Draymond's return, the Harden-Embiid ceiling, LeBron and Lakers get booed | The Draymond Green Show

What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to The Volume's YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. What's up everybody? Welcome back to The Draymond Green Show. This is our 15th episode and we have another incredible guest, someone who I am very fond of. And it's funny that I say that 'cause 2 years ago I probably would've told you it was one of my least favorite people. But I've had the opportunity to work with him, to spend some time around him, and the way he treats people, the way he just makes every environment he's a part of just a welcoming environment is one of the most incredible things to me. Hall of Fame basketball player, Hall of Fame analyst, and like I said, more importantly, just an overall great person. So this week on this episode, we will have the great Sir Charles Barkley. And as I said, I am extremely honored to have a conversation with him. So you all can hear some of the things that I get from him when I'm in studio. And most of the times I'm just sitting there listening. Like it's not even that I'm asking a question to get these things. It's just like sitting there listening because that's the type of person he is. He see me coming in, and he just wants to help. And I think it's amazing, incredible person, probably one of the most misunderstood people around simply because of his job. And he's not afraid to say whatever it is that he's thinking. And I think that's a very powerful thing. So I am looking forward to you all hearing and sharing in this great episode and great interview with Charles Barkley that we will have. But before that, you know, it's, we have to go around the association first and starting with— Draymond Green. Me returning. I am feeling great. I practiced 2 days ago with the team, which was incredible. There was like this whole thing of like, oh, he did contact, all the non-contact drills, but not contact drills. The reality is, is there weren't any contact drills in the practice. So I did the whole practice. So give me my credibility. I'll take that. And there was a drill where it was like semi-contact and like not, real contacts, just kind of like a defensive breakdown. And I did do that drill, although I wasn't taking any hits or anything like that. But nonetheless, and more importantly, that is a step for me in the right direction that I am thankful and happy about. And now it's just continuing to ramp up, continuing to get my conditioning back, continuing to get my feel back, and most importantly, continuing to regain all of my explosiveness, which I am very pleased with where it is today. And— And as someone who historically, I mean, it's a hereditary thing, has pretty skinny calves, my calves have grown due to all the work that I've put in. So I am very happy about that because that was something I used to be a little self-conscious about as a little kid. Like, "Oh man, you got no calf muscles." And so I got a calf muscle now, so I'm excited about that. So take that one to the bank. But, and moving forward, James Harden and Joel Embiid, after 2 games, there's been all this talk about they're the best duo in the NBA and like all of these things. And don't get me wrong, they are incredible. And I'm not just going off these 2 games because the reality is they could have had 2 great games, which they did. They also could have had 2 terrible games, which didn't happen. And if they had 2 terrible games, were we going to see those 2 terrible games and say, "Aw man, they don't work together." Or were we gonna see those two terrible games and say, "All right, they just need a little time to figure it out." I think it would be the latter. So let's not overreact to the two great games. However, in saying that, they look good. They look really good. And— Draymond Green. You know, I think, what is it? 20 games left in the season. It's great to see James Harden playing at the level that everyone has grown accustomed to him playing. It's funny because after the trade, I was looking at his stats and he was averaging like 22, 10, and 8, I wanna say. And everybody's like, "Oh my God, he's having a terrible year and down here and outta shape." And I'm just sitting there looking at it like, this dude is averaging 22, 10, and 8. Like that bar has been set so high that 22-10-8, everyone's saying this guy's having a terrible season. And so it's, you know, it's good to see him out there having fun and playing up to the level that we've all grown accustomed to him playing. It's only better for the league. It's also, I've actually enjoyed watching, like MB's been dominant all season. I think we all know that. And we all can agree on that. But it just feels like these last 2 games he's been even more dominant and without the ball as much. And that's a very, very, very powerful thing because when you can end up being more dominant and have the ball less, I mean, that's incredible because what that does is it's gonna allow everyone else around him to get in their flow and to find their rhythm easy. And we know he can just pick it up just like that. And so, Man, I think the first, like I said, I'm not gonna overreact over 2 games, but I think the 2 games that they have put together have been impressive. And you know, we'll see how that continues coming together. You know, the Eastern Conference is deep, deeper than it's ever been. I think the 2 leading candidates for MVP are outta the Eastern Conference right now with DeMar DeRozan and Joel Embiid. And then obviously you still have Giannis in the Eastern Conference. You still have Jimmy Butler. You still got KD coming back from injury. You still got Kyrie who's starting to play more games. And there's seem, it seems that he may be able to play home games sometimes in the near future. I think that's very interesting. I still, for the life of me, can't understand why someone can go to the arena and watch the game, but not be vaccinated. But Kyrie can't play the game that the unvaccinated person is watching. I just can't seem to understand that for the life of me. And I mean, you have places losing, like they're losing mask mandates, they're dropping vaccine mandates, and yet there's still this thing there. Doesn't make much sense to me. I honestly think it's one of the things that has made people question different things around COVID-19 this entire time. It's rules like that that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Like, we're gonna fill up a stadium with 20,000 people. And oh, by the way, All 20,000 of those people could possibly not be vaccinated, but Kyrie Irving can't play if he's unvaccinated. So maybe someone will help me figure that one out at some point, but I just, I'm yet to wrap my head around what's the whole deal with that. But maybe it'll all be dropped sometime soon. That's the route it seemed like it's moving. So until then, we'll see. But there's been a lot of injury news coming out. Like I said, myself, KD, we heard will be back probably sometime within the next week. And so that, that's great. And then obviously AD is out for another 4 to 5 weeks, which leads us into the Lakers slump. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah. I think they've won 4 of their last 20 games. And at that time, I think they were maybe 4th or 5th in the East, in their, I mean, in the West. And now they are 9th in the West. I have to speak on the boos last night. I thought that was insane, to be quite honest. From a team, From an organization that's had so much success, to start booing when things aren't going right, like, that's kind of whack to me. And then everyone gets upset if a player comes out and say, "Oh, well, forget them fans." Or like, "They not with us anyway." Then everyone seems to get upset and uptight about it. But as athletes, we're just supposed to sit back and be like, "Oh, they're booing us." Like, quite frankly, most of those people in that arena don't know how it feels to get booed. And so I guess I can cut a little slack in just you not understanding how it feels to get booed. Yeah. By your own. Now for me, I actually like getting booed. Like when I come to Crypto Arena, like boo me all you want. That's fun to me. The Cavs fans did it all weekend at All-Star Weekend. Like I enjoy it. So, but to get booed by your own fans, like it's very distasteful and disgraceful. And I was shocked to see that. Like, I mean, some boos rang out when Bron threw the turnover where he tried to hook the pass around to Taylor Horton Tucker. In the corner. I've seen LeBron make that pass several times and it is an amazing pass. Didn't complete it yesterday and the boos rang out. I thought that was pathetic. I thought it was extremely pathetic. And like I said, I thought it was very distasteful from a fan base of an organization that has the most championships in the NBA. Like, like let's not be so like, Yeah. Like spoiled brats. Like, it's okay to be spoiled. Like, yeah, you can 100% be spoiled. We all get spoiled by things at times at one point in our life or another, but let's not be brats. And that was about as bratty as something that I've seen, considering that this team just won a championship not even a full 2 years ago. And now you're booing? Like— Yeah. I thought that was utterly ridiculous. And like I said, it was very distasteful. So I'm actually looking forward to seeing where the Lakers go from here, because you can go one of two ways. You can use that to band together and say, it's us against the world. It's us against all these other teams in the NBA. It's us against this fan base, our fan base too. It's us against the world and see if they can rally around that. Or, do you continue to splinter and separate more? Because the reality is when you're losing at that rate, there's gonna be some splintering and there's gonna be some separating. I mean, we saw that DeAndre Jordan was cut a couple days ago due to signing DJ Augustine. And you know, so you start to see moves like that. And like some of those things were expected to happen a little while ago. So I wasn't necessarily shocked by DeAndre Jordan being cut, but I'm very interested in seeing can the Lakers pull this together and what happens from here? And like I always say, if there's anybody that can do it, they got LeBron James. He's shown that he can do it. I've told y'all before, I'm never counting them out until they're out. They're not, they won't be counted out by me. I know how dangerous they will be in trying to compete and win a championship. All you gotta do is get in the playoffs. You get in the playoffs, you gotta win 4 games, then you gotta win 4 games again, then you gotta win 4 games again, and you do it one more time, you're a champion. That's an entirely different season. Like I said, I refuse, as someone who's competing against them and competing for the same thing, everyone can say what they want. You can talk about their slump, you can talk about their age, you can talk about all of these things, but who won't be calling them out is me. And who else won't be calling them out is a team that I am one of the leaders on. No way. We face them. We are facing the same Lakers that everyone thought we'd be facing when this season started because they still have that same talent. It's still on that team. And that same pedigree, championship pedigree that they got on that team, it's all still there. So we'll be ready and maybe we'll see them, maybe we won't. But whoever do, it won't be a walk in the park. I don't think so. I just can't foresee that happening. So. Draymond Green. Uh, we'll see. But like I told you guys a little while ago, uh, we're gonna get into the interview with Sir Charles Barkley, who I am extremely excited to have on this show. Chuckster, what's up, man? Welcome to the Draymond Green Show, my brother.