Draymond Green reacts to block to seal Golden State Warriors win over Dallas Mavericks & Luka Doncic

Welcome to the brand new Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our content. What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. Recording this the morning after a huge, huge dubs victory over the Mavericks. It's about time we won a home game. As we know, that's been a problem. Road record, pretty stellar. Home record, not so much. So that was a good dub for us at home also. Crazy trip, or crazy period in the schedule, I would say. Not necessarily crazy trip, but coming off a 9-day, 5-game trip to Minnesota, which started off with a loss in a game that I thought we clearly should have won, and we just let it get away. Miami, big-time win. Never easy to go there and get a dub, but that was a big-time win for us. Orlando, huge win. Obviously I got ejected from that game pretty fast and the guys held it down that game, which set us up for Charlotte, which is a game we should go win, and San Antonio, which Wimby is a problem, but also a game that we should win. 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.

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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 a signed 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— Yeah. I didn't get a chance to hug Coach Pop and embrace him. And that's my guy. Absolutely love him. 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 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 gonna give you an assist. But the guy's wide open to knock a shot down. Wemby, you drive into the lane and get a layup and you see Wemby 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 Wim— 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 Wemby. 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, Tre Jones. You know, I think Tre 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 Tre Jones is absolutely that. You know, so I think they got a few pieces around 'em, 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 Wemby? 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 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? Like, some guys just get blocks, you know? Guys come weak side, get blocks. Like, but you can pick on them. You can't really pick on Wemby. Dude can switch. 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 gets 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 Wimby 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 3s. 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. And so I was exhausted after that game. Nonetheless, that was a big time win for us. And then we go to, you know, come back home. Which leads us to last night. Huge win over the Mavericks, 104 to 100. Two-way Wiggs was in the building in a major way. 23 points on 8 for 16 and 3 for 5. I'm still pissed at Wiggs. Why am I pissed at Wiggs? Because Wiggs came out aggressive and then it was a couple possessions right after the first couple shots he missed that he came off screen and he was like, who do I need to pass the ball? No, you go shoot the ball. We need Wiggs scoring. We need Wiggs aggressive. The pressure he puts on the rim, the way he's been shooting the ball, lights out. And then pick, and while doing that, picking up Luka full court the whole game, the entire game, picking him up full court, not switching, getting over screens, fighting, battling. And Luka's great. You know, we know how great Luka is. And Wiggs took on that challenge and had a big game for us. Yours truly with 11. 11. 8, 6, and 4 steals. Hey man, that's 10 steals in 2 games. I feel really good, really good about myself. You know, it's that time of year where you kind of gotta come alive. Like, it's the most fun time of year and I love it. I love this time. Big block down the stretch. Tough play there. When you got Kyrie Irving coming downhill at you, it's a scary sight. And not a scary sight in the sense of like, oh, Kyrie's about to take off and dunk on you. But a scary sight in the sense of like Kyrie, as I said a couple weeks ago, Kyrie has every shot in basketball. You know, we saw the lefty running hook, right? Like he has every shot in basketball. Mid-range floater to the cup, best finisher, incredible finisher. He has every shot. And so when he's coming downhill at you with a lob threat like Daniel Gafford, what do you do? And so for me, Obviously you're trying to cat and mouse, you're trying to play two, but with Kyrie, you kind of have to commit because if not, he go— like he tricking you, like you trying to trick him and he got the ball. So ultimately, you know, what he's trying to get to, he's good enough to get to it. And so if you go back and watch the play, I had to step all the way up to stop him. But the way my feet are angled, my feet are angled as such to where I'm cutting off one side of the floor. So the side that he's going to, which if you're— dribbling the ball and you're Kyrie, it's the left side of the floor. If you're me and you're defending it, it's the right side of the floor. But I cut that whole side of the court off with my feet so that Ky couldn't continue going that way and to essentially kind of force him back towards where Daniel Gafford is on the baseline. Well, for me, once I see Kyrie picks up the ball and go to pass, there's no— Pass. Added extra movement, right? Like because of my foot position, that's just one drop step and jump. I'm jumping at the same time as Daniel Gafford. Now if I'm being totally honest with you, in that situation, it's Daniel Gafford, it's not Kyrie Irving, it's not Luka Dončić. And what I mean by that is Daniel Gafford's a 69% free throw shooter. He's not 90 like Kyrie Irving. Mm-hmm. And Luka maybe 70-some percent, but it's Luka. He's not missing free throws in the clutch. And so my mindset right there is I'm helping on Kyrie and I'm giving this drop up up to Gafford. Now in order for him to get to the rim, he gotta come back through me. So I understand that. But a key thing in that position is I'm in perfect position to foul. And so when I go up, In that moment, I'm thinking, all right, I'm jumping. I'm not giving up an and one. So if I don't feel like I have an advantage to affect the shot, block the shot, which I did, but not even necessarily block the shot, affect the shot to where Daniel Gafford has to make the shot and not a dunk. If I can't do that, I'm fouling. So I'm in perfect position to foul, which for me is money. Once I jump, I then make the decision, oh, I can get it. Draymond Green, right? And I get the block, get the rebound, and we're off to the races. And then, you know, down the stretch, the ball was in my hand. How about that? And, you know, made a couple plays down the stretch to close the game out. But really big time win for us, especially with the Rockets coming out to play. They have lost a couple in a row and—

Yeah.

You know, you 3 games behind with 7 games left and you're losing the tiebreaker. So 4 games behind in a sense with 7 to go. My math serves me correctly. Tomorrow will be an opportunity to end their season, their playoff hopes. If my math serves me correctly, maybe there will be one more game. I haven't looked that up. That's just some rough math for you math geniuses out there that's gonna be like, no, they're not mathematically eliminated. And you like, great, almost. But anyway, so looking forward to that game. Obviously big game in Houston. We're accustomed to big games in Houston. It'll be fun. And we got the midi god on our side this time. So, uh, that is Chris Paul for those of you who are wondering. So definitely looking forward to that game tomorrow. It'll be a fun game. Those young guys are playing well. Jalen Green is playing out of his mind, uh, looking like the Jalen Green that everybody thought was coming into the NBA when he came in. He's taking that next leap and it is looking very prominent. Uh, so, you know, they got the vet, uh, Freddie V running the show, uh, a bunch of young guys getting after it. And so —be a big game, fun game, but one that I feel totally confident that we should be able to go get if we come in and play our brand of basketball. But a big time, big time win for us. And, you know, 5-game win streak, which comes at the right time. So looking forward to that. In other news— Draymond Green. A guy who I got respect for, and so I'm not going to sit here and like slander because I got respect for the Matrix. But Sean Marion, my man, my brother, you asked for it, so let's talk about it. On Club 520, shout out to Club 520. I went on Club 520, Jeff Teague and the guys. Um, I enjoy being on Club 520, and quite frankly, our interview wasn't long enough, so maybe I'll go back one day if they'll have me back. But that was a fun-ass podcast to do, and I enjoyed it. So we'll see. However, that's one of the great ones out there in the world of podcasts everywhere. That is one that is fun, it's funny, it's, um, you learn different things. Like, I saw the other day he's talking about different referees. Like, you're getting an unfiltered Jeff Teague, which nobody anybody in the league knew they, or in the world knew they needed. But the world needs Jeff Teague and what those guys is bringing to the landscape, to the media landscape. It's absolutely incredible to watch and fun. And Sean Marion goes on Club 520 and he says—

Draymond, I think I love his tenacity, love his energy, love his heart, but I still think I was a way better defender than he was. And the reason I say that is because when I had to guard point guards, point wing, when I actually guarded you, I guarded you for the whole game. Nah, yeah, yeah. I didn't, it wasn't no, no, no few minutes here and there or trying to spare somebody. I guarded, I locked in with you guys for the whole game. And like most guys ain't doing that.

Sure.

So it's easy for, and it's way simpler for guys just to do with every possession and switch. Everybody switch now, but I mean, I can guard somebody guard a guy for a quarter. It's easy to do that. Let me guard that guy for the whole game though. Most guys is not doing it. I'm the only person ever in NBA history to do that.

In one playoff series on the way to my fourth championship, I guarded— I don't even remember the first round. Who did we play in the first round? Jackson, you remember who we played in the first round?

Denver Nuggets, no Draymond Green.

Okay, so who do we play in the second round?

Or was that the second round?

I think that was the second round.

And then Dallas was the—

Dallas was the conference finals.

Grizzlies.

Ah.

That's right.

Ah, there it is. So in one playoff series, by the way guys, you ever were not winning championship and no one cares? Like, it's hard to even remember that, so. Just remember that for those of you out there celebrating second places. So in one playoff run on the way to my fourth championship, you got me guarding Joker. Didn't shut Joker down by any stretch of the imagination, but you can bet your bottom dollar it makes a huge difference when you don't have to double. As you keep bodies on bodies, you neutralize the rest of the guys. Game winner steal, game stealing steal, that series. By no means did I lock Joker up, I'm not saying that. But I think Joker respected the defense that was played on him.

Okay.

Jaren Jackson, young, Athletic, big, who can step out and shoot the 3, all-star.

Jalen Brunson.

And don't tell me, oh, that was Jalen for Dallas, because that same Jalen 4 months later went and took the Knicks by storm. Jalen Brunson, all-star. Jalen Brown in the NBA Finals. All-Star. Those were my matchups for the series. So to say I can guard a guy for a game, what about a series? And by the way, I don't think Sean Marion couldn't guard a guard for a series. But the proof is in the pudding and the film is right there. Need I say more? Yeah. I've gone into games and guarded guards my entire career when I've needed to. So, you know, I get what he was getting at or trying to get at, but you actually gotta watch the clips, watch the film. Don't watch the clips, watch the film. And then what I do off the ball is a totally different thing. Not sure many people in the NBA can affect the game how I can affect the game defensively off the ball. Yeah. So with all due respect to Shawn Marion and his defensive capabilities, because I again think Shawn Marion was a great defender. It ain't only you, my man. It is not only you. Maybe it was before me, but not since me, and it won't be after me. It ain't only you. So before you make statements like that, you gotta check the tape. You gotta have some facts because the facts are right there. And I don't need to go elsewhere. You know, I don't need to go to like, at times I had to guard CJ McCollum when we were playing Portland. And times I had to guard Chris Paul when we were playing, he was like, I don't need to go into all those things. I'm gonna just go right there. Series wins. Which led to my fourth championship. So shout out to The Matrix. Uh, would love to have him on the show if he want to come on. Um, no ill will here, but the facts are the facts. In other news, before we take some questions, uh, live here on the BR app, shout out to the BR team. Joel Embiid returned from a 2-month absence and he played 29 minutes, had 24, 6 boards, 7 assists, 3 steals, and 6 turnovers. Um, I must say I was very shocked for Joel to come back. And the reason I was very shocked is come back in game 76 after missing 30 games or whatever, uh, that number was. And they're now 41-35. And I saw something last night that said their record is 14-27 without Joel. Meaning the chances that that team is gonna win a championship is very slim. And to me, some of the moves they made at the deadline was kind of like, you know what, we throwing in the towel. This season ain't gonna work out. Let's start focusing on next year. And to see Joel come back, with that big knee brace on was pretty surprising to me. Needless to say, what I do know is Joel just love playing basketball. So any chance that Joel can play basketball, he gonna play basketball. But I was pretty shocked to see Joe come back off the meniscus injury at this point in the season where they're now in the play-in spot. And like, I don't necessarily think they have the roster to compete at a high level. Yeah. You know, so it could be just kind of his way of tuning up for the Olympics. I don't know. But I was shocked by that. Nonetheless, he looked good. And obviously you can see some of his movements are off and like little ginger going this way and stopping and different things like that, which all takes time. I did see something Joel said in his interview, which was interesting to me. He said, "This will be the hardest game I had." And I disagree with that. Because when you come back from injury, you kind of have a couple games where you like this, and then you tank for like a couple, 2 or 3 games, because it's no longer the adrenaline, right? Like, it's not— now you just playing off of— and Joel's great, so like, maybe Joel won't go through the same thing I went through and most people go through. And it's not even necessarily that his game will go through that, because Joel's a scorer, he's going to score the basketball, but he'll feel it. And so even if it doesn't show to you necessarily, he'll feel it, because you kind of like hit this bull— And then you crash for a minute, and then you start to And so it'll be interesting to see how he's feeling, you know, moving on, you know, the next 3 games or so, how that starts to change and where that goes. But I was very, very surprised to see them or see him back out on the floor. Nonetheless, always great to have the greats on the floor. And so. Good to have Joel back. Obviously he brings something to the league that's different than what anyone else brings. And you know, he takes that team from a non-playoff team to a contender in a sense. And so shout out to Joe. It's good to see him back. Surprised, but that's that. Before we get to the mailbag question, I have to say,— or just speak on Caitlin Clark, uh, taking down LSU, coming back 41-12 after being defeated by that team last year. Opportunity to go back to the Final Four, and Caitlin came out and got it done. Dominated the game, uh, took her team back to the Final Four. And the question out there is, is she the best offensive player, college player ever? I mean, I saw Steph Curry play in college. And so, you know, Steph was different. Needless to say, Caitlin is a problem. She, I know there's like this talk of Big 3 and WNBA and how she gonna, she's gonna be really good in the WNBA right away because the way she shoots the ball, the way she passes the ball and get everybody involved, she's gonna come in with Aliyah Boston, who's also gonna, take on double teams. And if you help off the wrong person, and then, and usually there's someone you can help off of on the team. So once you start helping off that person, if I am the Indiana Fever coach, I'm going to watch film of the Golden State Warriors. What do they do when teams double team off non-shooters? I need to know all of these things going into the season because I need to take full advantage of Caitlin Clark and her abilities and how defense is going to react to her. Yeah. And so that was great to watch. UConn and, UConn, we had this conversation earlier this year. Hilton Armstrong's on our staff. Rudy Gay was in, Rudy Gay was in camp with us. And we were talking about Blue Bloods. Like, who's the Blue Bloods in America? And he's like, UConn a Blue Blood. We like, hell no, Rudy, UConn ain't no Blue Blood. The reality is, if you look at UConn's resume, they are definitely in that Blue Blood territory. And if you ask me, They're still not a blue blood, but if they win this championship, y'all are blue blood. But both teams, UConn women, UConn men, in the Final Four, as is North Carolina State men and North Carolina State women. I think UConn is winning it all. The way that they're playing on the men's side, I think they're winning it all. I don't see anybody beating them. Um. Everybody talking about they'll beat the Detroit Pistons. They'll probably beat the depleted Detroit Pistons that's playing like 7 two-way guys. I mean 7 G League call-ups in 10 days. But the real Detroit Pistons that was at the beginning of the season, UConn not beating that team. Stop it. Still the NBA and that ain't happening. But this current version with Isaiah Stewart and— Draymond Green. This guy out and Bogdanovich traded and Alec Burks gone and you name it. Yeah, they'll probably beat those guys. Maybe not, but they got a chance. But yes, I'm picking UConn. And then shout out to young Juju. Juju went out there this season, got it done. 27 a game, took her team to the Elite Eight. Freshman. I'm looking forward to watching the face of women's hoop. As this thing continue on. So shout out to Drew, keep putting the work in, Drew. I love the emotion after the game. It should hurt. It should hurt. Because next year when you up there hoisting that trophy, you look back on that moment and you felt that pain, you went through that pain. And because you went through the pain and not around the pain, you get rewarded for that. So obviously still gotta put the work in. I have zero doubt in my mind that Drew gonna put the work in. But Juju is a problem. So shout out to Juju. Great season. Also great to see Paige back out there doing what Paige does, making big shots, big moments. Absolutely lovely to see. Love to see where the women's game is going. But shout out to them. That was super dope. Before we get outta here, Jackson, you got a few questions for us?

Yes sir, I do. Let's start it out with from @lordflock. Hey Draymond, not sure if you saw, but Stefon Diggs was just traded from the Bills to the Texans for a second round pick. What is your take?

Did that just happen right now? Like—

It happened like right when we started recording, basically right when we started recording.

That is fire. Stefon Diggs is, is a Hall of Fame wide receiver and to get him paired up right now with a young CJ Stroud who just took his team to the playoffs. With that defense that the Texans got with that head coach. I love it. I love it. Not sure how much Stefon Diggs has left in the tank. I think Stefon Diggs has a bunch left in the tank, but I have seen those questions on NFL talk shows. Like what does he have left in the tank and blah, blah, blah. Stefon Diggs, I think, you know, number one, he can play in the slot. If you're playing in the slot, he can still go be dangerous there. And you know, we know he can take the top off. So I'm looking forward to that. I think that's fire. But what that also says is the Buffalo Bills are done. Every now and then you have a window. And when that window opens, if you don't step through it, it shuts. And that's what just happened to Buffalo. They got rid of a bunch of key players. They're getting rid of huge weapons, and I mean big-time weapons, like, so it's over for Buffalo. Uh, they will return back to NFL purgatory and not be that good, and they'll win some games because they'll win some games. But what— As great as that is for the Texans, they just plucked the guy off the AFC team. And that AFC team is done. So that's my thoughts on that. Not a football expert, don't claim to be. Know a little bit about football. I love football. I watch a bunch of football. So I think I know a little bit, but that's my take.

Next one from @longliveyellafive. If Wiggs keeps playing like this, are we back to being a title threat?

I mean, we gotta get in the playoffs first, so I don't wanna get too far ahead of ourselves. 'Cause we got a lot of work to do just to get in the playoffs. But once we get in the playoffs, I always think we're a title threat. With the pieces that we have on the Florida experience, I don't ever doubt that we're a title threat. And Wiggs playing that basketball, Wiggs have to play that basketball in order for us to be that. So. Yes, for sure. Um, but first things first, let's just get in the playoffs first.

All right, we'll do one more question, but before that, just a reminder to everyone to subscribe to the YouTube channel, youtube.com/@DraymondGreenShow. We have an amazing interview dropping next week. You do not want to miss. Fire. I promise you do not want to miss.

Absolutely.

Last question. From @AsiaB, can Wemby become a top 5 player of all time?

Can Wemby become a top 5 player of all time? That's such a subjective thing because you start getting into like, oh, Wilt Chamberlain, or you know, like people start going way back on Bill Russell. Like, and so I'm not gonna sit here and talk about top 5 player of all time. Like again, with Wemby's tools and his love for the game, the sky's the limit. Special, special, special. Can he be? Yeah, I mean, he has the tools, but that's such a far, far-fetched thing, like top 5 all time. But Wemby is a problem. And as you all know, I don't really, I'm not a hater. I give credit where credit's due, but it ain't easy to get credit from me. But Wemby, Wimby is a special breed. And so can he be top 5? I guess technically yes, but what is top 5, right? Like my top 5 is this, your top 5 is that, Jackson's top 5 is here, and Fave's top 5 is over there. Like who, what is the top 5? Like Wimby can be absolutely special and he can be mentioned when it's all said and done, if he does it the right way, which I have no doubt he will. He will be mentioned with the greats for sure. Top 5? What is a top 5? That is a wrap on this episode of the Draymond Green Show. Always appreciate your questions when we are on here on the BR Live app. Uh, and definitely appreciate you all tuning in. If you tuned in live, thank you. If you're tuning in later because you getting your podcast where you get your podcast, We also thank you, we love you, we appreciate you. Till next time, it's a wrap. Peace. Peace.