Steph's 60-point night, All-Star snubs, response to Stephen A. Smith on Embiid | Draymond Green Show

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The Dubs lose another tough game at Atlanta last night. And very frustrating, especially with Steph having the type of night that he had, 60. We did beat the Grizzlies on the first night of the back-to-back, then flew to Atlanta and lost a game that was very winnable. Another game that was very winnable for us. And like I said, Steph went for 60, the rest of us didn't play too well. Yeah. I think we were third, shot 30, everybody else shot 38% from the field, 8 for 38 from 3. And then you had Steph with 10 threes. It always sucks when you lose a game. When you lose a game and your guy go off like that, it's even worse because you just feel like you had a total letdown. You feel like you didn't hold up your end of the bargain because there's no way he has 60 points and we lose, you know? And so—

Yeah.

That in itself always sucks. We're in a very interesting stretch right now. Very interesting stretch where, you know, some very winnable games on the Strip and we need to put some wins together. This right now is a very key time for us. You know, it feels like we're turning the corner, you know, and then you kind of have these setbacks, like a loss like last night where you like, we really should win that game. And trying to string some wins together has been a challenge for this team, but I still believe that we're capable of doing that. I do think, you know, we've been on the run for a very long time and Like, as time has gone on, our margin for error has shrunk dramatically. And I think that's what's very interesting thing. So you look at all these close games, we got like 30 of 'em. The margin for error is so small. And I think for us, I think we're making a bunch of mistakes that we should not be making. Bunch of small mistakes. And you start to add those small mistakes up over the course of a game, things that you can take away. And like they just usually come back to bite you in the end. And so I feel like that's like a lot of what been happening with us is like you just make these small mistakes over and over and over and over and over again. And at a certain point it's just impossible to overcome them. Everyone always say, what is it that this team have to do in order to turn that corner? And the reality is I don't think there's one thing to pinpoint. I think there's a few things to pinpoint, but most importantly, we have to play more mistake-free basketball. Like stop making little mistakes that we make throughout the course of a game. And if you can stop doing that, then you're able to build leads, right? Like we'll have times where we're playing well during the game and we're not able to build a lead because then those mistakes come in, right? And so then you're kind of fighting a battle the entire game, an uphill battle. All of a sudden a team go on a run, they take control of the game. Now you're fighting for control back. You're fighting against those mistakes even more. And so I just think we need to play more mistake-free basketball. Like, and I know that sounds like a very broad term, but it's like small, simple mistakes that you actually can control. Like we actually can control those things. And I think that's the key. Like I think that's what we have to do in order to, again, turn this thing around. And I think we're more than capable. Like you see some of these games, you like, oh, it's coming together. Right? Like, and then you drop one that you should have again. And so that's frustrating. However, Steph Curry becomes only the second player with the great Kobe Bryant to score 60 after turning 35 years old. Man, I tell you, Steph had that look last night in that second half where you just knew like you needed to get out the way. And man, it's one of the most incredible things to watch him have those types of performances. I personally, you know, you start to like expect these things and then you like to still end up in awe. Like you already expect the world of Steph Curry, right? And like, and yet I'm still in awe at times of his shot making ability, of his ability. Like he's doing the way defense, react to Steph. No, no defenses has ever reacted to a player in the history of basketball like defenses react to Steph Curry. And I personally, I've watched a lot of basketball. Obviously I didn't see the Wilt Chamberlains and the Bill Russells, but I've watched a lot of basketball. I've never seen a defense react like the way defenses react to Steph is like, how you see like a bad high school team react to a great player. It's insane. Like the attention this man commands. And so we still gotta figure out how to make teams pay for that attention that they're giving him. And I think at times, like I said, we're doing a good job of it and at times it goes haywire. And so the consistency, maybe that's the word I'm looking for. We need more consistency. More consistency in our decision making. More consistency on the defensive end, more consistency on the offensive end, making sure you don't have these spells where you get a bunch of bad shots, you know, and like the game starts to turn. And so that's the word for the Dubs, consistency. We need to be a lot more consistent because if you're not consistent, you end up a bad team right around .500. And if you are consistent, that is what gets you over the hump. Yeah. That's the difference in between a good team and a bad team. It's simply your habits and your consistency. And right now we don't have great consistency. And that's something that if we're gonna change this thing, it has to be better. 'Cause that's the only way you can win in this league. In saying that, and speaking of Steph Curry's 60, which leads me straight into our next subject, that is All-Star snubs. Draymond Green, 27 points and 11 assists. All-Star snub. Like this conversation will get a little interesting because it's like the tale of two tapes and yet both of them kind of got screwed. Which is, this is a very like statistical driven league. Like you look at analytics, you look at guys, you have some guys play for stats to get their contracts, to do all these things. Like it is a very statistical driven league.

Yeah.

That's how you get awards. That's how you get the mentions, the honors. It is stat-driven, no question about it. So now if the league is stat-driven, these things shall get interesting. That is, Draymond Green, 27 points, 11 assists, currently on a 4-game winning streak and currently 10th in the standings. So they're currently the last team in the playing game, half a game outta 9th place, a few games outta 8th place. So now you may say, okay, they have not had a successful season, which is indeed true. But in saying that, then that does not explain why Draymond Green, DeMontis Sabonis, and De'Aaron Fox was snubbed. De'Aaron Fox is averaging 27.5 points and 5 assists. The Kings are currently at 5th in the West and has been in the top 4 most of the year. Uh, but they're currently at 5th, which means very much so in the playoffs. Uh, right there next to home court advantage in the first round. But they're in 5th, 27-5. You got DeMarcus Sabonis averaging 19.9 points. So we just gonna give him 20, 13 rebounds and 8 assists. And the Kings are in 5th place. Now that's interesting because in a stat-driven league, we have the tale of two tastes, which is one team that's right on the brink of the playoffs, another team that is firmly into the playoff. I'm sorry. Picture right now. All three with incredible stats. None make the All-Star Game. Now, the one thing that I can understand is De'Aaron Sabonis and— excuse me, De'Aaron Fox and DeMontis Sabonis probably pulled votes from each other because they probably would both be wildcards. You look at—

Yeah.

Um, you look at the all-star rosters and you got Karl-Anthony Towns, uh, as, as a backup in the West. Uh, you got Anthony Davis as a backup in the West. And so that right there, and there's one more front. Oh, Kawhi Leonard, I think. Um, is Kawhi a backup in the West or is Kawhi a starter? No, Kawhi's not a starter. Kawhi's a backup. So there's your 3 frontcourt players. Then you get 2 backcourt players and then you get 2 wildcards. So now the wildcards, and which is what De'Aaron Fox and Sabonis would be fighting for, if you look at the roster, they probably pull votes from each other because if you're looking at them, you're like, ah, it's Sabonis for me for that team. It's Fox for me from that team. And so in turn, I think they pull votes from each other. And when they pull votes from each other, then someone else kind of slides in that's solely getting the votes from their team. So for instance, an AD is solely getting the vote from the Lakers because Bron's a starter. Now you look at them and you say, wow, they got 2 guys into the All-Star Game and they are currently, they are currently in 9th place. 9th place. Uh, and have been around 9th through 11th most of the year. They got 2 All-Stars in the game. But like, which one of those guys do you take out? Like, because it's also a fan thing. Like, for instance, Bron made— is a starter part— in part due to fans, media, and then also players. But let's face it, like, Bron's gonna be a starter. Does AD deserve not to make it? AD's been playing all season. Everybody's complaint have been games, and he's played a bunch of games and he's producing at a high level. So should he not make it? But yet their team is in 9th. So again, it starts to weigh those things of like, what, like what is the criteria? There's never been a set criteria. Is it your team success, personal success, a combination of both? Again, the Kings guys and Fox and Sabonis kind of proves that the combination of both may be screwing you a bit. And so it's very interesting. And like I said, I don't have anything for the Trae Young situation other than, you know, they say a lot of coaches or a lot of people don't appreciate Trae's style of play. Yeah. So he'd be voted in by the coaches and they don't appreciate his style of play or how he competes on the defensive end or whatever. I'll tell you what, guarding Trae Young is hell. Hell. Like the way he uses his live threats, the way he uses the guys around him. He's great in the pick and roll. He's super fast. Obviously we know he can shoot the blood out the ball. He gets in between, you know, the— Draymond Green. The rim, that kind of mid-range area, kind of floaters, good finishing around the rim, all of that. So listen, I hear people complaints and all of that, but I'm gonna tell you, as someone who got— have to guard, it's hell guarding Trae Young. Now, yes, Trae Young uses different things to get by drawing different fouls and different stuff like that. Of course. But most of the great scorers in the league use things like that. So to average 27 and 11 and not make the All-Star, and like this is the third year where he's averaged like 25+ points, 10 assists, dang near, and didn't make the All-Star team. And I just find that very interesting because I've seen guys make it off stats alone in previous years. And for some reason, uh, that just does not apply to Trae Young. Now you got Julius Randle out and you have, um, possibly Joel, uh, both missing the All-Star Game. And if they do, uh, let's see who, who would our, um, subs be or replacements for the East. You got a group of Draymond Green, you got a group of Scottie Barnes, you have— Jimmy Butler, Pascal Siakam, Chris Stapps, Jrue Holiday. Yes, there's your list right there. By the way, for all y'all, there's Jackson stepping in, helping me out, keeping us rolling. So yeah, you have a list of about 5 or 6 guys who could get in. I personally think with the talk around Trey, you know, with a replacement being named, he's already an All-Star. All-Stars usually get the nod. I also can see that, him as one of the replacements. A lot of people said Scottie Barnes. I think Scottie's growth has been incredible. I probably would lean a little more, Jimmy's missed quite a few games. And so I think that'll work against Jimmy. Jimmy quite honestly doesn't care about being an All-Star or anything else anyway. You got Christos Przingis, who I think has had a good year and their team is right at the top of the East. Number 1 actually by quite a, 4 games. And so however, that team also does have 2 All-Stars on it already. Do you get 3? Huh? I mean, there's no other All-Star for Cleveland this year. The Knicks got both of those guys. There's no other All-Star for Philly. There's no other All-Star for Indiana. Pascal, Pascal got traded to Indiana. So maybe Pascal. There's no other All-Star from Miami, Orlando, Chicago, maybe DeMar. And so when you start to look at it, I think Draymond Green gets in. It'll be interesting to see who that second person would be. Like I said, I think it'll probably be Chris Stotts, maybe Jrue Holiday, one of those guys. I think probably more Chris Stotts, but there you go. You may have a couple replacements on that side of things and it'll be interesting to see. Just for your information, the replacements are picked by Commissioner Adam Silver.

Yeah.

That's who choose the replacements. And so we'll see. But like I said, I don't have a good explanation for you other than the ones that I've given you. Because again, that's two different tales of the tape. One team is winning, one team is not. All three got crazy stats and none of them make the All-Star Game.

Wow.

Especially, you know, with, you think like Fox coming off the playoffs he had and the different things like, and then to come back producing like he is, you think that he takes that next step in respect. And then you got, you know, it's funny because stuff like this always happen where you got guys making their next jump and depending on the jump of others can affect someone else's jump. You know, we've seen it for years with Mike Conley being in the Western Conference and not being able to get an All-Star bid because Russell Westbrook is in the Western Conference, Steph Curry's in the Western Conference. The list goes on and on of guys who's in. Then you got, then all of a sudden you had Luka coming into the Western Conference on the tail end. The list goes on and on over the years. Tony Parker, Deron Williams, Damian Lillard. Yeah. Klay Thompson, like the list goes on and on where it kind of hurt, Chris Paul, where it hurt Mike Conley. And so you could be seeing one of those situations as well where Shea is playing so great, Anthony Edwards is playing so great. So you got those young guys in the West, right? You still got the Steph Curry, you still got Luka Dončić, right? You still got these different guys. Yeah. And sometimes guys just get squoze and it's unfortunate. Somebody was saying the other day like, well, maybe they should raise the All-Star Game to 15. No, the hell they shouldn't. No, they should not raise the All-Star Game to 15. That's not happening. One more thing on the All-Star Game and then I got one last thing to hit on and then we gonna get outta here. Adrian Griffin, Doc Rivers. Let's rewind a little bit. Doc Rivers is the head coach after coaching 3 games, the head coach of the Eastern Conference All-Stars. That's crazy. Let me tell you why that's crazy. Number 1, y'all know I got mad love for Doc and Doc says something which I commend him on. Doc has always been a standup gentleman. He's been in the NBA his whole life. That's why, stand-up person, stand-up gentleman. Nothing but respect and love for Doc. Absolutely insane that he's coaching the Eastern Conference All-Star Game when he was just talking at the Warriors game, analyzing the game a week and a half ago. But Doc said that the ring from the All-Star Game and the bonus will be going to Adrian Griffin. Uh, Respect that. Respect the hell outta that. Me personally, I think Adrian Griffin should've still been the coach of the All-Star team. And here's why I think that. Because Adrian Griffin earned the right to be the coach of an All-Star team in his first year. He earned the right being number 2 in the conference because last year Boston was number 1. So Joe Mazzulla and his staff was the coach. You cannot coach in the All-Star game 2 years in a row. That's why, When the Dubs was dominating all those things, you wouldn't see Steve coaching the All-Star Game every year because you can't coach it 2 years in a row. So Joe Mazzulla and his staff are automatically disqualified, which means it moves on to the next team, which is number 2 seed, Milwaukee Bucks. And Adrian Griffin coached that team to the number 2 seed before he was fired. In turn, they— so they get the nod. Well, now the head coach is Doc. Why I personally, why I personally think Adrian Griffin should be the head coach of the All-Star team is because if a player got traded today, but they're an All-Star, guess what? They're still going to be an All-Star. So this man gets fired a week and a half, two weeks ago. Why shouldn't he still coach the All-Star team? The work was done. The work was done. So I don't quite understand that. If a player got traded and he makes the All-Star team, he's gonna show up to that team as an Indiana Pacer as opposed to a Toronto Raptor. Pascal Siakam is the most recent trade that came to my mind. But like—

Yeah.

He still be in the All-Star Game. So I'm not quite certain why Adrian Griffin isn't still the coach of the All-Star Game. But like I said, I commend Draymond Green. And that also could get weird as hell though, because Giannis kind of got to sign off on him getting fired. And Dame probably had to sign off to some degree. And so that could get a little awkward.

Yeah.

Knowing that these two guys signed off on you getting booted and, uh, now you gotta coach them in the All-Star Game where, hey, everybody celebrated. Um, that could get quite awkward and maybe that's why. But however, I like Adrian Griffin. We don't know if Adrian Griffin will ever get another head coaching job in this league. In the one year that he did have a head coaching job for the all of 4 months, um, He coached a team to be, to be in position that he'd be an All-Star Game coach and he won't get it. And I'm not sure he'll ever have that opportunity again. And that sucks. So I wish they could have figured something out for Adrian Griffin to still be the coach of the Eastern Conference All-Stars because he deserved that and he got booted a little too soon. And that sucks. So wishing well for Adrian Griffin. And like I said, hats off to Doc. Much respect and love. Respect the hell outta that. Before we get outta here, Stephen A. Smith, who also, you know, in his clip he said, "I got a lot of love for Draymond Green." That love is mutual. I shared that with you all before. I got a lot of respect for Stephen A. A lot of people having opinions on Stephen A. That isn't my opinion. The world's opinion on Stephen A does not apply to me. Real guy, very helpful to young guys like myself who's kind of come into this lane of media space. He's the first one to reach out when you do something right and congratulate you. He's the first one to reach out when you do something wrong and walk you through what you did wrong, how you should have done it. —and what you should do next time, how you should approach things. Very much so, one of the best in the space. I think he created a space that no one else can compete in. I think he is the best at what he does. So a lot of love for Stephen A. here. And by the way, Stephen A., you are always welcome on the Draymond Green Show. If you wanna come on the Draymond Green Show once a week, we'll have you here, Stephen A. And I'll come on the Stephen A. show once a week. We can bump our gums wherever you want to bump our gums at, Stephen A. I'm cool with all of that. However, the new media is speaking now. And when you say the new media didn't tell the whole story—

We all know, and I'm unapologetic about this, I got a lot of love for Draymond Green. We gonna call out Draymond Green right here on national television. And if he wants me to, I'll come on this damn podcast and call him out. Call him out in front of his own damn audience. This is not his brightest day. Because you see, when you talk about new media, the obligation is to tell the whole story. He didn't do that. He complained, but he didn't highlight, as you both articulated, the origin of all of this. We're not talking about injured players. We understand legitimately injured players are legitimately injured players. What brought all of this to bow— Draymond Green. You can take me off the screen individually. I wanna look at Wendy and Perk when I'm saying this stuff. We are talking about individuals who took advantage of the privileges that were given to them by people who came before them.

Well, quite frankly, my friend, I didn't need to tell the side that you all say every day because that's what people is listening to every day. They listening to Stephen A. yell about players not playing this, that, and the other. But what I specifically said though, Stephen A, was players are now getting punished for being injured. Because again, now we sit here and now we know that Joel Embiid, who was the front runner of the MVP of the NBA for a second year straight, is now hurt with a torn meniscus. And yes, a torn meniscus in that very knee That was already bothering him. So by the way, Jonathan Kuminga did fall on his knee, and they said it's his lateral meniscus. I'm no doctor, Stephen A., but I don't think he tore his lateral meniscus by Jonathan Kuminga falling on the knee. The knee was already swelling up days leading up to our game that he played in, which is a sign of something's wrong. Um, when you have a meniscus injury, your knee does swell. So I quite frankly am not of the assumption that Joel Embiid hurt his knee when Jonathan Kuminga fell on him. I don't believe that. I, as I said, I'm no doctor. I didn't see any MRI. And so I'm not saying that is the case. I just don't believe he tore his lateral meniscus by his leg getting smashed down to the— I don't believe that.

Yeah.

Now, Rick Celebrini may say otherwise. However, that knee was already swelling up and it was already an issue in that knee. So to my point, you got a hurt player, a guy that's legitimately hurt, being affected by a rule of guys— yes, guys were sitting out, I agree. But just like the NBA can investigate anything else, they can investigate and know when someone's sitting out because they're load managing and not sitting out because they're really hurt. The NBA know everything. They can figure out everything. The NBA is like the FBI. Y'all heard Melo— y'all heard Melo's interview before. The NBA can figure things out. So don't tell me they— that it couldn't be— it can't be figured out when a guy is really hurt and when a guy is load managing. And that's two totally different things because here it is, we have a Joel Embiid being affected by actually being hurt. We talking legacy here. MVP awards, those things don't come by often. Kevin Durant, who people regard as one of the greatest players to ever play, has one. One. They— MVPs are hard to come by. He has one. Yeah. So Joel Embiid on the verge of getting his second one, and he's essentially possibly going to miss extended time because of a rule that's aimed at players resting when healthy. But he's not healthy though, Stephen A. So my argument was no, low— guys should be able to load manage. I never said that. I said there's guys that's actually hurt. Tyrese Halliburton actually— well, we saw the man do the splits. We saw it on TV. The man did the splits. Like, whoa, that's bad. We saw it. So you mean to tell me he's up against the same rule as everybody else? We saw it, Stephen A. We watched him do the splits and get hurt. But he's being punished by a rule that's aimed at stopping guys from sitting when they're healthy. And you can tell me all the older guys said this and all the older guys said that. I got a lot of respect for them. But let's face it, man, those games was 70 to 67. You score 67 points in the first half and you could be losing these days. The final scores was 70 to 67. Yeah. Those teams was getting up 60 shots a game. You get up 60 shots in a game, my friend, you getting ran out the gym. You get like, maybe they weren't even getting up 60 shots. Like, but the game was so much slower. There's so much, so many differences to what, how the game is actually played. Those guys weren't running like we run. They weren't. Walking the ball up the floor, dumping it into the post. They weren't running like we run, getting up and down. All of those things make a difference. And so you got players actually hurt, and they're getting punished by a rule that was made for people sitting out when they aren't hurt. There has to be a different way to place or to create a criteria, because in all criteria created, there's unintentional consequences. And an unintentional consequence of this one is Joel Embiid will be screwed and not win his second MVP in a row because he actually got hurt. And Tyrese Halliburton is a few games away from not making All-NBA because he actually got hurt. And guess what? That's an unintended consequence, Stephen A. So The new media has spoken. The whole story is right there for you. And my brother, you welcome on this podcast anytime, any day. We would love to have you. Appreciate y'all for tuning in to this episode of the Draymond Green Show. That's a wrap. Until next time, peace.

Peace.