Draymond Green reacts to Celtics "beatdown" of Warriors, LeBron's 40k, Victor Wembanyama's rise

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Dub's last game was an absolute annihilation by the Celtics. Um, And it was a very odd game. We lost by 52 points. Last game of a 4-game road trip, which felt more like a 6-game road trip. It's just so many games crammed in a short amount of days with crazy travel. And then that game being at 3:30 kind of made it get up on you really fast in the day because all of a sudden, you know, you're up at 11 o'clock. Essentially getting ready to leave. Like, you know, usually you're up, you're doing different things, whether that is a flow session or a bike ride or, you know, going to the gym to get shots up. You're kind of getting up and leaving for the game. So that's always a little weird. But in saying that, the Celtics gave us a pretty bad loss. The talk of that loss was Jaylen Brown and how we guarded Jaylen Brown. And you know, people are really quick to talk about things like that when they don't work. But when you do things like that and they do work, you're a genius. You know, when you do something like that and it doesn't work, it's like, oh man, why would such and such do that? Like, and I'll be honest with you, it's not that, you know, you don't, we didn't implement that defensive game plan because we thought Jaylen Brown can't make shots. You implement that defensive game plan because you feel like, On the 4th game of a road trip with all the circumstances I just named you, with the travel from Toronto, which was, I mean, into Toronto, which was absolutely crazy getting in at 7:30 in the morning, by the way, on the day of a game coming off a back-to-back. That don't always catch you the night of, it sometimes catch you a couple days later. And not making any excuses because it's no reason to make an excuse. We lost the regular season game and whether you lose by 50 or 1, a loss is a loss. So I'm not, so this is not to sit here and make some excuse, but in saying that, so you go into the game and you're like, all right. In any, just so you all know, by the way, in any defensive game plan, you're choosing to give something up. Like you have to, teams are too good. Individual guys are too good. To completely take everything away. So you have to essentially choose what it is that you're willing to give up that's gonna beat you. And when making that decision, you choose things that gives you the best opportunity to win. So if we give this up, we think we can survive that. And so in looking at the Celtics offense, the way they've been playing, all those things, you're like, all right, You know, if like, let's give this a try. Not that Jaylen Brown can't shoot the ball because we all know Jaylen Brown can make shots. But you almost go with the idea of like, he's gonna take it upon himself to shoot more and more and more and more and take their offense outta rhythm. Take their offense outta rhythm, makes it a lot easier to beat them. You've, you know, and yes, you usually employ that game plan with like, guys who aren't as good of shooters as Jaylen Brown. But in saying that, like I said, Jaylen Brown's a 34% 3-point shooter going into the game. So you're not overly worried that Jaylen Brown's gonna start hitting threes and start hitting threes. And he did, he made 'em, you know? And so guess what? You go into that game 3-0 on the road trip, you got a free swing. You know, if you come outta that road trip and you're like 3-1 with that road trip that we had, you feel pretty good about yourself. So you go on with this free swing, you implement this game plan, and it didn't work. All right, cool. Your free swing didn't work. You had a fighter's chance by throwing one knockout blow that didn't quite work out. We move on. Um, and— but, uh, what I will say is that Celtics team is, um, they're really good. Uh, they're— They're— They are really good. Now it did feel like they were playing with like finals level intensity out there. Just their reds were absolutely incredible. The force that they were playing with, I thought was very interesting. Definitely had a finals level intensity feel on the Celtics part. But in saying that, very good ball club. Very good ball club.— and they're going to be— well, we know they are the force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference. Yes, obviously you had the Milwaukee Bucks, the Knicks, if the Knicks can get healthy, which is not looking very good, and I'm not sure it's going to get much better, not from the standpoint of health, but— The Knicks is just a grind it out team. Tibbs is a grind it out coach. You're gonna have long practices. You're gonna have long shootarounds. Sometimes those things can catch up to you. So the Knicks are a grind it out team. Who knows where that goes? I know they got Mitchell Robinson out for the year. Kind of probably expecting Drew back over the next couple weeks. I don't think there's much word on Jalen Brunson, although, And watching that injury, by the way, and I'm no doctor, so you can take this with a grain of salt, but I am pretty in tune with my body. And because I am pretty in tune with my body, I can kind of identify some things that I may think. Again, I am not a doctor and this is not the podcast of a doctor. Jalen Brunson injury was super weird. I'll tell you what it looked like to me. You have a nerve right on the side of your knee, but right under, I'm trying not to get into all these terms because you're gonna have some doctor come on here like, "Oh, I'm a doctor and that's not the correct term." But anyway, your fibula head, right? Which is the bone that sticks out kind of right on the side of your knee. Right around that is a bunch of nerves and—

Yeah.

What it looked like to me is he had a little impact with that nerve, which is why it looked like he jumped crazy. But it doesn't look like the hit was that hard. And so everybody's looking like, "Oh man, that's weird. Like that's a contactless injury, a knee injury." And that's not quite what I think it is. And the reason I think that is because when you look at him try to get up and walk a couple times, his ankle starts to roll. And with his ankle rolling like that, that is probably that nerve being hit and that nerve just not sending the signal to his foot to stay strong, his ankle slash foot to stay strong and stay in the right position, which is why it looked like his ankle kept rolling out to the left. That's just my opinion as someone who's dealt with nerve, a nerve issue before when I missed that time in 2022. It's almost like a spark plug. If you have a spark plug out in your car, it's not sending the signal. Well, that spark plug essentially isn't sending the signal to his ankle. And so his ankle looks weak and you kind of can't make out what the injury is. And so it's gonna be hard to get a timeline for that because nerves do what nerves do. And if you remember when I had the issue, it was like, "All right, we'll reevaluate in 2 weeks." Oh, you go see the doctor. "All right, we'll reevaluate in 2 weeks." And all that's simply saying is you're giving the nerve a chance to heal. Deal. So anyway, I probably got a little bit off topic there, but that's all gonna depend, you know, the Eastern Conference race, that has a lot to do with it because Jalen Brunson is an All-Star player and the Knicks goes, Jalen Brunson goes. And so that was kind of my take on that. But anyway, getting back to the Celtics, very, very, very great team. Happy birthday to my little bro JT. Day before mine, day of the Celtics game was JT's birthday. Yesterday was my birthday. But happy birthday to him. And you gotta give those guys a lot of credit. Interesting how they're defending. They're not really putting Jrue on the best defender there. I mean the best offensive player. They're kind of using Jrue as a roamer. Kind of putting Jrue where he can mess up teams' offense, you know? Kinda use his smarts. And then obviously you always had an option to put Jrue on the ball if that's not working. But it's looked like they've been taking more of that approach, not only against us, but if you watch them, it looked like they've been taking that approach a lot. And you usually see that with more shot blockers. You know, you like the shot blockers to roam so they can come weak side, protect the rim, and not have to worry about shooters. But with Jrue's defensive presence and how smart he is, he can read different plays, has good enough size, To where if he is the backside help, he knows how to get up and, you know, be in, always gonna be in the right position, disrupt the offense. And so that was interesting with the Celtics. And I think it is 100% a title or bust year for the Celtics. You can't, you don't, you don't get to continue being in the position that the Celtics are in and just get the opportunity after opportunity, especially with Jaylen Brown's.

Yeah.

Contract kicking in, then you're gonna have JT coming up getting that same level of contract pretty soon, which lessens your resources. So you gotta strike when the iron is hot. And so that's why I say championship or bust for the Celtics, not for any other reason other than that new cap, that new salary cap and that new tax apron and second apron and all those things. Here's where you'll start to see the effects of those things. And— it'll be with a team like the Celtics that have a Jalen Brown on a huge contract. JT's on a huge contract and that'll get bigger. Drew, who's gonna be coming up, Porzingis' contract. It's a lot of contracts. And so we'll see what happens there. But that is why I would say it's a bust champ title or bust season for the Celtics. And moving on across the way from the Celtics is a huge rival. And I mean, way across the way. The Los Angeles Lakers. And they had some news this weekend with Bron scoring 40,000 points, crossing first player in NBA history to cross 40,000 points versus the Nuggets on Saturday. Interestingly enough, everyone's saying like, oh man, that record is way outta reach. But if you look not too far behind, Kevin Durant's right around 32,000 points. And Kevin Durant loves playing basketball. And I'm not sure when he's ever gonna stop playing basketball because dude just like, that's what he lives for. He lives to play basketball. And so I personally think there is pressure on LeBron to keep playing and as long as he can and keep pushing that record further and further out because you have a Kevin Durant who's in year 17, if I'm not mistaken. And like LeBron, who's in year 21, Kevin may be still playing, scoring at a very high level, in year 21. And so I think Bron needs to push this record out far as he can. And let's face it, Bron probably has another 2 or 3 years left playing. I don't know that to be certain. Could be more, could be less. I don't think any of us know that. But if he plays another 2, 3 years, he's gonna average at least 20 points. So you could figure in probably another 5,000 points. So that pushes it to 45,000.

45,000.

You got KD at roughly, call it 32,000. So he'd need another 13,000 over give or take the next 7 years. Probably is outta reach. That's a very tall task. But man, it just keeps getting more and more incredible. The things that you see Bron say, that what he's able to do, the way he took over games over the course of this weekend was absolute, or coming into the weekend and over the course of the weekend was absolutely incredible. The fact that he could still do that. Gotta tip your hat to him. Kudos on 40,000 points. First person ever. There aren't many firsts in the NBA. You just talking about an incredible league that's had great players for years, dating back years. —there aren't still many firsts that can be done. And to be the first to cross 40,000-point mark— still always talk about him being a guy that people don't say, "Oh man, Bron's a scorer," which is crazy to think. And this man is the first person to score 40,000 points. But you tip your hat to him. And they couldn't pull that game out against the Nuggets, which kind of sucks, you know, when you have those types of nights like that. You want 'em to end in a win just so it feel as good as you want it to feel. Needless to say, the Denver Nuggets are real. I think they're unbeatable coming outta the All-Star break, as is another team and one in which we're facing tomorrow. The Milwaukee Bucks are also unbeatable. They beat the Clippers last night at home. No Giannis, Bobby Portis got off, Dame went off. And that team looks like they're rallying around Doc, interestingly enough. You know, all the chatter going into All-Star break with Doc and JJ and Austin Rivers and Patrick Beverley, all of the talk, the feuding, it looked like that team was like rallying, starting to rally around Doc, which I think is very commendable. I think it's very interesting. I also think that's what you are, that's what you're looking for when you bring in a coach like Doc. You know, essentially the thought behind that is, all right, well, we had a younger, younger head coach in Adrian Griffin. We need someone that can get the locker room. And you know, that's what a lot of people were saying, that Adrian Griffin no longer had the locker room. And if you don't have the locker room, you can't win in this league. And so what this 5-0 start out of the All-Star break or 6-0, whatever it is for the Milwaukee Bucks, will say to me is that that team is rallying around the noise around their team, rallying around the noise around their coach. And they're using that as motivation and they're playing well off of it. And so gotta give those guys some credit. Like I said, we got them coming in here tomorrow. It's a big game for us, obviously. We know how crazy this race is in the West. Every night you're kind of looking at the standings like, "Oh man, this team lost. Oh, we can gain a game. Ah, we didn't move here." You know, or, "We didn't lose a game because that team lost." So you kind of got that thing going in the West, especially in the play-in and right at the back half of the top 6 teams, all kind of in a cluster right there and every game mattering.

Yeah.

A big game for us. First game of a, what, 3-game homestand before we get back on the road. So wanna try to take care of all these before this Texas swing. Try to get 'em done, stay in that race, even move higher up in the race as that is the goal for us. Before we get outta here, the basketball that Victor Wembenyama has been playing, it's absolutely incredible. Now, I personally think Victor Wembenyama is pulling away with the Rookie of the Year race. He's kind of creating that separation. 60 games into the season, only a quarter of the season left. It's time to start to create that separation if you can. And I think he's doing that. And as you know, I'm not really one that's really big on one-on-one matchups, but sometimes they do matter. Based on when they are in the season. And there was just a one-on-one matchup between Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama, and Victor Wembanyama handled that. He handled that pretty handedly. And some would say he was sending us, making a statement, and sending a statement around the league and to voters. As you know, that's probably one of those ones that matter a little more. With where we are in the season with the Rookie of the Year race. Quite frankly, um, by all means, I think Victor is pulling away. Uh, his last 20 games, he's still averaging 29 minutes per game, 23 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, uh, almost 2 steals and 4 blocks on 49% from the field, 40% from 3. Yeah. And 83 from the line. He's currently second in odds to win Defensive Player of the Year, although I can't quite agree with that because they have the 24th best defense in the league. Now, that's where you kind of get into like, his team is not that good, they're young, blah, blah, blah. But what he's doing is incredible. But you just can't move the line like that. Like, you're not allowed to just because he's young and the team is bad, a guy on the 24th best defense in the league can win Defensive Player of the Year. I don't agree with that. That's moving the line too far. And if you're moving the line that far on Defensive Player of the Year, like Rookie of the Year, yes. I'm not worried about Chet Holmgren's team being first in the West and the Spurs being 14th or 15th, whatever they are. I don't put much into that because you're a rookie. Like to come in and say, oh, this rookie's gonna win a bunch of games, especially a team that get the number one pick, probably means that team's not very good. That shouldn't decide the Rookie of the Year. And I don't think it will. But Defensive Player of the Year is a different thing. Your team, that does require your team to have a great defense and they just don't. With, you know, like I said, with being, he's whatever their record is, that and 24th best defense, that just doesn't work. But you know, Wemby is 12th in the league in steals and 1st in blocks. And those are great numbers. And as he continue on in his career and that team gets better, I don't think those numbers are going anywhere. I don't think Wemby's gonna block less shots. I don't think Wemby's gonna get less steals with his length. He'll have these numbers and he'll have opportunity to win Defensive Player of the Year. I personally don't think that is this year. Even if Rudy Gobert wasn't having the season that he's having and their team having the season that they're having, I still don't think you can give that award to somebody who's on 24th best defense in the league. If you are doing that, But then you gotta move the needle back for Jayson Tatum. It can't be, oh man, they gotta win a championship before Jayson Tatum can win MVP. You gotta move that needle back because clearly we're just moving the needle whenever we may, whenever we feel like we can. If you're going to give Victor Wembenyama the Defensive Player of the Year award. However, I think he's definitely running away with the Rookie of the Year award. If I'm being quite honest, I wanna see him run away with the Rookie of the Year award. No disrespect to Chet Holmgren, I think Chet Holmgren Draymond Green is gonna be a star in this league. But I just have an issue with second year guys, even if they missed the whole first year, winning Rookie of the Year. Because when you train with an NBA team, when you live an NBA life, when you learn NBA defensive schemes, when you're practicing with an NBA team, you're traveling with an NBA team, you're doing all of these things that NBA players do for an entire year.— that makes a difference. Makes a difference in your body, makes a difference in your mind, makes a difference in how you see the game. It makes a difference. And so I just can't agree with second-year guys winning Rookie of the Year. I would like to see Victor Wembanyama win it. We had this same situation with Ben Simmons actually won it, if I'm not mistaken. Coming around his second year, which didn't quite feel that great. And then we also had the situation with Joel Embiid that I think he was actually 3 years in and he was up in the race against Malcolm Brogdon. Didn't ultimately play enough games and still came in second place. Malcolm Brogdon ended up taking it away. But it just don't feel right because again, I know the benefits of living an NBA life, whether you're getting in the game. I didn't play a ton my rookie year. Coming into my second year, even the little minutes I did play, but more importantly, the life that I was living and training that I was getting, it makes a difference. And so I just can't agree. And I think that's a rule that been needed to, should have been changed from the NBA. Rookies should be in line for Rookie of the Year. And that's just my opinion. I'll leave that there. But it don't look like we're gonna have that issue because the way Victor Wembanyama is playing, he's making the decision easy for everybody. So, Chet being in first, Victor being in 14th does not decide that award. The play of those players decide that award. And Victor is making it very clear, I deserve that award. That's gonna be a wrap for this episode of the Draymond Green Show. Make sure you all tap in this week. Interview coming your way. Don't forget to check the Twitter of The Volume. Check my personal Twitter for the giveaways. So just tweet us your subscription on our Twitter, well, The Volume Twitter or my personal Twitter, and we'll get you locked in, get you part of the giveaway, and there will be a couple items. Until next time, that's a wrap from this episode of The Draymond Green Show. Peace. Peace.