Ja Morant Trade Rumors, Dennis Schroder Suspended, + Rick Carlisle Sending Selfies?

What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. On today's show, I'll talk some Warriors basketball before going around the league, sharing my thoughts on some of the biggest headlines. Dennis Schroder and Luka almost mixing it up, or did they mix it up? Ja Morant trade rumors. Big fella, big cuz, DeMarcus Boogie Cousins getting recruited through selfies, and much more around the reality show that is the NBA. So let's get going. The Draymond Green Show is proudly presented by Grooms. Grooms proves that you can do the least and still feel the most, thanks to a delicious daily habit that does the heavy lifting. Save up to 52% off with code Draymond at Grooms.co. That's code Draymond at Grooms.co. Uh, last night's loss. Um. Honestly, I thought for the most part in the game we played well. I don't think our defense was very good. We didn't put up much of a, much resistance in the first half. Second half, I thought we started the half off, they got it going, then we put up some resistance and made a run, and then they just went on the run. But within that, I just thought we shot poorly. We missed a lot of shots. 10 for 41 from 3, something of that nature. Missed some easy bunnies, you know, and so it happens. And you know, Luke Kinnaird got going from 3, Nikhil Alexander-Walker got going from 3. Now what I will say is I saw a couple of our mistakes that we made to give up some of those 3s. And once you give up some of those 3s to great shooters, and you open the floodgates, then you're just, you're trying to put out a fire. And we weren't able to put out the fire. But I thought overall we ended up with 14 turnovers, which 3 of those turnovers were on offensive fouls. However, they scored off a lot of the live ball turnovers. And so, although I think we only had in total 9 live ball turnovers, they probably scored off each one of them. And that's a recipe for disaster, especially when you are missing shots the way we were missing shots. We've also struggled with these, these offenses that their offense isn't necessarily running through a particular player. Like last night, like what's clear is that the Hawks offense is running through Jalen Johnson and young fella has stepped his game up. Yeah. He's getting everybody involved. He's scoring the basketball, he's rebounding the basketball. You know, he has grown tremendously. I thought he was gonna be an All-Star last year. He ended up getting hurt. He'll definitely be an All-Star this year. But so their offense runs through him, but it's not, it's not a ball dominant runs through him, you know? And so we've struggled in these, in these games where— Yeah.— It's not necessarily the ball dominant running through a guy, you need to stop the guy. Like I feel like we fare better in games like that defensively, but these teams that just kind of gets it all over the place and, you know, there's a rhyme and rhythm to it, but not necessarily, like I said, just one particular thing that they're trying to get to. It's like we've struggled in those games, you know? And last night was kind of another example. Of that, you know, this was their first game playing with their new trade pieces in CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert, who were traded to the Atlanta Hawks for Draymond Green. And you know, when you look at the fit of those two guys, I think Corey Kispert, with what Corey Kispert does, he shoots the ball very well. He, you know, he gives what he got on the defensive end. A really good athlete. And then we obviously all know what CJ McCollum is. I actually think they're both two good fits for this team. Atlanta plays the European kid. I don't want to mess up his name. Krijiji. Krijiji. A lot. Excuse me if I pronounced his name wrong. They play him a lot. And I think Corey Kispert will be an upgrade of him. As Corey Kispert figures out the system and CJ figures out the system. But I think, you know, it's a really good trade for them. CJ doesn't need the ball on the front side of the defense to score. CJ can catch and shoot, but he can also catch it on the backside of the defense and attack and get what he want, create a shot. And so I think those two guys will be a pretty good fit for them. And, you know, and fitting in around a Jalen Johnson-led Atlanta Hawks team as they would look to build towards around him in the near future. And I think that is a recipe for success for them. So looking forward to see how that go. And then also just continuing to watch the growth of Jaylen Johnson. He's gotten so much better with handling the ball and shooting the ball, creating for himself and creating for others. Like the potential that you've always seen, even during his time at Duke before he left Duke early, And when I say early, I don't think he even finished his whole freshman season with Duke. But the potential that you've seen, like, it's no longer potential. It's there, you know? And he is coming into his own, and he's gonna be a force to be reckoned with and a perennial all-star at the level that he's playing. And an excited player with the bounce that he has, you know? I really like where they headed. And obviously they got, you know, possibly two great picks in this upcoming draft. So love what Onsi has done as the GM over there of Atlanta. I respect a first-time general manager coming into a situation where there's a star player and a franchise cornerstone and not being afraid to make a move. And yet I also respect that Onsi was so like, he actually got traded where he wanted to go. Didn't get all overhyped on, oh man, we're not getting the pick back or do we gotta give up this? He got the job done and got it done fast and they didn't get any picks back. However, when you made the trades that Onsi has already made and have the picks that they have, you don't really need to get a pick back. You need to get players leadership, you need to get players that can fit and is going to help create a great culture that they're trying to build under Quinn Snyder and Onsi and under a Jalen Johnson-led team. And I think those, the moves that they made or the move that they made that brings in a couple guys, remember Porzingis is still out as well. I think it, you know, it's really good moves that fit well with what they're trying to do. So. Yeah. Respect the general manager being able to, or having the guts to make that call so fast. First year as the GM and you're making a call like that. It's just not a normal thing. And it wasn't nasty, which I respect. Shout out to the Atlanta Hawks organization. Shout out to Draymond Green. Shout out to Onsi Sala. You know, they got it done and got it done in a very respectful manner. And no love lost, no hard feelings. Everybody moves on. And comes tomorrow. So that was the Hawks, that's our game, that's the state of the Hawks and the trade that they just made. We will move on to a player that came in with the Hawks, might've played 8 or 9 years with the Hawks, at least 7. Dennis Schroder. And Luka Dončić. Ironically, we gave out our fire starter of the week, of the month a week ago, and We gave to Jose Alvarado, who was fighting and beating up people. And we don't have a Firestarter of the Month yet, but you know, you fight, you get Firestarter of the Month. And they said that Dennis attempted to swing on Luka. I saw Dennis say attempted as if he hit Luka. Yeah. And you know, it makes you ask the question, well, if he's getting suspended for 3 games, I know Dennis and everybody's question probably like, if you're getting suspended, not Dennis, but everyone else, if you're getting suspended for 3 games, did you really attempt to punch or did you connect on a punch? Because I've seen guys get suspended for 2 games that connected on a punch. So did he really? Attempt to punch or did he connect on a punch? That's where it gets interesting. It's 3 games. I don't know. However, what I will say to Dennis is I got suspended from a game in the NBA Finals and I didn't connect on anything. So, you know, I don't know. It'll be interesting. What I will say is I think this story is still developing. I think it's still developing because it, like, why would Dennis say attempting with the eyes? And why would Dennis get— and, and we've heard not much about it. We've already heard the report that DeAndre Aydin broke it up and that was that. So I think this story is still developing, folks. I don't know that we have all the details to this one. But, you know, we'll see. I saw a lot of people making a thing of me and Dennis talking at halftime. First they thought we were arguing, which we weren't. But then we were talking, you know, have y'all seen the picture of Dennis coming to America? Hahaha. Hey, by the way, I only had the opportunity to play with Dennis Schroeder, same team with him for maybe 2 months, 3 months. However, I really enjoyed playing, being Dennis' teammate. So it was really funny, the game, you know, when he came into the game, I was looking at like, he had like 3 or 4 braids or something. And they stopped, and they like meet the neck braids, they lock. And I was just looking like, "Man, these guys are dead wrong. They're going to let Dennis come in the game with those braids like that." But if you know anything about Dennis, Dennis is very headstrong. You're not talking him off of much that he wants to do. And I was just like, "Man, they are some bad teammates. They let Dennis come in." And so as we're walking off the court, Yo, Dennis, I think he was projecting because he then stands up to me and was like, yo, what you— and I'm like, Dennis, why are you coming to talk to me about hair? Who lets you do that to your head? Who lets you do this? Like, these guys, they don't like you because they let you do this to your hair. And he's like, no, you need to go bald. I said, that's fine, I could go bald, but who lets you do this? "And you know, Dennis, we know you went to Turkey and got the hair plugs because we saw your hairline coming when you were coming to America." Nonetheless, we weren't arguing at all. That was funny, fun moment. I enjoy those fun moments on the court. So that was one, but I got out, you know, y'all don't be letting DS come out here with them braids. Stop right there, man. That was too much, DS. Also, quit fighting. If you gonna be the Firestarter of the Month next month, you keep it up. Coming up next after the break, I'll go around the association, share my thoughts on the Ja Morant rumors, AD's injury, and a very odd soundbite from Boogie Cousins. Back right after this. What's up, as promised, moving around the association. Ja Morant trade rumors. It's interesting in watching the trade rumors come out around Ja. You seen the stuff earlier in the year where they were like, oh man, he doesn't get along with the new coach. And I spoke earlier in the year on the show about how I actually thought Jah, Jaren, Brandon Clark, all those guys, Bain before he traded away. I thought all of those guys really rocked with Taylor Jenkins. I thought they were big fan of Taylor Jenkins. I thought they played hard on a nightly basis for Taylor Jenkins. And I was someone who was critical of Taylor Jenkins throughout some of the moments in when Dallas, excuse me, when Memphis was seeming as if they were gonna make a run. And what I said was sometimes that they seemed to take on his demeanor. Sometimes, you know, he'd get to complaining. And the bottom will fall out for their team. And it's like their team were taking on that demeanor. And I think that that was an area that Taylor needed to grow in in order to one day possibly become a coach that leads a team to a championship. And then ultimately that the team, a young team needs to grow in. And in saying that, the one thing that I always thought also though was that they played hard for him on a nightly basis. Yeah. They played hard for him. And sometimes, you know, when you see this Memphis team now, they're not always playing hard. And that's surprising to me. Now, you know, they have some hard-playing guys, but they're not always playing hard and giving the effort that you kind of had grown accustomed to these Memphis groups bringing. And so when I looked at that, you know, and when I spoke about that earlier this year, I said like, I was shocked by— Draymond Green. Them firing, just firing Taylor Jenkins like that. But what I said then also was that, that mean they're not really listening to the star. You know, they're not, which means they'll probably move on from the star at some point. And now we're seeing them, you know, the rumors come out saying they're entertaining trading Ja Morant. And what I'll say about that is, you know, not every day does players with the ability and capabilities of a Ja Morant come available. You know, so when those guys come available, A, you gotta do your homework and your due diligence to make sure that that's the guy that fits into your culture, or B, that you know doesn't really fit into your culture and that you're gonna take a flyer on and say, the talent is so big that I can work around him and the culture. Because if we can get that part right, the talent is undeniable. And I think that's what Ja Morant is. Ja's obviously had his issues off the court. And you know, Ja's not been found guilty of any crime. He has not, been arrested or anything of that nature. So when I say his problems off the court, I wanna be very clear 'cause I know people be like, "Oh man, this guy did this and he did that." And it's like, he had a gun for sure in a state where it was legal. And you know, guns aren't really something that's condoned in the NBA. And you know, flashing on Instagram is a whole other thing and get all of that. But make no mistake about it. What I'm not saying is that this guy has been troubled off the court because that's been the narrative, but he's never been arrested to my knowledge and has not been found guilty of a crime in my knowledge. So his hiccups, I will call them, that he's had off the court has kind of dropped his value a bit as far as how people see him around the league. And then also, you know, just the injury concerns and how many games he's played over the last few years as opposed to how many games he didn't play. You know, but I think all of those things, like, they can be affected by organization, organizational changes as well. Like, how good is the Memphis training staff? I don't know. But I know when Andre Iguodala was traded there, he didn't show up because he didn't wanna work with their training staff. You know, so I don't know that their training staff is good or bad. I don't know them, but I do know that, you know? And so, If you have a great training staff, are you able to keep Draymond Green healthier? Like, you look at all these different things and you have to make that decision. But make no mistake about it, um, an elite player, and those, those guys just don't come up often. I feel like Memphis, once they saw what, uh, Atlanta did with Trae, it was kind of like, all right, well, we're gonna kind of couple this, you know, put this in the same boat and we're gonna kind of take that same approach. I don't know that that franchise in Memphis sits in the same place as the franchise in Atlanta, but you know, if that's their take on it, I get it. You kind of had a sense of when they signed Jaren to the big deal this summer that they were probably gonna be looking to build around Jaren. You know, when they opted out of less money to sign him to the big deal to make sure that they got, that they'll probably be looking to build around Jaren. And now with the reports, that's kind of what they're saying, you know? And so I find it very interesting. But what I will say is Ja Morant, to the right situation, if he was to get traded, I think it can do dividends, pay dividends for his career. I think it could pay dividends to any organization that gets a talent like Ja Morant. We'll see what happens over the next few weeks leading up to the February 5th trade deadline. But for the first time in his career, apparently Memphis has said that they will entertain trade talks. That also entertaining trade talks doesn't always mean you're gonna get traded, but it just means they're willing to listen. And if the right offer comes, they'll make that offer. So now who are the teams that you look around and you like, oh, that team may go after Ja Morant. Sacramento Kings, I could see going after Ja Morant. Yeah. Miami Heat, I could see going after John Morant. Toronto Raptors, I could see going after John Morant. A dark horse that I'll tell you is the New York Knicks. I haven't seen any reports or anything like that, but— Draymond Green. Can you imagine Draymond Green in the Garden? Like if that was the case. But I would say a dark horse is the New York Knicks. You're talking a team that, you know, has championship aspirations that hasn't quite gotten there yet. But I think a dark horse could be, you know, they have the contracts to make it happen. We'll see. You know, I think that could be a dark horse. I think the Knicks are a dark horse. The Phoenix Suns. I don't know their path to getting Ja Morant or if there is even a path. But another team I think to watch, the Los Angeles Clippers. Not sure what their path is to getting Ja Morant, but another team to watch. You know, so needless to say, there are a bunch of teams out there that can use a Ja Morant type talent. And there are a bunch of teams out there that I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a move for Ja Morant. Orlando Magic, do they feel like, "Oh man, he could be our point guard in the future." Place that struggled to get free agents. I don't know. Needless to say, if Ja Morant is moved, whatever team he was to go to instantly gets better. That, make no mistake about it. Yeah. With that level of talent, that team instantly improves. And sometimes when you think about reviving a career, et cetera, sometimes guys just need a fresh start. And I don't know that Ja feels he need a fresh start. I don't know the sentiment around that, but maybe he do. But I think nonetheless, if he does get a fresh start, I think we'll see the Ja Morant that we've grown accustomed to seeing. And speaking of availability, you know, and you know, just being healthy brings us around to AD, who's dealing with a hand injury. Heard he has some ligament damage in his hand that could possibly require surgery that will more than likely take him out for the remainder of the season. There's been a lot of trade talk around AD and it makes you wonder if a team would still make the trade, especially if he's gonna be down the rest of the year. I think what I will say, if AD was to be down for the rest of the year and the team doesn't make a trade, I think what it does allow is, Nico Harrison set out to build a team that he thought can be built around AD, Kyrie Irving, And that team will be able to compete for a championship. And somewhere along, along the way, the Dallas Mavericks ended up with the number 1 pick and got Cooper Kupp, which would change your thought on some things, especially with Kyrie Irving tearing the ACL. It'll just change your thought on your outlook. Yeah. And so I think that's possibly what could have happened. So in Dallas, you fire Nico, Kyrie's out with an ACL, AD, you know, has been out for the majority of the year dealing with injuries. Cooper Flagg has been coming on and you like, ah, maybe we just gonna go this direction. But now with the injury, what does the return look like? Because I do think the return for Dallas is important, especially if you're gonna build through the draft. The return that you get on the investment is important, you know. And so when you look at it, if, if AD is in fact out for the remainder of the season, then who makes the trade and what are they willing to give? And if Dallas don't like it because teams aren't really willing to give much due to the injury, then do they stick around and stay put? If they stay put, we actually may get an opportunity to see the team that Nico set out to assemble. And I think that'll be interesting. Obviously trade deadline coming up. Few guys on their team we've heard about possibly being traded. We'll see. You know, we'll see what happens with that. But needless to say, AD in tip-top shape is still an All-NBA level player. Still a monster on the offensive end. Still a monster on the defensive end. Yeah. Health has been an issue. I think, you know, you get with the right staff, right organization, you know, you cover some of those things up. You, or not necessarily cover them up, you cover your tracks, meaning you are able to put some work in to avoid some of these situations. Yeah. Nonetheless, you know, I think you have a healthy AD on any team, that team is 1,000% better. Health has been a little tricky, but nonetheless, we also have seen healthy AD years and we've seen him be dominant. He's a top 75 player for a reason. And again, those don't just become available very often. It's just not a thing. So you have to take a look at it, no matter who you are. You must take a look at it. And lastly, moving around the association, DeMarcus Cousins says Rick Carlisle tried to recruit him to the Mavericks during his prime, and Rick Carlisle would send him selfies saying, I'm thinking about you and really want to coach you. Boogie says he left him on read. I find that funny because I have a teammate, or had a teammate, that once played for Rick Carlisle. And Rick Carlisle, apparently him and Rick Carlisle live in the same city. And he said Rick Carlisle was just like in the summertime, just randomly pop up at his house and just sit there and like just sit and like sit around. And he's like, man, Rick, what you doing? Why you just sitting in my house? And he'd just sit there, and then after a while he'd be like, all right, I'm out of here, I'll see you later, it's good to see you, and like dip. And so I said all of that to say, I believe Boog about the selfies. I wish Boog would show us some receipts, like show us the selfies. Why we can't see the selfies, Big Cuz? We'd love to see the selfies. Nonetheless, I believe Cuz on this. I definitely believe him. Cuz's agent at the time was Dan Fagan, God rest his soul, RIP. Dan Fagan had a very close relationship with the Mavericks and Mark Cuban and Rick Carlisle. May have even possibly— take this with a grain of salt, I can't recall if this is actually factual— but possibly, uh, Dan Fagan possibly take it with a grain of salt, possibly represented Rick Carlisle. If he didn't, still had a very close relationship with Cuban and the Mavs. So I do not doubt that Rick Carlisle was sending Book selfies. And if you know anything about DeMarcus, there was 0% chance he was ever going to play for Rick Carlisle after sending him selfies. But nonetheless, I got a lot of respect for Rick Carlisle. I've heard some interesting things about Rick Carlisle. And like I said, one of them is just inviting yourself to a player's house that you coached and just sitting around and sitting there. I've never heard that, little bizarre. But sending selfies to a player you're trying to recruit saying, "I'm thinking about you," is also a little bizarre. So maybe Rick Carlisle is a little bizarre. And to be that level of great and win 1,000 games, congratulations to Coach Carlisle on recently Eclipsing the 1,000-win mark, you have to be a little different in order to reach that level of success. So I don't doubt it one bit. You probably lost out on generational talent by sending selfies. Needless to say, Rick, I hope you're not still sending selfies because in today's day and age, you get in trouble for the most darndest things. So— Yeah. Much love to Rick Carlisle. Congrats to Rick Carlisle. Much love to Book. Yeah, I hope he still got the selfies. I guess they'll be great to laugh at sometimes. And before we get outta here, we have Golden Days. And today's Golden Days question comes from Joseph Dominguez. Can you discuss your thoughts on the edge of elimination 2014 playoffs Warriors versus Clippers, Game 6. Also on how that series loss motivated and gave the Dubs confidence the following season. I was at that game and it was my favorite game I went to as a kid. Joseph, that game going into elimination, we always thought the Clippers were front runners. We thought that when things were going great for them, they were giddy and everything was great. And when things went bad, they would start arguing and bickering with each other. And we will always try to play on that. So going into that game, we knew like, fellas, you just gotta get under they skin a little bit. They're gonna start turning on each other and we got 'em. And that's exactly what we did. And we were able to pull out that game 6 and force a game 7 back in at Staples Center at the time against the Clippers. And when we forced the game 7, we obviously go on to lose the game 7 barely. Thought we should have won that. We didn't come up with a couple loose balls that changed the game and they were able to pull the win out. But that series, you know, we lose that in 7. Coach Mark Jackson is fired. Coach Steve Kerr is hired. And the rest is history. And— Steve Kerr's. Oh shit, my phone's calling. Steve Kerr. And the rest is history. So coming off that series, you come into the next year, Now 2 straight years of the playoffs, but you're wanting more. However, for us to be like, I'll be lying if I came in, if I said, man, we came into that champ, that next season with Steve Kerr as the head coach talking championship. We didn't like, we had never been that far. You can't, that's why it baffles me when I see teams just talking like, oh man, yeah, we pushing for a championship. Like bro, push for a first round playoff win, push to get to the conference finals. Like, Push for realistic things because you don't even know what it takes to get to an NBA Finals, let alone win one. You know, and people just throw it around like it's just this attainable goal and it's not really an attainable goal for most people. And so we start playing and Steve's introducing this new system, blah, blah, blah. Let me not get off topic of the question. But anyway, the season starts and we get to rolling and it's like, oh man, like. Yeah. We really good. Oh man, we can beat everybody. Yo, we might be able to win a championship. And so I would say this, that the confidence to go on and avenge the next year and actually win a championship, it was avenge the loss next year and win a championship. It wasn't just as cut and dry as, oh, we lost to them, next season we come and motivate. No, we got a new coach, we ran a new system, we start playing, we're beating a lot of teams, and then those things started to become like, oh man, maybe we could do this. But it just wasn't a thing. So when these guys come out and they be like, oh yeah, we just doing it for the fun, like shut up. No you not. No you not. And that's kind of how I see it. But that's what happened with us for game 6 and game 7, that Clippers series is like, Yes, it motivated us to the point of like, yo, you don't wanna keep getting to playoffs and lose. Like what else can we do? But it wasn't as cut and dry as like, all right, they beat us. We coming back next year. We know we got the confidence now. It was a little different than that. A little bit different. But needless to say, we did win a championship that year. We did. That was the start of the dynasty. But I don't think it was necessarily a direct correlation of, "Ah man, we lost to the playoffs and then to them, we got the experience, now we can do it." Like it was much more to it than that, in my opinion. But that's Golden Days. Make sure you submit your questions at draymondgreen@audacy.com if you want your questions to be featured on Golden Days in an episode coming soon. Wanna thank you all again for tuning into the Draymond Green Show. We've got the Blazers, then the Knicks, two big games that we need to win and make sure this is a great homestand for us. Until next time, deuces. 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. 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 Frisinger, and Greg Holtzman. Video production and creative design by Curt Courtney, Tim Meekle, Lauren Vieira, and Evan O'Brien. Special thanks to the team at The New Media and the team at Odyssey. Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Hillary Shuff, Eric Donnelly, Kate Rose, Colin Gaynor, and Jake Gally.