Baron Davis, Draymond Green, and Darius Garland rank the shiftiest NBA guards, debating whether Kyrie Irving, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Trae Young belong in the top five. Green calls All-Star voting a popularity contest, and Davis recalls being snubbed by coaches, arguing the process rewards campaigns over merit.
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You know, I was known to be a shifty guard. I always say I created the bop. Me and Draymond Green, we love a good list. You know, you being one of the shiftiest guards in the league right now, give us your top 5 shiftiest guards in the NBA right now.
Right now?
Top 5 shifters.
The shifters.
I ain't gonna lie, BD, I gotta, I gotta, I stole a couple moves from you too though, bro.
Come on, man. Thank you, bro. I appreciate that. That's all I want. Hey, Draymond, I'll be sitting on the bench 25, 26.
Oh yeah, your back went out walking around. It's over for you, Chuck.
It's over for you. I threw my back out salsa dancing here, Billy. Hey DJ, I was salsa dancing. That's how I really threw my back out, you know? You did that? Yeah, you feel me?
DJ threw his back out the day before Kendrick Pop-Out concert. Imagine he would've been on that stage crit walking and threw his back out up there. That was just God looking out for him.
I would've never been crit walking. I would've never crit walked. No matter how many Crips in the building. That's too funny.
Oh man, 5 though? I'm including myself?
You can.
Absolutely. If you on your list of top 5 shifters.
Yeah, he should be.
No order, no order. I'm gonna put me, Kai, Uh-huh.
Shay.
I'm gonna put Trey in there.
Mm-hmm. That's a good one.
The last one.
I got two he ain't gonna call. I already know he ain't gonna call.
I don't know who that fifth could be, bro. If he like, yankin'. Yeah.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
LaMelo.
VanVleet.
Okay, I guess, yeah. Fred got a lot of snatches.
He do, he do.
Oh no, Mellow, Mellow Pat.
Jordan Poole.
I might go with Poole.
Jalen Brunson, do you think, do you consider Jalen Brunson shifty or crafty?
Yeah, I like Jordan Poole. I like that on the shifty list. Jordan Poole's shifty as hell.
Yeah, I'm gonna go B, Kai, Shay, Draymond Green, and JP Go Poole.
That's a good list. I like that.
Yeah.
How do y'all feel about the All-Star votes?
How do I feel about the All-Star votes?
Is it a popularity contest?
It, it is definitely a popularity contest.
It's haters.
For sure. I'm gonna tell you how you know it's, it's a popularity contest. BD just said Joel may be an All-Star. Joel's played 2 games this year. So you know it's a popularity—
Right, it's a thing.
It's a 1000, because that's the way it's been conditioned though. It's 1000% a popularity contest. But if I'm honest, there ain't much popularity doing anything in the Eastern Conference, right? Like, so when you look across the East, you got from Boston, you gonna have JT and JB, right? From the Knicks, you gonna have KAT and Jaylen. From Milwaukee, you gonna have Dame and Giannis. Orlando would've had one or two guys early in the season. They've been hurt the rest of the year. Atlanta will get Trae Young in. Detroit will get Cade in. Miami, maybe Hero, maybe. But like after that, and, and then—
That's a lot of guards, bro.
Charlotte, Charlotte will get—
LaMelo.
LaMelo in. So when you look at the guards, you got LaMelo, You got Donovan.
Bronson.
You got Jaylen Bronson. You got DG, you got Dame.
Yep.
That's 5 guards.
You see what I'm saying? And K.
And K Cunningham. That's 6 guards.
All right.
Now you got Giannis, you got JT, you got Evan.
Jaylen Brown.
Jared Allen, Jaylen Brown.
Yeah.
And KAT. That's your 12 All-Stars.
That's 11. Nah, that's 12.
That's 6 guards, that's 6 bigs. That's your 12 All-Stars. And I don't see how that could play out any differently than that. Like to be, because here's the thing, some people try to make the argument and say Derrick White, right? Which Derrick White's balling, he's averaging 20 points, but If you're gonna say they get 3 in, y'all are 6 games ahead of them in the Eastern Conference. With 40 games in, you're 6 games ahead. And so you can't say both of y'all get 3 and y'all 6 games ahead. And I think that gives y'all the nod. Like, I think there should be 4 guys, but it's definitely a popularity contest. And I think there's not much like, at some point with this All-Star stuff and with the voting stuff in general, they gotta get it figured out, man. Like, because it's just, it's just all over the place. There's too many opinions that don't really have a real opinion, but they gotta say— it's just, it's too all over the place for me, if I'm honest about it.
And then, and then when you look at the coaches, you know, I would say I got snubbed probably twice because the coaches hated me because I was, you know, because if you killing the coaches, they not gonna vote for somebody who really killing them, right? Uh, so it's like, it's all a campaign thing. I used to look at it like, man, if I don't make it, then they on my list, you know, they on my list coming up. And I always wanted to prove myself against the best, but I start— I stopped kind of relying on that and more so start looking at, okay, what does my numbers look like against whoever they think are the top dogs?
I think y'all get 4. I just don't see how it plays out any other way. And you're definitely an All-Star.
Oh shit.
So yeah, that's how we moving.
You know what I'm saying?
DJ to PG for All-Star vote.
DJ.
Let's go.
Right now you A in guard, so you know.
And that's the fan vote, that's just the fan vote.
That's just the fan vote, but you know, you leading this team in as a point guard and taking the role as that PG for this unit, I definitely see you in as an All-Star this year. And you know, as we talking, you coming off one of the worst or one of the toughest losses of the season, the OKC Thunder, who also been balling in the West. When you lose a game like that in that type of fashion, how do you bounce back? Like, what do you say as a team? How do y'all bounce back from that?
You play Minnesota tomorrow. Yeah, I was just watching them play. The Knicks, super tough, super long defensively. Got Nikhil Alexander and Jalen McDaniels out there.
McDaniels, yep.
At 6'7", 6'6", you know? And you got Rudy Gobert here.
Yep.
And Ant-Man, just a dog, you know, on the offensive end. And Julius Randle just playing his part. So I mean, it was an old-fashioned belt to ass. I mean, that's what it was on national television. So yeah, we watched that film and tried to figure some things out on the defensive end, try to stop Shea, which is pretty tough to do. Man. But I mean, it's just an 82-game season, man. I look forward to the next game. We got another tough opponent coming out the West in Minnesota. So let's get ready for that one. Let's, I mean, they on our, they on our list.
Brother, what I'll tell you is this, y'all just had a tough loss to the second, to the team with the second best record in the NBA. The year we won 73 games, we lost to the Lakers who, who, who won 17 games all year twice by 25.
That's it.
—And people will try to point to that loss and be like, yo, because we live in this 24-hour news cycle, right? So people try to point to the loss. Soon as y'all lose, ah man, they're not big enough, they're not strong enough. Look, we just showed y'all, and a team that y'all just beat last week, right? Like, that's just the news cycle we live in. But y'all, y'all will be, y'all will be just fine.
Y'all straight.
And then they start talking about trade talks immediately right after the loss. I'm like, He ain't even got on the plane yet. Now talk about people.
34-6, best record in the league by 4, 3 or 4 games. What else? 3 games ahead of the next closest team in the Eastern Conference. Trade talks. That's the world we live in though. So get used to it, enjoy it. Because as y'all sit at the top, which I don't see that changing, That's just what comes with it, man. Take it on the chin, keep it pushing. I call them all smart dummies. They smart, they got— they don't know shit.
