Draymond Green Reacts To Steph Curry Story, Potential Bucks Penalty & JJ Redick's Lakers Comments

What's up everybody, welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. On today's show, we'll discuss the blind Steph Curry. Uh, I'll also get into the Bucks' potential punishment for the Gary Trent situation. Uh, some, some good quotes from JJ Redick, Marcus Smart, and Trae Young. Let's get right into it. Steph says he suffered from a rare eye condition during the Warriors' dynasty run. It was 2018. Bob Myers text me after the game because apparently The telecast kept showing me when I was on the bench. And he was like, you're just squinting, looking like you couldn't see anything. You should probably go get that checked out. They told me that I had a rare condition called keratoconus. Now I remember Steph saying this word before. I don't know if that's the right pronunciation. So internet thesauruses and dictionaries and grammar police, excuse me. If I'm wrong. What I found out about it was it's a progressive condition that can deteriorate your vision over time, and it's irreversible if it goes in the wrong direction. I joke that when I'm done, my memoir should be called The Whole Time I Couldn't See. So I actually remember this. I remember him first because at that time I wore contacts, and I remember him coming to me like, yo, I gotta go get my eyes checked. And he's like, yo, I gotta wear these contacts now. And at first it was a fight between like him and the training staff to like put these contacts in. And he and I used to always laugh at Andrew Bogut. 'Cause Andrew Bogut had like some eye condition that Bogut had to where like, if you know a contact lens, Yeah. It's the whole thing is like one type of plastic or whatever the material is. Well, Bogut's is like that around the edges, but the bottom part of it is, it's like hard. And it was something to do with his eyeball. I don't know exactly what that condition was. But anyway, Bogut would put his thing and then he's just squirt like— Squirt. the, the, uh, eye solution. He'd just stand at the scorer's table and like douse his eye with eye solution. So me and Steph used to always laugh like we're dousing our eye with contact solution. Now ironically, I wore contacts at the time and I started dousing my eye because once I did it, I'm like, yo, these contacts feel way better like that. So I took that from Bogut anyway. We used to laugh. So then Steph, obviously by that time, Bogut's long gone. Steph's coming to me. He like, yo, these contacts, man, it's weird. How do you put them in? You got any way to put— any easier way to put them in? And all these things. I'm like, yeah, you know. And we had the whole conversation. So then it got to a point to where he'd wear them sometime and not wear them sometime. And it's like, now you're recalculating. Like, at first you couldn't see, but now you have to recalculate when you can see and when you can't see. And it's crazy because what that showed me is actually why he's a great shooter. And several great shooters have told me this. Joe Dumars said it before too. He said, when I shoot, all I need to catch at the last second— Steve Smith has said, at the last second, I just need to catch the front of the rim. As long as I can catch the front of the rim, I don't care how my body is, where I am. As long as I get my eyes on the front of the rim at the last second, I'm good. And it's crazy because we obviously all know, y'all all know now, I've been knew, Steph couldn't see. And to shoot that way, it also, it just shows you how much muscle memory it is and how pure the jump shot is that he really can't even see the rim and he can shoot the ball that pure, right? So, which makes you think, now obviously this goes against catching the rim at the last second, catching the front rim at the last second. But it makes you think how many he can hit with his eyes closed. Because it's just muscle memory. Now granted, closing your eyes throws your equilibrium off and all different things. So not literally, but my point is how much muscle memory it is to shoot the ball that well and how dialed in they are with their wrist and all the calcula— it's a calculation. How dialed in those great shooters are, because he clearly couldn't see and to still be able to shoot the ball that well. Either he could still catch the front of the rim whenever he needs it, but it's the muscle memory. And which then goes to why everybody say, oh man, like it should look the same way every time, which is easier said than done. But I just find this fascinating. I think it's funny that everybody's just now finding this out, but nonetheless, it's still extremely fascinating. Very fascinating that you can shoot the ball that well and not be able to see. Needless to say, I did get LASIK in like 2019 or something, so I no longer No longer deal with the contacts. One of the best things I've ever done, by the way. Haven't got LASIK? Get LASIK. Now we'll move around the association. The Bucks are reportedly being investigated by the NBA for possible salary cap circumvention in the deal with Gary Trent Jr. The punishment could be equally as severe, if not worse, than the Clippers' punishment if found guilty. Now here's what I will say. No way this could be worse, a worse punishment, because I mean, I guess when you think about it, it is circumvention, cuz you could get a player for cheap. But it's not the same. It's not near the same. I do think the punishment will be as strenuous, but this really will set the Milwaukee Bucks franchise back. And I think if this was to happen, see, what you gotta remember is this. I think if this was to happen, I think the Bucks owner would then sell. Because unlike Steve Ballmer, who's the wealthiest owner, unlike Steve Ballmer, who has a team that's in Los Angeles, the Milwaukee Bucks lose 5 first-round draft picks and they can never be good for 20 years. So I think you'd see that owner sell the team if this is the case, because they're gonna be trapped. Like, they can't rebuild. No free agent's going to Milwaukee. They'll have to pay like a 4th-tier player max money to come to Milwaukee. So if this is the case, I think the Milwaukee Bucks will be on sale shortly thereafter. But we saw how long it took the Kawhi investigation to play out. So I think this will take a while, and I don't think it'll come back. nearly as bad or any punishment. Because I just don't think, even if that was the case, like how do you get record of that? I just don't know. I don't foresee it. You know, there's, what I will say, you know, there are deals made beforehand in any business all the time. So no one puts it on paper. When you're doing good business with someone, you don't put it on paper. I don't know how they would be able to find this if this even is the case. JJ Redick said in his press conference, I think we've always tried to give our players clearly defined roles, and I think with this group, it's probably the first time in my 3 years here that I feel like the pieces actually fit together, Redick said. And so those roles probably get even more crystallized. I know everybody takes this as a shot at LeBron and be like, oh man, he's talking about LeBron leaving, and I don't think so. If you think the last 2 years with Bron and Luka, that really wasn't a fit. You have that. Now, before that, I don't necessarily know what pieces didn't fit, but Bron and Luka are both ball-dominant players, and Bron had to learn how to play without the ball. And I ultimately don't think it allowed for the best LeBron James. So I understand what he's saying when he say the pieces fit together better, uh, because they've built a team that's heavily gonna play roles with Luka having the ball. And that's been very successful for Luka and teams that he's been on. Trae Young had a quote about why he never won with the Atlanta Hawks. He said, "I don't know if I've ever had a teammate that can draw double teams like this," referring to AD. Well, what I will say to Trae Young is, even with a teammate that can draw double teams, it still ain't that easy to win. It is very tough to win. Now I get what he's saying. He's saying the level of teammates he had, and I agree, by the way. I think when you You know, if you go back to this podcast when the new— when, when Atlanta Hawks beat the New York Knicks, you know, I said then, listen, people are going to get excited about this Hawks team and it's really not a Conference Finals team. And everybody did. And you saw that it really wasn't a Conference Finals team. They had a good year, a lot like the Portland Trail Blazers did some years back when they had that really good year and we mopped them in the Conference Finals. And then they paid everybody. That was not a Conference Finals team, but they— good draw. Dame was great, CJ was great, and they outplayed what they were. And then guys get paid and you can't reach that level again. I think that's what happened with the Hawks. So I get what Trae Young is saying, but I'm just saying, even with a guy that draws double teams, it's still gonna be very hard to win, especially in that East this year. Marcus Smart made a quote about choosing the Rockets over a disrespectful offer from the Lakers. He said, first off, I played so well that the offer that was ultimately given didn't match the way that I played, especially when you see guys who played way worse than I did, the offers they're getting, Smart said via the Houston Chronicle. And then it wasn't any security that we wanted that they were willing to do. So what I would take away from this quote and what I think the most important part about this quote is, is the security that Marcus Smart wanted because Marcus Smart should know that in this league, it ain't always about who played better. And I should get the money that, like, for instance, he may have played better than Austin Reeves in the playoffs. They ain't giving Marcus Smart Austin Reeves money because he played better than Austin Reeves in the playoffs. That's just not how the NBA works, right? Like, Paul Reed played better than Jalen Duren in the playoffs last year. They're not paying Paul Reed Jalen Duren's money. That's just not how it's gonna happen. And I think Smart knows that. So I don't wanna take his quote outta context, What I will say about his quote is he couldn't get the security he wanted because you look at roster slots. Now granted, they could have possibly gave him a mid-level. I'm not sure what their situation was, but they probably weren't offering the years. They probably offered him 1 year, $10 million or something like that. Again, I don't know that to be factual. I'm just trying to break this quote down and try to make some sense of it. He probably wanted multiple years. He probably felt like he played to get multiple years. What I will say is it's hard to get multiple years at a high number when you come in on a minimum because guys, people then view you that way. And that's always the problem with taking a buyout is once you take a buyout, you play on a minimum, it's hard to climb back from that. Now I agree with Marcus Smart. He played his ass off all year. The Lakers without Marcus Smart last year, I'm not sure where that Lakers team was. He was one of the most consistent players all year. So I understand what he's saying. But just the business of basketball, once you end up on that minimum and you go, it's hard to get off that minimum. And even if you do, you usually get to like, and for instance, minimum is $3.8, call it $3.6 for Marcus Smart. You can usually get to like $6 or $7 million maybe, but it's hard to get off that minimum once you get there. Happens, it does. Some people do, but it's just very tough to then not be seen as a minimum guy. Cooper Flagg says he's grown to 6'10 or 6'11, which I find interesting because he plays on the perimeter a lot. So does Kevin Durant. But, you know, Cooper Flagg at 19, 20 years old could still be growing. I believe it. I think, you know, with that being said, he better get a post game. Try to take advantage of some of these smaller guards that they put on him, some of these smaller wings that they put on him. Get a post game, get a little jump hook, jump right over guys. That'll be a dominant way to get 8 points a game for him. 8 points a game changes things. It's a very high percentage, 8 points a game. I think the game has moved back inside the 3-point line more than it's been in the last 10 years. Right now, I think that's beneficial for Cooper Flagg. He gonna have to learn how to take advantage of the height, which I think he will. He's always been taller for his position, but. I would say to him, make sure you get you a postgame, 'cause he can steal some points like that. And before we get outta here, headed into training camp, like I said, I'm excited about training camp. You know, it's year 15, training camp in Hawaii with a preseason game wrapping that up versus the Clippers at the end of the week. You know, I think, you know, for our team, it's gonna be exciting. It's the last— excuse me, it's the first time in a long time we've been completely counted out. And for a group of guys who started as underdogs and became big dogs, you don't lose big dog status because once you get big dog status, you are a big dog. But goddamn, do it feel good to be an underdog again. Time to go prove something. Until next time, thank y'all again for tuning into the Draymond Green Show. Peace. If you're rocking with the Draymond Green Show, be sure to click follow on your favorite podcast app. And while you're there, go ahead and drop a 5-star rating and leave a review. I wanna hear what you think, and it would also mean a ton to me if you share it with a friend that you think would enjoy it. Let's keep this thing growing. The Draymond Green Show is presented by Audacy and executive produced in conjunction with The New Media. Our executive producers are Leah Reese Dennis, Danny Friesinger, and Greg Holtzman. Video production and creative design by Kurt Courtney, Tim Meechel, Lauren Vieira and Evan O'Brien. Special thanks to the team at The New Media and the team at Audacy. Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Hillary Shuff, Eric Donnelly, Kate Rose, Colin Gaynor, and Jake Galli.