In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, Draymond Green and host Jackson Sequist dissect recent NBA playoff series, including the Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Memphis Grizzlies and the Phoenix Suns vs. New Orleans Pelicans. Draymond critiques coaching decisions, such as questionable defensive assignments and late‑game gambles, and highlights key player performances (e.g., Mikal Bridges, Chris Paul, Brandon Ingram). He then answers mailbag questions, offering his elite‑defender perspective on optimal pick‑and‑roll coverage—emphasizing the big man’s positioning at the level of the screen—and recounts how his basketball IQ was shaped by watching all levels of basketball and early mentorship from his Uncle Benny. The conversation shifts to a fan‑driven debate on Jayson Tatum versus Luka Dončić, where Draymond notes their differing roles and Tatum’s recent defensive and playmaking leap. Finally, he shares his favorite non‑finals playoff series—the Warriors’ victory over the Houston Rockets—explaining why the Rockets’ self‑proclaimed mission to beat Golden State made the series memorable. Throughout, Draymond’s tone is conversational, analytical, and enthusiastic, with occasional critical remarks about coaching choices.
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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. Incredible games yesterday. I enjoyed them. Always try to enjoy the games on the off days. Minnesota, Memphis. Minnesota is up 4-1 and yet they're down 3-2. I mean, it's absolutely, Incredible how those guys has put themselves in position where they should have already won 4 out of 5 games and somehow they've managed to only win 2 of them. I mean, it seems to be, it seems to go wrong every time Carl Towns say something on the mic or he tell people to shut up or wait. I mean, at some point you probably just should be yourself because It just don't, like, it hasn't been going right for him when he does that. And I've never known Karl Towns to be such a big talker. And this year, especially as of last few months, it's been a lot of that. And when you talk like that, you gotta back that up. And Memphis ain't hearing it. They like, "Oh, he talking?" The way it feels to me is they're like, "Oh, he's talking? All right, turn it up." That's just how it ends up looking on the TV screen. Now, obviously it's not that. I was watching that game. I was very shocked down the stretch that they put Dylan Brooks on him and he caught the ball outside of the free throw line every time. And they was running like some high post split to— he has Dylan Brooks on him. He made his name scoring in the post, not shooting threes, not up out on the floor. I couldn't believe they didn't put him down, especially with the game going haywire. Like when the game going haywire, what do you do? You want to get to the free throw line to calm the game down. Well, how do you get that? You put the power on the ball inside or you go to the hole. And they didn't do either. I was extremely shocked by that. And then Ant-Man, Ant-Man, when you say stuff, you gotta back that up, Ant-Man.
Yeah.
And you come out last week and say I'm the best defender in the NBA. And then you give a guy who hadn't shown much confidence in his shot throughout the night, who we know gets to the cup and is finishing with the best of them or the best, and you gamble and give him a straight line drive with 3 seconds to go. If you come up and you guard him with 3 seconds to go, he get one move and then he gotta look for a shot. And to gamble for the steal, I didn't understand that. I was very shocked by it. But that's been indicative of the things that they've done all series long in Minnesota and the reason they're down 3-2 and they probably should have already taken the series 4-1. But nonetheless, I will be locked into that game on Friday, seeing if we will be headed to Memphis on Saturday or will we be chilling on Saturday and gearing up to either play at home and stay home on Monday and get ready for Tuesday's game, or if we're headed to Memphis on Saturday. So I'm extremely excited as a basketball fan to watch that game, but even more importantly, as a Golden State Warrior and finding out who we have next up. Draymond Green. So we'll see. And then the Suns and Pelicans. Incredible game. I thought with that game, CP takes over a game and now you know, your game plan is to take CP out. You can't let Mikal Bridges go for 31 points. And you're trying to win on the road. That's, it's absolute, it's nearly impossible for a team to win on the road. And Mikal Bridges is an incredible player. I love Mikal Bridges. I think he's absolutely amazing on both. He's amazing on the defense side of the ball and he's very good on the offensive side of the ball. And so he did what he's supposed to do. But if you're New Orleans and you're going in there and you're saying, we gotta beat these guys. Number one, you gotta take Chris Paul out the game. We all know that. But number 2, you can't let other guys go for 30. And so, looking forward to that game as well. I've enjoyed watching the young Pelicans team, a brand new team. They're putting it together. Willie Green's doing an incredible job. So this game 6 for them will be interesting. We'll see how it turns out. I think, I think Chris Paul goes into Chris Paul mode and goes to New Orleans and close those guys out. But. Yeah. Brandon Ingram might have something to say. And Brandon Ingram's been playing incredible. And if CJ gets off like CJ can get off, that game may be headed back to Phoenix for a game 7. And no one wants to go for a game 7. I don't care who you playing, it's a coin flip.
Talking about as a fan, have you ever seen, and I'm not trying to be exaggerating, have you ever seen a playoff dunk as good as John Moran's dunk?
That dunk.
That's one of the best dunks I've ever seen. Never mind in the playoffs at a big moment like that.
That dunk was absolutely incredible. I can't recall, and I'm sure there are some out there that I'm just not thinking of, but that, I mean, it was absolutely amazing dunk. I don't like to get into the, oh, it was the best dunk of all time. It was the best playoff dunk of all time. It was an incredible dunk. He punched on him and You know, what we do know is that wasn't the first time Dray tried, and it won't be the last time that he tried, but he finished him. And plays like that changes games. You know, it truly changes the momentum and tone of games. And I think Josh did last night. I thought, you know, he, just that aggression. And you know, you put a guy, you put a guy down like that and in the rim, I mean, that's a momentum booster. And like I said, we all know Ja's gonna try that, but I don't get off into like, oh, it's the best one ever. Like there's incredible dunks during the playoffs, but that was amazing. And before we get outta here, as promised, we're gonna do a few mailbag questions. Jackson is going to read off the questions and who they're from. I will be answering these questions and trying to give you a little insight on what you want to know. Jackson, talk to me.
From Ali Castillo at @iamalicas, from your POV as an elite defender, what do you think is the most effective pick and roll coverage?
I think for me and from my point of view, I, it's, it's all based on the personalities within the coverage. Now, not that, so I'll use an example from this series games. Not that if Monte Morris is in the coverage and Joker, as opposed to Bones Hyland and Joker, you're going to make the coverage to stop the problem. Who, like, which guy in that situation is more of a threat? Obviously it's Joker. Monte Morris played incredible, but it's Joker. Like, you want to take Joker out. And so based upon his tendencies and what he likes and where he gets off at, then that's your coverage. And that's the one in that situation that ultimately you're going to go with. Now, in saying that, I personally think the best pick and roll coverage, regardless of what the actual coverage is, is that big man has to be up to the— Draymond Green. Level of the screen. You get guys sitting back, we see it a lot with Rudy Gobert and teams take advantage of it. You get guys sitting back in the lane and not up at the level of the screen and guys are just, guards in this league are just way too good to come off with that much vision and that much space and shoot the ball too well and to be down the floor. So regardless of what pick and roll coverage you're in, I think it's very important for the big man to be up at the level of the screen. And that simply just means if my man is setting a ball screen on Klay, I need to be up at the same level that my man is setting that ball screen in order to stop that guy from turning the corner and take care of the initial problem right at the point of attack.
From, I don't know how to pronounce this, from @maxinout_jp @justinpowell510, who did you watch growing up or even now to build your basketball IQ?
I watched a bunch of basketball, not just NBA basketball either. I watched college basketball, I watched WNBA basketball, women's college basketball. I watched high school basketball. I watched little kids play. I just watched a bunch of basketball. My IQ is a gift from God that I enhanced over the course of my life. And it started with my Uncle Benny. My Uncle Benny was, is a mastermind when it comes to the game of basketball. Dudes still tell me different stuff today. To help me out. And he's never coached past the elementary school level, but that is his passion. He actually loved to teach kids the game of basketball. So for me, my IQ started way back then because he never just rolled the ball out to us and said, "All right, let's go play basketball." Like we would go 2 weeks, first 2 weeks of practice and not touch a basketball doing help side defense drills and different stuff like that. And so I learned defense at a very young age. I learned help side at a very young age. Mm-hmm. And then it was about having great coaches and enhancing that as my career went on. But to build an IQ, you have to be a fan of the game. You have to watch a bunch of basketball. You have to play a bunch of basketball to get those live reads. And then like I said, most importantly, you know, I think that's one of my gifts.
I promise I did not write this next question. Okay. From Jackson Sequest, @JacksonSequest, do you think Tatum has surpassed or is close to Luka in terms of overall impact due to his leap on the defensive end?
Jackson changed his last name, y'all. He wanted to get a question off. He didn't want to—
I didn't write it, I swear.
And this is a Boston question. Come on now. Like, we all know it's you, Jackson. Come on, man. But Jackson, I'll answer your question.
All right, let's hear it.
Do I think Tatum has surpassed Luka in terms of overall impact because of his leap on the defensive end? Who said Luka was in front of Tatum to begin with?
Jackson Sequist did apparently. I would've agreed before, before Tatum has, has locked up KD like this and before Tatum averaged 7.5 assists per game this last series. Luka, Luka is, is the man.
Luka is absolutely incredible. I just was asking the question like who, who, who said that? But no, Luka's absolutely incredible and his impact on any game he's in is, Phew. JT, has he passed him? I don't know. I don't really get into the whole comparing guys. They're two totally different players. They play two totally different roles on their team outside of just being the main scoring threat. I thought JT took a huge leap in this series for sure with the way he defended and with the way he passed the ball. He didn't settle for many bad shots. I thought he definitely took a leap in terms of his growth. But that's also the same leap that I saw coming and playing USA basketball with him. So I'm not surprised by that leap at all. He's been absolutely incredible. And he's been, you know, he's continuing to get older. Like I said before, we've been watching these young guys since they were 19 coming into the NBA, making it to the Eastern Conference Finals and then expecting that every year. And the reality is they're just going through their progression and getting better as they age. And now I think JT's what, 23, 24 years old? He's starting to put it all together. And so I'm not surprised by that leap at all because one thing I knew is if he commits his mind on the defensive end with the way he can move and with his length, he's going to be an incredible defender. And he's starting to show that now and it's making a huge difference in their team.
Last one. And again, as I'm going to say every episode, submit these questions on Twitter, hashtag the Draymond Green Show. That's where I'm going to pull the questions from every episode. Last one for today. From Caleb Bennett at Bennett Brawler, excluding the finals, what was your favorite playoff series that you've been a part of and why?
Caleb, I, I have to be honest with you. There's nothing that compared to the NBA finals, but my favorite, my absolute favorite playoff series was when we beat the Houston Rockets and the year before, KD went outta the lineup and they were like, "Oh." I mean, the year before Chris Paul went outta the lineup and they're like, "Oh, well we miss Chris Paul, that's why we lost. Running back, we're built to beat the Warriors, blah, blah, blah." And then next year KD gets hurt and they still lose. And that for me was one of my absolute playoff series because for them to be so outspoken about, we built this team all year, "We built this team literally just to beat the Warriors." They get the opportunity. We lose one of our top players and they still go on to lose the series. Y'all told us last year when Chris Paul went out, that's why y'all lost. Well, we not making that same excuse. And then they blew it up. You know, to see a team built to beat you and then it get blown up, clearly didn't work. So that was my favorite series by far, just because they were so outspoken about it. Couldn't actually do it and then, all right. Let's get Clint Capella outta here. And that was the first domino to fall and every other one fell after that. And now the Houston Rockets are 19 and 20 and 62. So whatever they are, that all started with that series. So yeah, that's my favorite one, Caleb.
