And so I was very excited about that. And probably a little sidetracked to get that for DJ, that I didn't get a chance to hug Coach Pop and embrace him. And that's my guy. Absolutely love him. Mm-hmm. One of the golden guys got that gold together and the relationship built there will last a lifetime. So I'm very thankful for Coach Pop and I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to say hi, but from a distance and it just missed me at the end of the game. Still salty about that. Anyway, Wemby is definitely the Defensive Player of the Year. The way he impacts the game, both offense, I mean both on the defensive end, whether it's off the ball, on the ball, It's a problem when you, when you start driving to the hole and like guys may have a layup, maybe not, and they just turn out and go the other way. That's a problem. And that's a blocked shot in a sense, you know, and no one will account for that. It's like a screen. You go set in a screen, no one's going to give you an assist, but the guy's wide open to knock a shot down. Wimby, you, you drive into the lane and get a layup and you see Wimby and you just go the other way. That's a blocked shot. And so let's also talk about how many of those Wemby has this year. We saw one last night with Christian Braun and Michael Porter Jr. end up hitting the 3. Unfortunate that Michael Porter Jr. hitting the 3, but that's a blocked shot. Like, and on blocked shots, sometimes you get the ball back and guess what? You get it back, you kick it out, you hit a 3. Offensive rebound, kick it out, hit a 3, right? Like, that's essentially the same thing. And so with what Wimby, and you know, I say that, take it with a grain of salt. Obviously team record matters and everybody who say team record don't matter is a lie. It definitely matters. And they're not quite that good. Not quite Wimby's fault, but you kind of had to be that bad in order to get Wimby. And I think that San Antonio team has some pieces, a few pieces, Not many, but a few pieces around Wemby. And that's not counting like a Zach Collins, right? Like Zach Collins is a vet. He's gonna be around like, and you need good vets like that solid. Gonna, you know what you're gonna get every night. But you know, you got like KJ, Keldon Johnson, you got Devin Vassell, Trey Jones. You know, I think, I think Trey Jones is a good point guard in this league. Not necessarily, maybe not necessarily a starter, but any good team is, you know, if you're gonna have a chance to win championships, you need a really good backup. And Trey Jones is absolutely that. You know, so I think they got a few pieces around them, but they need to fill out a lot of other pieces. And then also figure out how do we want teams to look? Like what's the best look? Of a team around Wimby. You know, like you look at LeBron James, always gonna be some shooters on the floor, right? Like over the course of his years, you know, the Mike Millers, the James Jones, the J.R. Smiths, Kyle Korver, the list goes on and on and on. You know, when they won a championship with the Lakers, Kyle Kuzma was that shooter, you know? And so— Yeah. What are the teams gonna look like around Wemby? And I think that's an important one. But I changed my stance. Wemby probably should be defensive player of the year. What he's doing defensively, dude had 9 blocks last night. Like, that's against the Denver Nuggets, best team in NBA. 9 blocks. Like, man, that's affecting the game. And again, Wemby's not a liability on defense. Like, you're not just, he's not just getting blocks, you know? Some guys just get blocks, you know, 'cause guys come weak side, get blocks. Like, but you can pick on them. You can't really pick on Wimby. Dude can switch. Like, he's 7'4" and can move his feet. I don't know what lab he was created in, but I need to go create me a son in that lab because dude is unbelievable. And I was tired as hell after that game because with Wimby, every possession you have to like be on because the moment he gets a slight advantage, right? Like say if I relax and he duck in the paint, guess what? You done because he's so, he get to, his angles to the rim with his length. There's nothing you can do at that point. So with him, whether he's at the 3-point line, you have to be on because guess what? If he catch it and he start raising up, man, I had a couple contests on wind-beat 3s. And I'm talking about they were monster contests. Like I'm pretty good at contesting jump shots. That's one of my specialties on the defensive end. I come up with some blocks on threes. Like man, I had a couple monster contests on Wimby. I was nowhere near the ball. And I thought that that was very interesting. So with Wimby, at all point, at all times, no matter where he is on the floor, you have to be on. And that is tiring as hell. Yeah. And so I was exhausted after that game. Nonetheless, that was a big-time win for us.
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