In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, host Draymond Green and guest JJ Redick discuss the ripple effects of Kevin Durant’s departure from the Golden State Warriors on Steph Curry’s development and the team’s championship trajectory. They argue that Curry, often ridiculed for lacking a Finals MVP, was profoundly motivated by Durant’s exit, which forced him to evolve into a more dominant, physically stronger player capable of scoring at will. The conversation revisits key moments from the Warriors’ 2015, 2017, and 2018 championship runs, highlighting Andre Iguodala’s pivotal Game 6 performance in 2015, the defensive double‑team focus on Curry versus Durant, and the strategic importance of having a second star to alleviate defensive pressure. Green uses the metaphor of “opening the door to your home” to illustrate the respect and integration Durant received within the organization, and how his presence was essential for the Warriors’ success. They also touch on the team’s ability to beat the Rockets without Durant but acknowledge that beating the Cavaliers in 2016 would have been unlikely without his scoring firepower. Throughout, the hosts maintain a conversational, enthusiastic tone, defending Curry’s legacy while critiquing external narratives that undervalue Durant’s contributions.
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What's up everybody, it's Draymond Green from the Draymond Green Show. Make sure you subscribe to the Old Man and the Three.
And it's JJ and Tommy. Make sure you subscribe to the Draymond Green Show and the Volume. Run it back.
I felt that for Steph, he's been ridiculed and you're talking to a guy who does nothing wrong. Like if you say, yo, show me the model citizen. I can show you Steph Curry and show you the model citizen, like, that just doesn't do much wrong at all. And he's been ridiculed, talking about his legacy, he has no Finals MVPs, blah, blah, blah. As much as you don't show you feel that, you feel it. And I know he felt it. And so to go on— How old is he? Here's another thing before I go on. I think the ultimate sign of respect that you can show someone is to invite them into your home. Like, that's the ultimate respect you can give me is to open the door to your home for me. And Steph, I felt like, opened the door to his home for Kevin. And Kevin came in and goddammit, this is home for you too. We all brothers. None of this stuff works without Kevin. We all know that. But for me to open— for me to open this door for you, and you come home, and then it's successful, I feel like that should just go on and on and on and on. And then you kind of just abruptly exit. You know, and then you look— you know, then you have to remember the details. Steph flying from Japan, redirects his plane to not go to San Francisco, to come to New York, only to find out on Instagram an hour before he landed that Kevin was coming to the Brooklyn Nets. I think it's all of those emotions wrapped up into one. And what you get is a Steph Curry talking more shit than me. And it's great. And I absolutely love it.
So there's two parts to this. That partnership, right? There's all the things you talked about with Steph. And for Steph Curry fans, Golden State Warriors fans, I think the fact that he hadn't won a Finals MVP, despite the fact that— I say this all the time, you know, he's the only guy that has been 25-5-5 for the Finals-winning team and not won MVP. He did that 3 times prior to this year. So he's been great in the Finals.
Absolutely.
So some of that was because of LeBron's performance in '15, obviously Iggy being great in that series, starring in his role but not being the guy.
Absolutely.
And, and because of that, those 4 votes that went to LeBron, like, they didn't go to Steph or whatever. There is a part of this though where because you guys had won before and now that you've won after, Kevin maybe doesn't get enough credit for '17 and '18, at least from my perspective. And I want to get your opinion on that.
Well, I think number one, going back to 2015, Andre was absolutely amazing. And I think what it came down to when it went— when discussing like the Finals MVP was— I'm not sure if everyone remembers that Game 6 that Andre had for us to win, but every time they made a run, he hit a big 3. Right wing, right corner. And then obviously he was guarding LeBron. Now, I think people will look at it and say, but look at LeBron's numbers. But what people doesn't understand is you never shut these guys down. Like, you don't like— you're not gonna look and say, "Oh man, he held LeBron to 17 points." Like, no one fucking holds LeBron to 17 points. Like, your job is to make it tough. And I think Andre made it very tough. And then he had a couple games offensively that he was lights out. So then Steph doesn't go on to win and LeBron's performing incredible and all of those things. But then you fast forward to 2017 and I don't think the outside world gave Kevin enough credit. I think if you came within our organization, Kevin was given all the credit because quite frankly, Steph Curry doesn't care. Like, he would have never opened the door to his home to you if he did care because guess what we know? We know Kevin Durant is absolutely incredible. We know Kevin Durant is a superstar. So if I open my home to you, I'm already accepting the fact that I'm sharing my light with you. I'm sharing my stage with you. Clearly, it's totally fine. And I think for us within the organization, we did everything we could to make Kevin comfortable. We did everything we could to let him know— Draymond Green. Just like this our home, this is your home too, brother. But the outside world didn't. The outside world, he's joining a team that won 73 games. He's joining a team that already won a championship and blah, blah, blah. But the reality is, is I don't think that team wins another championship if Kevin doesn't come. Now you may say, oh yeah, but y'all won the fourth one without Kevin. But there's a gap in there where teams started to figure us out. And—
Would you guys have beat Houston?
Yes.
Those two years without Kevin?
Yeah, we was beating them for sure. That team was never going to beat us. It just was not going to happen.
What about the Cavs then?
We would not have beat the Cavs coming back around without Kevin. And here's why. Teams have figured us out. And I personally don't think at that point Steph Curry had figured out, "I'm going to get a bucket whenever I want to." I don't think he was capable of that yet. I think he was still growing into that. And so because of that, once teams started to figure our offense out, we were starting to struggle more and more. I'm not sure if you remember that series of OKC. Yeah. Where we were down 3 to 1 and we had to come back. And that's because teams had started to figure it out. And so what then in turn ended up happening was Steph still creates all the havoc that he fucking creates. Like I tweeted, Steph faced so many double teams and Kevin didn't. That's a fact. Like you can go look at the numbers or just watch the game if you can analyze the game better than Skip Bayless. And if you watch the game, then you see that Steph's getting double-teamed. And Ty Lue then goes publicly and say, I'm double-teaming Steph Curry every chance I get. Kevin wasn't getting double-teamed, but the reality is, is we got to a point where we needed to be able to give someone the ball that can just go get a bucket. And Kevin was already there. I don't think Steph was there yet. So it gets us through those 2 years. We get those— we get those 2 championships. But while we're doing that, Steph is continuing to work and evolve and most importantly, becoming the strongest dude on our team. And to this day, he's the strongest guy on the team. And that allowed him to score whenever he wanted because you can no longer bump him off his path. Like, I think about the drive against Al Horford when he was picking on Al Horford in the fourth quarter of Game 6.
Game 6.
You think about the drive that he had where he boom, boom, boom. And then he just drove. Al Horford's riding his hip and he just lays the ball up. Normally Al Horford would bump him off his path and he's end up shooting a runner. He couldn't bump him off his path. And that's where Steph turned the corner and he became unstoppable. And now we're able to continue winning championships because he's unstoppable. Draymond Green.
