In this post‑game episode of the Draymond Green Show, recorded immediately after Game 3 of the Warriors‑Nuggets Western Conference semifinals, Draymond Green breaks down the contest and his own role. He opens by championing Jordan Poole as the NBA’s most improved player and lambasts the current voting system, calling for reforms to the Most Improved Player, MVP and Defensive Player of the Year criteria. He then evaluates Nikola Jokic’s near‑historic stat line, discusses the altitude challenge in Denver, and recounts a tactical timeout with Coach Kerr over his close‑out technique. Green details the thought process behind his game‑winning steal—leveraging his 7‑foot‑2‑inch wingspan, reading the bounce, and taking a calculated risk despite being in foul trouble. He praises Steph Curry’s ability to rebound from injuries, highlights the contributions of Klay Thompson, Andrew Iguodala, Gary Payton II and Andrew Wiggins, and notes the physicality of the Nuggets, especially Aaron Gordon. The episode ends with a brief interview where Green explains how he defends Jokic when sitting on five fouls, emphasizing a mindset of aggressive, yet disciplined, defense. Throughout, Green mixes tactical analysis, personal anecdotes, and broader commentary on award voting and playoff broadcasting.
Questions this video answers
Green says the steal was a calculated risk: he focused on seeing the ball, reaching out without trying to drive through Jokic’s body, and accepted the risk despite the foul count. He emphasizes staying aggressive, keeping hands out to avoid ticky‑tack fouls, and not letting the five‑foul situation change his defensive mindset.
Chapters
What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes 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. Like we said earlier this week, um, there will be no guests during the playoffs, but we are going to try and do 2 shows a week so I can keep you updated on my thoughts about the playoffs on, um, including our series as well. We are actually recording this right after Game 3, which you could probably see. I still can't stop sweating it, but let's get into it, man. I mean, Game 3, takeaways from Game 3. Jordan Poole like that. Jordan Poole is the most improved player in the NBA. I'm gonna keep saying that until they get sick of me saying it and actually change the way the voting is because I, It's absolutely ridiculous, the voting system. And if you don't think it's ridiculous, then look no further than Jordan Poole, who is, who was on All-NBA third, excuse me, was on All-NBA G League third team last year. And now he's the leading scorer of the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs. Championship contender. I'm still waiting on someone to show me who improved more than that. So, uh, my fight is, is one of two things, or maybe even both. Number one is change the voting system. Number two, change the name of the award or add a criteria to what actually makes someone Most Improved Player, or what makes someone the MVP, or what makes someone the Defensive Player of the Year. Uh, let's just Let's just identify what exactly that is because it's ridiculous. So yeah, I'm talking about Jordan Poole again. And if you're watching basketball, you would be talking about him too. Or if you knew what you were watching, some people out there, not everybody, but you know, there's a lot of people out there that think they know this game of basketball and it's just not the case. So, and again, We can see that because Jordan Poole is not the most improved player. Jordan Poole is not even the most improved player of the player finalists. So when I say people don't know basketball, look no further than that. Um, Joker had a big game tonight. I, I, I told y'all after game 1, he was trying to go for, he was gonna try to go for 40, 20, or 40, 15, and 15. He almost did it tonight. I mean, didn't get the assist, which is important. You know, you don't want all the other guys getting off. And you know, tonight they had Aaron Gordon had his best game of the series, which was big for them, which was a huge part of the reason, you know, the game was that tight down the stretch. But Joker was amazing, man. I thought they did a great job of playing in space with him, picking and popping. He did a great job attacking closeouts. My closeouts were terrible. Coach Kerr got at me when he called that timeout when Joker pump faked me with like 3 minutes to go, got down the lane and got the layup. He called a timeout and got at me like, "Stop jumping off your feet." I had done it like 4 or 5 times. And I went back at coach a little bit. I'm like, "Well, I'm getting drug all the way down the floor and it's an impossible closeout." He's like, "Well, make him hit the shot." I'm like, "Well, he already hit 2 of them. 2 for 3." Well, he's gonna get a layup if you keep doing that. And so we had a little moment. Nothing like the moments used to be. It's just him challenging me and I ask a question and he say this and then I say this and then, you know, Coach get the final say. And that was that. He tried to change the coverage. I told him, no, don't change the coverage. I'll figure it out. And was able to get some stops down the stretch, come up with a big steal. You know, that steal, he took the first dribble and once he took the first bounce, He hit me and I still had inside position. So once I realized I still had inside position, my mind immediately turns to see the ball. And so on the second bounce, it was like away from his body. And so that's advantaged me because I can use my quickness and I can use my length. I got pretty long arms, 7'2" wingspan at 6'5¾". That's pretty solid. So I knew that that was to my advantage. So I'm like, okay, Now I'm thinking if he takes one more dribble like this, I'mma stab at it. And if I get it, great. But what I'm thinking is I know I can either get it or just take a swipe at it and not foul because he had the ball so far away from his body. And I just took a stab at it. I got a good hit on the ball. And you know you get a good piece of the ball when you knock the ball away and it like spin to you. When it take that spin, because sometimes you knock the ball away and it just goes straight out, the guy run back and get it. But I knocked it away and it took that backspin on me. I said, "Oh yeah, got this one." But I mean, the reality is he had got the better of me all night. And you know, he had won the matchup for tonight. I thought I won the matchup in the first 2 games, but he had won the matchup tonight. And you know, I've always said, it's gonna be some nights like that where he's getting off and you know, you just try to make it tough. And there's really just nothing you can do. However, I think I definitely aided in him getting off. Now, take that the wrong way. He's an absolutely great player. But I thought I left my feet way too much on shot fakes. I thought I gave him way too many angles to score. And I was, I took my body off of him way too much. Now, you ask yourself why? Number one, that Denver altitude ain't no joke. That Denver altitude is serious. Mile High City for a reason. You go to breathing. And so, excuse my bad breathing, but that's how you feel on the basketball court in Denver. And I mean, and so kudos to Joker, man. He showed up like an MVP would. One thing we do know about him is he's not soft. He's not shying away from no wreck. You know, he want the wreck and he carried his team tonight. Down the stretch, we made plays that we needed to make. Steph Curry is absolutely incredible. The way Steph Curry bounces back from injuries is like, dude don't miss a beat. Like maybe in the first, you know, when he step out on the court the first time he's back out there, it's like getting the feel. But look no further than that first stint because he does not miss a beat. And I'm not saying this after this series, I'm not saying this just tonight. Like we've seen this over and over again, even in playoff time. I know y'all remember that Game 3 in Portland. Draymond Green, where he came back and we won that thing in a single or double overtime. And Steph Curry took over the fourth quarter in overtime. I think he might've had 30 points in fourth quarter in overtime. Like, Steph's no stranger to this. We're no stranger to this with Steph. But the way he bounced back from injury, I mean, it is absolutely insane. One of the reporters asked me tonight, like, "So how do you compare the way Steph Curry comes off an injury to the way you come off an injury?" Well, he's just only the best shooter to ever live. And that's clockwork, you know. Now I don't know why I can't, I'm a rhythm player, I'm a feel guy. I need that feel. Steph's just kind of go, like he ain't looking for no feel. He just kind of going and taking what the defense giving him and making the defense give him stuff. So Steph's been incredible. We spoke about Jordan Poole. Klay Thompson. Not only did Klay Thompson shoot the ball well, and I'm gonna tell you a very deceiving stat, and if you don't believe it's deceiving, go back and watch the game and pay attention. Klay Thompson battled with Joker down the stretch on rebounds after I got switched off for different things. And Klay got his hand on every rebound down the stretch. He only had 1 rebound for the game, which was very shocking to me because it does not tell the story that he— does not tell the story of him on the boards. Andre Iguodala, big men has come up with some big boards guarding Joker, guarding DeMarcus Cousins. Dunked on Will Barton, turned back the hand of time. Oh man. You know, it's always good to see Dray take off like that. But Draymond Green was huge down the stretch. And then Wiggins was outta the game, comes back in the game, hits a big 3, gets an offensive rebound, gets a stop on Joker. Like those are the plays that win championships. It's not what everyone thinks. Everybody just come down and shoot 3s. Those are the plays that wins games, wins you championships. And kudos to Wiggins, the guy who's been drug through the mud, who everybody say the guy don't show up. He only had 9 points. I hope everyone can see past that and see the game. Guy's playing big time basketball in his first 3 games of this series. We expect nothing less and we expect him to keep it going. So, and then Gary Payton, man, GP came out firing, hit 3 threes in the first quarter, which was great for us. You know, when you, When you're coming on the road, the one thing we expected coming into this game where they were gonna be super physical, you could see Aaron Gordon climbing in the guys right from the gate. Now, you know, you do that and, you know, guys go by you and it gets tough, but their mindset was exactly what we thought it would be. They took on the personality of their head coach, very hard-nosed. You know, he's gonna come with it. They came with it and you gotta get 'em credit. But that is the ultimate gut punch when you go on the road up 2-0 and a team is giving you their best shot in game 3 and you can take those punches and come out with the win and set yourself up for a sweep, put yourself in position for a sweep, that's the ultimate gut punch. And there's no better feeling than walking off a court and you can hear a pin drop. It doesn't get better than that when you go on the road in the playoffs. I mean, that is— That's the feeling. Like that's the ultimate feeling as an athlete. So I enjoyed that one, man. And I hope everyone else enjoyed it. Now, you know, game, game 4 gonna be tough. Those boys just not going away.
Can I ask you a question?
Absolutely.
You had 5 fouls for the majority of the end of that game. And you're obviously a very physical defender and you know Jokic is trying to get into your body. So what's your thought process when you have 5 fouls or guarding a guy like that? A, for the, the entire last few minutes of the game, but especially on that last possession when you're going for that steal, like what is going through your mind? Are you trying to defend him differently? What are, what are you doing differently or the same or not differently when you have 5 fouls guarding a player like that with that in the fourth quarter especially?
I had a, that, that, that play was actually kind of déjà vu for me. I had a play like that some years back against New Orleans in the playoffs and Anthony Davis right on that same side. And if I'm not mistaken, I may have had 5 fouls in that game too. I think the way I look at that one is, on the steal in particular, that is a very calculated risk. Like, I'm not— I see where the ball is. I'm reaching out, you know what I'm saying? I'm not like trying to get through his body to get the ball. I'm just reaching and slapping at the ball. And so it's— that one is a very calculated risk. Risk. In saying that, 5 fouls with 4 minutes to go. If I foul out, then guys just gotta pick up the slack. But I can't play the last 4 minutes worried about picking up my 6th foul. 'Cause guess what he's gonna do? He's gonna take advantage thinking he got 5 fouls, he's not trying to foul again. Well, that's not me.
I'm— Right.
I'm gonna play defense. I'm gonna keep my hands out, try to make sure I don't get any ticky-tack fouls. But ultimately if he makes a great move and he make me foul him, he's a great player. That happens sometimes. And so I didn't think much about the 5 fouls at all. I thought more about the 4 fouls when I picked up that 4th early, that I thought more about that one than, than the 5th foul. The 5th one, 4 minutes ago, you just gonna have to foul me out right there champ. Because what I can't do is just give up buckets trying to stay in the game. If I'm gonna just give up buckets, I might as well go sit down.
Yeah.
So for me, the mindset don't change with 5 fouls with under 4 minutes to go. Mindset is still the mindset. You gotta get stops and we going the other way.
