In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, host Draymond Green and co‑host Jackson break down Game 5 of the Celtics‑Bucks series. They open by lamenting the Warriors’ loss and immediately dive into a defensive debate, defending Marcus Smart while praising Jrue Holiday’s on‑ball defense and questioning the Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) chatter. The duo argues that Jayson Tatum should have had the ball in two key transition moments, placing blame on the Celtics’ ball‑handling rather than Smart’s stops. They also critique the Bucks’ end‑game choices, expressing distrust in Pat Connaughton’s free‑throw shooting in clutch situations and preferring Jrue Holiday. The conversation shifts to the impact of missing role player Chris Middleton for Milwaukee, and then to broader playoff storylines: the Suns‑Mavericks blowout, Luka Dončić’s inflated usage on the road versus at home, Jalen Brunson’s evolving role, and the Heat‑76ers series, highlighting Joel Embiid’s emotional leadership and the effect of missing the MVP award. Throughout, Green offers tactical observations, player evaluations, and series predictions, concluding that the Celtics‑Bucks series may go to seven games.
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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. Tonight is kind of terrible. We got destroyed. So if you haven't figured out yet, this is like Warriors win, happy podcast. Warriors and Celtics win, like ecstatic podcast. It's like as if Jackson plays with the Boston Celtics. So, I'm actually not crushed because we got crushed, whereas Jackson is kind of crushed. Um, Jackson, are you crushed, bro?
To have your best defensive player, the Defensive Player of the Year, get stripped twice in a row by the better— like, in this series at least, the better defensive player— it's tough. And have Jason Tatum not touching the ball in those two possessions. It's tough. It's not good.
Let me tell you something, Marcus Smart. You know how it go when these fans get upset. This man just said you not even the better defensive player.
Nah, I mean, Jrue's been so good. Marcus is amazing. It's nothing against Marcus. Jrue's just been amazing.
He trying to clean it up, Marcus. Hey Marcus, that's how it go, man.
Yo, yo.
That's how it go, Marcus.
Yo, relax, relax, relax.
Sometimes they say Rudy Gobert a better defensive player than me, Marcus, when we struggle.
I mean— Hey, I did not compare Marcus Smart to Rudy Gobert. You did.
No, actually it would be Jrue. But however, I'm really not comparing Jrue to, because Jrue is actually arguably a better defender than Marcus Smart. And that's no disrespect to Marcus Smart. I think Marcus Smart would tell you that Jrue is, Jrue is absolutely an incredible defender. And I don't think people really understand that. And like, like I always knew he was an incredible defender, but then to see Jrue up close in person in the Olympics, like, dude, he's insane defensively. The way he moves his feet and his hands are quick and he's strong as— man. So it's actually no disrespect to Marcus Smart, but Jrue is— And— amazing defender. And Jrue is like, he's a good on-ball defender, he's a good help defender. Like he, Jrue never gets the respect defensively that he deserves. To see Jrue make those two plays down the stretch was not shocking to anyone. Now I think where the problem for me happens though, is everybody's like, Drew making the play on the Defensive Player of the Year. It's not as if— I don't understand why people are throwing the Defensive Player of the Year thing out there with Marcus because he's making an offensive play. And so, you know, um, I just was not even— you, Jackson, I was just like, you know, you scroll down Instagram and that's That's everywhere. It's like, DPOY question. I saw something that said DPOY versus Smart. Like, you know, to take shots at him winning Defensive Player of the Year because he got stopped twice. The reality is, is he shouldn't have the ball in that situation. Jason Tatum should have the ball in that situation. And if not Jason Tatum, then—
Draymond Green.
Jalen Brown should have the ball in that situation. And so for people to go at Marcus Smart with the whole Defensive Player of the Year thing because Drew made great defensive plays is a little crazy to me. But let's talk about the two stops. When I, the first stop, you know, driving baseline against Jrue. That's Marcus Smart. Like Marcus Smart drives right, get to the rim and finish that often. You know, so I'm not looking at the entire play like, oh man, that was a, you know, that was a terrible play or something. Like that's what Marcus Smart does. He's a right-hand driver, get to the lane, finish off the glass. Jrue made an incredible defensive play. And so as much as— Yeah. I think, yes, Jason Tatum should have had the ball. Yes, Jalen Brown should have had the ball. That is something that they get too often, which is Marcus Smart downhill to his right hand. Kudos to Drew. The second play, the problem I have with the second play is I'm never, you know, um, I just felt like he was like, I felt like Marcus was driving into, like, there was nothing over there. Like, even if Drew didn't take the ball, there was absolutely nothing over there. And I can look at some of the mistakes I've made in my career. It's like, Drew should have gave— Jason should have been coming to get the ball in the backcourt. Yeah. From Marcus Smart, as opposed to pushing it up and then trying to get it back to him and try him trying to get open in the front court once Marcus Smart crosses the half-court line. Jason need to go to the ball as opposed to— yes, he was running on the wing wide open, we all saw it, hindsight's 20/20, but Jason should have went and got the ball and then bring it and go get the shot that you want. Yeah. Or they probably send a double team and then he can make the play, as opposed to Marcus coming to make the play. And so if I look back at KD and myself, I'mma— I should probably give KD the ball back there so he can go make the play at that time in the game. So that's the issue that I have with the, with, with the transition plays. Marcus shouldn't have the ball there. Jason need to go get the ball, bring the ball up, and you get the one shot you want. Even if that's, I'm about to draw 2 and kick it to Marcus on the wing. I'mma draw 2 and kick it to Marcus, or drop it off to Marcus cutting, or whatever. Jason should be making the play, and he have to learn that he has to go back and get that ball back there in the backcourt. I'm going to get the ball. I'm going to go make a play now. Before the defense can set up, as opposed to marking it, bring it, the defense loading up, now you hand off to Jason or something and the whole defense is set. No, Jason bring it before the defense gets set, but he got to go get the ball. So I'mma charge this one on JT. I, I, you know, that's, that's, that's my young fella and he got to learn, he got to go get that ball. Now— What What is he, 23 years old still? Like he's still learning. And I think people don't realize that because he's been so good since he walked into the NBA, but he 23 years old. So he'll learn from this and the next time he gonna go back and get that ball and then he gonna make the play. But that's all a part of the lumps that you have to take. So I'm gonna charge this one to the young fella 'cause he's a superstar and he gonna, he gonna be great. For a long time, and he gonna take that organization to places they've been but need to go back to. He gonna take them there. But I'm gonna charge this one to him because he gotta go get that ball. And he go get the ball, we not talking about this because he either shooting that or he making the play to somebody, not somebody else making the play. And that's a learn— that's like I said, that's a learning lesson for JT. So— Yeah. That's what I got for you on the Boston Celtics game. Again, Al Horford, by the way, still bumping. Oh, Al, still bumping, playing incredible basketball. Oh, Al. I also thought, for the Bucks, Pat Connaughton played well. Now, I'm gonna tell you something that bothers me with the Bucks though. Down the stretch, I don't want Pat Connaughton shooting the free throws. You may tell me Pat Connaughton is a 90% free throw shooter, but like, if Pat Connaughton— like, I like Pat Connaughton. I think Pat Connaughton is a very good player, but I just don't love Pat Connaughton shooting free throws down the stretch with the game on the line. Because I want— if the, if the game's on the line for me, I have a certain guy or two that I want the ball in their hand when the game's on the line. If that means they're shooting free throws, I need that guy there because your trust is just gonna be different in that. You know, Jrue Holiday may shoot 75% from the free throw line this year or something like that. But if you see Jrue Holiday at the free throw line as opposed to Pat Connaughton, your trust is just different in that because you know Jrue is always ready for the moment. Mm-hmm. And so that's something that I don't necessarily love. And like I said, I absolutely, I really like Pat Connaughton as a player. I think he's a very good player. I think he plays very well for the Milwaukee Bucks. Slasher, a good athlete, knocks the 3-ball down, tough. Like Pat Connaughton's a really good player, but just game on the line down the stretch, Like if you get the ball to Pat Connaughton to get fouled, right? And they trap him. Like, are you trusting Pat Connaughton to make the play outta the trap? And so that's kind of why you be needing like your guys who had a ball to have a ball. Now that's where you're missing Chris Middleton because Chris Middleton. And so I've been a little, I think if Chris Middleton was in this series, it'll be a totally different series. 'Cause Boston is still growing and Boston may very well still win this series. But I think it'll be a lot different if Chris Middleton, and that's one example of that. A lot like us, there were some other blowouts in Game 5. The Phoenix Suns beat the Dallas Mavericks by 30. I thought Luka usage rate flew back up again. And you know, one thing to note though, and I always talk about this, is role players play better at home than on the road. And so you see when Luka is going to Phoenix, his usage rate is way up, but he also may feel like I have to do more because other guys are doing less when we're on the road. And so everyone wants to blame Luka and say, oh man, he need to pass the ball, he need to do this. But again, it's not so easy for role players to play great on the road. Yeah. It's just a weird thing. Like, it's a comfortability thing. Like, it's just a very weird thing. And so I do think that's a part of the reason why Luka usage rate goes up dramatically when he's on the road as opposed to when he's playing at home. You know, even like Jalen Brunson, he's a totally different player at home than he is on the road. Now you have to understand that Jalen Brunson is used to being a role player. Over the course of this last year, he's stepping that up and he's become like their— he's became their second option. Um, but that's still a role that he's growing into. That doesn't happen overnight. And so when you look at that, Luka has to kind of step it up a bit. However, that's not the recipe for success for them. And so it's a weird balance that they got to figure out. I do think that series will end up going 7. Uh, D-Book looked very disrespected. I saw him and Luka getting at it. Quite a bit. I think that's something to watch for. I've told y'all before, D-Book ain't ducking no smoke. He don't back down from nobody. And I mean, they was saying real words. Like, it wasn't like, hey man, I scored. They were saying real, real, real words. And I thought that was fun. And I'm looking forward to that. You also had the Miami Heat destroy the Philadelphia 76ers. Joel had a bad game. Everybody kind of had a bad game. I think Joel is their emotional leader for certain. I think Joel, you know, you either handle emotions one or two ways and there's no guarantee of how you're gonna handle it. I do think that not winning the MVP thing kind of weighed on him a little bit. Some instances you go out there and you absolutely play great and you can stick it in their, excuse me, in everybody face. And sometimes you go out there and those emotions get the best of you and you don't play that great. And I think everybody in 76ers uniform followed that. And so going back to Philly, they need, guys who didn't play well on the road to come in and play well. Joel obviously has to be better. I think Joel will be better. I don't think Philly is just gonna go lay down. And I also see that one headed back to Miami for a Game 7 as well.
