Golden State Warriors

[Guiness]

Kevin Durant hints that he wouldn't have signed with the Warriors if they won the title

 

By Rob Perez

 

Oct 11, 2016 at 1:32a ET

 

Late Monday night, San Jose Mercury News' Anthony Slater spoke with the Golden State Warriors' prized free agent signing from this summer -- Kevin Durant.

 

Slater proposed Durant with a "what if" scenario: what if the Warriors had won the Finals last year? Would it have affected Durant's decision to sign with Golden State?

 

Durant's response was nothing short of eye-popping:

 

"I was telling one of my friends, (my agent) Rich (Kleiman), who's here, we were watching Game 7. Well, as it started to unfold, it was, 'No question, no way could you go to this team.' And I was just like a kid, like, I'd really like playing with these guys. I'd get wide open 3s. I could just run up and down the court, get wide open layups. I was basically begging him. I was like, yo, this would be nice. So as I was thinking about my decision and who I was gonna play for, this team came to mind. You know, as they lost, it became more real every day. You start to think about it even more. To see if I would fit. Then once I sat down with these guys, everything that I wanted to know about them they kinda showed me. But we don't have to talk about it though because they didn't get the job done and they came after me and who knows what would've happened. But I guess you could say I'm glad that they lost."

[calvinzero]

There is no guarantee that KD will stay long term.

 

I wish him the best but his credibility was tainted.

 

Steve Kerr era was full of drama for the Warriors.

[dickrodriguez]

The GSW is fun this year!

[Watdhell]

The hate they are receiving is because of the way they are changing the game...a team with not so much post play but in the perimeter....the old guys who have to bleed for every point ground their bodies against each other then come along this guy that shoots way beyond the goal worth more than they got...

[Daddy Dee]

I am not hating. In fact, I like the Ws style of play but four superstars doesn't necessarily make a team a champion.

 

Exhibit A; 20030-2004 Lakers. They had the Mailman, the Glove, Diesel and Black Mamba, yet, they fell short to the much inferior Pistons. Team work and chemistry trump individual talent.

 

Exhibit B: 2012-2013 Lakers. They had Howard, Gasol, Bryant and Nash. In fact, three of them are franchise players in Howard, Nash and Bryant. They got eliminated in the first round by San Antonio. Obviously, star power does not make a team a champion.

 

Durant, Green, Curry and Thompson should play like the US national team to be able to be a champion. In other words, they have to play unselfishly. There is a big bullseye on Golden State's back. Durant's ego should be sacrificed in order for GSW to have a chance to be champion.

 

Well Exhibit A: The Mailman and the Glove past their prime when they join the lakers.As far i remember, that season was the last for Malone.Unlike GS, they are still what, mid-20's and very much in their prime.Durant , Green, and Thompson played last olympic together.

 

Exhibit B : Nash, Bryant, Gasol already past their prime.in fact, Nash was out most of the season due to injuries so as Gasol

[Guiness]

Golden State's Draymond Green problem

 

Ethan Sherwood Strauss

ESPN Staff Writer

 

ALL IN ALL, it was not the best few months for Draymond Green. On June 10, during Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Cavaliers, some 20 million viewers caught him in the act of trying to slap LeBron James in the groin. Three days later, after being suspended for that act, he watched his Warriors lose by 15 before dropping Games 6 and 7 in the greatest collapse in Finals history. In early July, he was arrested in East Lansing, Michigan, on an assault charge resulting from a scuffle in a college bar. Later that month, Green accidentally sent out a photo of his penis to the world.

 

By universal decree, the 2016-17 Warriors are a juggernaut. And if this juggernaut has a foundation, Green is it. Steph Curry is the reigning MVP; new acquisition Kevin Durant is one of the NBA's greatest scorers. But multiple Warriors staffers share the opinion that Green is their most important player. Nobody replicates his set of contributions. As one team official puts it: "The guys might be frustrated by his antics, but they had an opportunity to prove themselves without him in Game 5 and they played like a bunch of [cowards]."

 

Herein lies the paradox of the perfectly constructed squad: It's built on ground that roils with lava -- and on the back of a man who has become increasingly unpredictable, emboldened and unaccountable.

Draymond Green had a very bad summer. But that weekslong meltdown was a year in the making. And to understand the tensions that could undermine this season's presumptive champion, you must first understand the untold story of what undid the Warriors a season ago.

 

IT'S JUNE 19, 2015, three days after the Warriors have claimed their first title in 40 years, and Oakland's victory parade has become quite the joyful Draymond Green showcase. More than a million fans lining the parade route have been treated to Green on the mic, slurring in E-40-style syntax: "Cavaliers. Nope. We won? Yup. They suck? Yup." And as that parade reaches the rally beside Oakland's Lake Merritt park, they are also treated to a glimpse of the often tense relationship between Green and his coach, Steve Kerr.

 

When it's his turn to address the crowd, Green, victory cap slightly askew, shambles across the podium, snatches the mic and declares that he's excited to be speaking. Golden State PR maestro Raymond Ridder, Green explains, "tried not to let me talk today. He know I'm gonna get controversial."

 

And then he proceeds to validate most all of Ridder's fears: "With these guys, everything's fun. The only time it's not fun is practice ... film ... games ... bus rides. I'm the only person that gets talked about what shots I take and all those things by Steve Kerr. Like, every time I take a shot, he complains. So that's why, if you see, every time I make a shot, I look at him. Dude complain every time I take a shot."

 

From his seat on the stage behind Green, Kerr shrugs and loudly counters: "Twenty-four percent!" Which just happens to be Green's 3-point shooting percentage during the final three rounds of the playoffs.

 

Green chuckles, bounds over, grabs Kerr from his chair and drags him to the podium. There are hypothetically a few drops of tension to be wrung from this moment. "This my guy," Draymond starts, prompting Kerr to pat his chest. "From the start of training camp, he hated me. That's no lie. He probably still hates me. That's no lie. But we going to keep winning these championships -- and that's no lie."

 

Kerr, who's been gamely laughing at the display, steals the mic. "You know how they start to play music at the Oscars when it starts to go on a little long and security comes and grabs the guy? That may happen here in a few minutes. Thanks, though, Draymond," he finally offers, before fleeing for the safety of his seat.

 

EVERYTHING IS GOOD in a victory parade. But before Green's arrival in 2012, the Warriors were a byword for bad. They had made the playoffs only once in the prior 18 seasons. In 2011-12, the lockout-shortened season, they'd won a dismal 23 games, losing 17 of their final 20 to land the seventh pick in the draft. With it, they were hoping to find a savior. Instead, they took Harrison Barnes. The real savior arrived at pick 35.

Expectations have always been low for Draymond Green. But the 2012 second-round draftee has proven to be a vital piece in a championship formula. AP Photo/Al Goldis

 

Green, who declined to comment for this story, was underestimated coming into college at Michigan State and then into the NBA -- famously so. The reasons are myriad, but perhaps the main one is this: His approach represents a hybrid, if not a revolution. It's an aggressive, American brashness mixed with an egalitarian, European insistence on moving the ball. Intuition tells us the greats score in bunches, creating their own shot at will. Green does everything save for creating his own shot. It's no coincidence he holds the record for plus-minus in a season. To hear Green yell, mid-drive to the basket, "Hey! Steph!" while directing his superstar toward an open space in the corner is to watch a player who not only sees the open man but who speaks his teammates into openness. "He sees the game," says Warriors assistant and defensive guru Ron Adams.

 

There is another ineffable quality to the man: He just wants it more. It's an energy that overwhelms, fueled by what Kerr calls "that competitive fire, that rage." Or, as former teammate Leandro Barbosa once defined Green's optimal basketball mode: "the guy that always gets mad, the guy everybody hates." Indeed, his playing style is a constant assault. Every movement is efficient and vicious. He will come to your arena and play the villain, curse out your team, preen after every 3-pointer, light into the refs and possibly kick a foe where the sun doesn't shine.

Kerr once quipped of his team's appeal, "We have a very likable group of guys -- other than Draymond." The comment was said with a smile, meant with mirth. A lot of truth is said in jest, as the saying goes.

 

IT'S NOV. 27 in Phoenix, the 17th game of the Warriors' 2015-16 season, and there's nothing not to like about their performance so far. Over the summer, Kerr had predicted that the coming season would be their leap, that magical moment when last year's principles became reflexive. It happened, just not on Kerr's watch. The Warriors are undefeated, and their pattern is getting repetitive: Blow out the opponent, keep starters fresh with rest, keep bench guys happy with plenty of garbage-time run.

Up 25 with 4:14 left, this night is no different -- until Green fouls a driving Archie Goodwin. The action halts. Green helps Goodwin up from his fall as longtime NBA vet Jason Thompson saunters off the bench to check in for Green. The game, of course, is well beyond over, but Green pleads to stay in, shaking his head, holding his hand out in a "wait" signal before trudging to the end of the bench in a huff. Within a few seconds, an animated discussion ensues between him and interim coach Luke Walton. Green appears none too pleased. The reason: He is one rebound away from a triple-double.

 

After 25 seconds of game clock have elapsed, Green is back in front of the scorer's table, arms akimbo, ready to check in. He subs in at the timeout, and 52 seconds later, little-used guard Ian Clark misses a layup, which Green rebounds and lays in. On the very next possession, Green intentionally fouls Suns guard Devin Booker and lopes back to the bench, his mission complete.

 

A Warriors staffer would later say of the incident, "Luke would have left him in had he known." More to the point, as the interim coach, Walton already has enough on his plate without having to worry about aggravating his power forward. Indulging Green may have seemed the only realistic choice.

 

"Luke's my guy," Green would frequently say of his interim coach, even before Walton took the reins. The two were often seen laughing together during pushup challenges after practice. Both had charisma, but in different ways. Green was the loud life of the party; Walton operated at a languid pace that belied his quick wit.

 

"From the start of training camp, [Kerr] hated me. That's no lie. He probably still hates me. That's no lie. But we going to keep winning these championships -- and that's no lie."

When Walton took over for the first three months of the season, with Kerr sidelined due to complications from back surgery, he had assumed a light grip on the steering wheel. He was, for example, still rebounding for Green, just as he'd done as an assistant. Though the team had something of a power vacuum in Kerr's absence, Walton thought it best if he maintained his old duties, carrying on as though nothing were amiss.

 

The early results were historically good. The Warriors were dominating the league, dominating SportsCenter, Curry's incandescent start prompting teams to double-team him, allowing Green to make more plays than ever. Sixteen games into the season, Green had gone from averaging 3.7 assists a game the season before to 6.6, and a man who had tallied just two triple-doubles in his first three seasons was now a nightly triple-double threat. And nobody, apparently, was more aware of it than Green, who would end the regular season with 13 triple-doubles, the NBA's single-season record for power forwards. Suddenly far more than a "glue guy," Green was a star, flourishing without restrictions. But such conditions and such outcomes? They make it hard to tell a man anything.

 

IT'S JAN. 17, the day after the Warriors' first blowout loss of the season, a 113-95 drubbing by the Pistons. The team is holding practice in a snow-covered Michigan high school, at a remove from the camera flashes and screaming fans that await at nearly every practice in an arena. Walton begins his walk from the court to the assembled reporters in the corner of the gym. On practice days, it's traditional for the coach to kick off media interviews. But when Walton is within a few feet of the cameras, Green interjects, with a grin: "Luke! So we lose a game and you stop f---ing rebounding for me?!?"

 

The statement is said with no evident malice, but it halts Walton in his tracks. He shoots the media gaggle a glance, then turns, runs right over and starts shagging balls for his player.

 

IN RETROSPECT, IT'S hard to argue with any approach that leads to a record-setting regular season. Walton's strategy of Green indulgence coincided with the most successful run a rookie coach had ever seen, a 39 -- 4 start that did much to net Walton a head-coaching gig with the Lakers.

 

For Golden State's coaching staff, there was also realpolitik to handling Kerr's absence. Concessions had to be made, given Green's force of personality. On Dec. 11, in Boston, the Warriors had endured a high-intensity double overtime for the final victory of their historic 24-game winning streak to open the season. It was the first of a back-to-back, at the end of a brutal seven-game, two-week road trip out East. They were banged up, weary from the winning streak's onslaught of attention and pressure.

 

After the Boston win, Golden State's coaches had met to assess the situation. Together, they had decided to rest starters the next night in Milwaukee. But that plan was dashed after they walked in on the end of an impassioned speech by Green to teammates about the once-in-a-lifetime chance they had to chase the all-time record for wins. This team is on the edge of history! Green was yelling. These moments only come along so often! This was not uncommon. Throughout the season, Green, in the guise of motivation, would berate his co-workers during games and practices; on multiple occasions he had to be separated from teammates.

 

"Draymond f---ed up practice and s---," then-Warriors center Marreese Speights says. "Draymond's a good guy, but I think at the end of the day, it hurt the whole chemistry of the year." One player in particular, he says, took much of the heat: "Draymond and Klay got into it a lot." (Thompson declined to comment for this story.)

 

Klay Thompson has reportedly been the target of much of Green's fire during their time together in Golden State. How the duo will coexist in the 2016-2017 new world order remains to be seen. Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

 

A code of conduct exists within the NBA. Some yelling is expected, but vets do not accept frequent Bobby Knight -- style haranguings from younger players. Or, as Speights puts it, "Guys don't respect you if you yell at them in front of all these fans. We're not trying to lose the game. F -- ."

 

And so it was that an hour before a win over the Lakers on Nov. 24, almost two months prior to his return to the sideline, Kerr visited with the team to deliver a speech on his four core values: joy, mindfulness, competition and compassion. According to team sources, the emphasis on compassion was meant as a message to Green.

 

IT'S JAN. 30 in Philadelphia, and Kerr is patrolling the sideline. One week earlier, Kerr had finally returned -- far from cured, still fighting chronic pain. Partly hastening his return, according to team sources: The Warriors had grown unruly after three months under Walton. Someone needed to take back control.

 

Green, with 10 points, 10 boards and 6 assists at the end of the second quarter, has another triple-double in his sights. But at halftime, with the Warriors up 19, Kerr informs Green that if he's angling for a triple-double tonight, against the consensus worst team in the NBA, it will have to come by the third quarter. No more of this playing-in-garbage-time-for-stats nonsense. That edict will lead to an unintended consequence.

 

On the first play of the second half, Green gets the ball with an open lane to the rim but stops short in favor of setting a ball screen and trying to lead a cutting Klay Thompson with a pass. Turnover. Green begins spraying passes all over the court on his way to seven turnovers. A 19-point fourth-quarter lead dissolves to nothing. On the game's second-to-last play, with the score tied, the Warriors avert disaster only when Green finds Barnes in the corner for a 3 with 0.2 of a second remaining. It's Green's ninth assist.

Green will confess after the game to his role in what went wrong: "We started turning the ball over due to my selfish unselfishness, and it was all downhill from there." When asked later about Green's comments, Kerr will commend his honesty. But though the Warriors continue to win -- 20 victories in their first 22 games following Kerr's return -- something has changed. Green goes into a shooting slump, or perhaps a shooting shrink. Under Walton, he had attempted 3.6 3s per game, making 41.4 percent of them. After Kerr's return, he's averaged 0.6 3-point attempts and made 28.6 percent.

Kerr is back. Green is diminished. And the correlation cannot be ignored.

 

IT'S FEB. 27 in Oklahoma City, during halftime of a nationally televised game, and Green is losing his holy mind. Inside the visitors locker room, he's hollering "I am not a robot!" at Kerr. When Kerr tells him to sit down, Green screams, "Motherf---er, come sit me down!" When he goes after Kerr, his teammates, including Curry and Thompson, step in to stave off disaster.

A Warrior on a tirade

 

ESPN's Lisa Salters reported at the Warriors-Thunder game on Feb. 27 that Draymond Green could be heard at halftime yelling, "I'm not a robot. You have me messed up right now."

 

Minutes later, in her report following halftime, ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters will recite a portion of Green's explosion: "I am not a robot! I know I can play! You have me messed up right now! If you don't want me to shoot, I won't shoot the rest of the game!"

 

"I'm standing outside the locker room with the Oklahoma City police, which are always stationed outside of every locker room," Salters will later recall. "They kind of moved me aside, and the officer just kind of stood by the door, with his hand on his weapon like he was trying to determine what he should do. It was clear that something bad was about to happen in this locker room. We've never heard anything like this before."

 

Salters, with all of 50 seconds available for her report, had, in truth, conveyed only a fraction of the situation -- one so unnerving that at least one arena security official moved outside the locker room door in a SWAT-team pose. Throughout the night, Salters would be assailed by fans on Twitter, arguing that she should not have reported what had happened in the locker room. But this was not a private moment unscrupulously divulged to the public; it was a private moment so forceful it breached the walls of its sanctum. "This was something extraordinary that was happening," Salters says.

 

Publicly, the Warriors downplay the incident. At the next practice, Kerr says, "It's the NBA. Every team I've ever been on has had stuff like this. Every team. Championship teams or not, it happens. It's 15 alpha males in a room trying to compete, money on the line and prestige and trophies and competition. This is being so overblown."

 

Privately, according to sources close to the team, Green's teammates respond by voting to fine him. (When asked a week later about the fine, a livid Green would insist, "I asked to be fined. You can report that!") Green also does not take kindly to the coverage of his outburst, which leads to the Warriors brokering a sit-down between him and Salters. Salters recalls telling him, "What kind of bothered me about it was hearing the pain that was in your voice -- you weren't just mad, you were in pain, emotional pain."

 

Kerr maintains that what happened, while unusual, was not unique. "If it didn't happen, it would be kind of weird," he says. "It would be like nobody is revealing anything to each other. You have to let stuff out as a team. Rage means that's happening."

 

Then Kerr pauses and, as if acknowledging something that can't be swept aside, offers: "You have to find the edge, you find the balance. About two years ago, [Draymond] was good. This last year, a couple of times he went over the brink. That's the challenge."

 

INSOFAR AS THERE can be unanimity regarding the unknown, the Warriors believe this: The 2016 title would have been theirs if not for Green's Game 5 suspension, the penalty he earned in the waning moments of Game 4 by swiping at LeBron's genitals after James guided his undercarriage over the back of Green's skull. Few things capture the beautiful absurdity of sports quite like this moment deciding a championship, a moment Speights frames as, "If somebody put they balls on your head, what are you supposed to do?"

 

Draymond Green played 23 games in last season's playoffs. But it was the one game he missed that proved his worth and exposed the Warriors' biggest problem. Jason Miller/Getty Images

In response, the Warriors had united around Green, with the two most powerful team executives rising in defense of their guy. Owner Joe Lacob, who due to his brashness is often internally referred to as the Draymond of his operation, sported a Green jersey at Game 5. Meanwhile, Warriors GM Bob Myers watched the proceedings alongside Green in a suite at the O.co Coliseum. After that Game 5 loss, and the collapse in Games 6 and 7, when Green had apologized to his teammates in his final news conference, Kerr had insisted that Green had nothing to apologize for: "Without you, we're not even here."

 

But herein lies the problem the Warriors have to solve. By so often defending Green publicly, the franchise might also be sending him the message that he doesn't need to confront the central tension of his career: that what makes him great on the court -- the passion and drive, the recklessness and ego -- threatens to undermine him off it.

 

Consider how he responded at Team USA minicamp when he was asked about the East Lansing incident, in which Green reportedly slapped a man who'd been heckling him in a bar, and in which Green wasn't allowed to leave jail, according to the police report, "until completely sober." Did he need to adjust his behavior? With a grin, Green replied, "Being me has gotten me this far." Two weeks later, he shared his genitals with the world.

 

There is, in truth, a note of resignation in how team officials discuss Green these days. More than one expressed that what transpired in East Lansing is indivisible from what makes Green such a maddeningly effective on-court opponent. More than one expressed that this would be a permanent issue.

 

Myers, for his part, says he's the wrong person to ask. "I have some blind spots for Draymond," he says. "I know that's probably not the right answer. Yeah, he could do some things differently. He'd be the first to acknowledge that. He had a lot come to him, maybe unexpectedly, as far as fame and things like that. But if caring too much is your problem? Or living too much? Well, you can fix those things, I hope. Trying to get someone to care or have emotion? That's harder to do."

 

Two years ago, Green escaped the realm of role player by dint of talent but also pride. Pride is what fueled a rise far beyond modest expectations. The issue is what pride becomes once massively validated. To hear many around the Warriors tell it, it's turned into an ego on overdrive and metasta

sized into something that imperils the team's stability well beyond the 2016 Finals.

"This last year, a couple of times he went over the brink. That's the challenge."

Steve Kerr, on Draymond Green

All of which leaves Kerr in a suboptimal situation. As much as he might want Green to stop making the wrong kind of news, he's wary of sabotaging Green's id, the part of him he most needs as the coach of a team that won 73 games last season. "The dangerous thing is," Kerr says, "if you try to temper him too much, are you taking away his edge?" And should Kerr attempt to counter Green's excesses, there's seemingly little organizational support. "He's on an island," one Warriors official says of Kerr.

 

Indeed, ask most team officials about how Green approaches life off the court and they routinely answer with a go-to phrase that's one part scouting report, one part absolution: "He gets after it." Despite the arrest (for which he ultimately reached a plea deal), despite the penis pic, despite Green's Snapchat of a 118 mph drive toward Oakland's heavily trafficked Caldecott Tunnel, how much, they note, can teams credibly focus on off-hours behavior in a league that has routinely seen players who "get after it" bring more energy than their opponents?

 

There is, to be sure, a "boys will be boys" ethos in the NBA that condones a high level of hedonism, as long as the player produces. Still, the chorus of murmurs around Green is growing -- not because his production is suffering but because his discretion is. As one Warriors official says, "There's an a--hole in every bar. The question is, why are you winding up in that situation?" And as one NBA team executive says of Green's behavior, and its potential to subvert a potential dynasty, "He's what will ultimately prevent them from having long-term success."

 

THREE YEARS AGO, the Warriors had a mystery on their hands. Team trainers were noticing that the stationary bikes in their practice facility had become rather unstationary. More to the point, they were disappearing. Eventually, the mystery was solved. Green was dragging the stationary cycles to the sauna and leaving them there to soak.

 

It turned out that Green, who's struggled with his weight since his days at Michigan State, had developed a theory: By riding the bikes in the sauna, he could more efficiently shed pounds. In the short term, biking in a sauna will do that, but much of what is lost is water weight and is soon gained back. Golden State trainers were aware that Green's regimen was, at best, scientifically dubious. Also, the bikes were getting ruined. Says a former Golden State trainer: "He would come in and say, 'The screen's not working on the bike.' And I'd be like, 'Yeah, I wonder why.'"

 

Still, the team chose to ultimately allow it. It did involve cardio. And Green was loath to give it up. At the end of the day, success trusts its routine, no matter how absurd, grueling or dangerous to electronic equipment it might be.

 

And so it goes with the Warriors and their enigmatic star. The team indulges his more questionable behavior -- the late-night mischief, the berating of teammates, the feuding with coaches, the waterboarding of bikes -- because in doing so it has enabled him to become perhaps the best two-way player in the league. On the other hand, it might also have cost them a championship.

 

The Warriors have a problem to solve. The success of Draymond Green is inextricably wrapped up in the enigma of Draymond Green. There is, after all, more than one way to enable a man.

Edited October 19, 2016 by hahnz

[Guiness]

Draymond Green, Klay Thompson were at odds at times, ex-teammate says

Oct 19, 2016, 11:35 PM

 

 

Draymond Green's drive is one of the things that have turned him from a second-round draft pick into an NBA All-Star. But did he alter the Warriors' chemistry last season?

Former teammate Marreese Speights says Green's words and demeanor often caused tension on the team, specifically with fellow All-Star Klay Thompson.

"Draymond f---ed up practice and s---," Speights told ESPN. "Draymond's a good guy, but I think at the end of the day, it hurt the whole chemistry of the year."

One player in particular, Speights says, took much of the heat: "Draymond and Klay got into it a lot."

Thompson didn't want to talk about it, but Warriors coach Steve Kerr admitted that there have been a few times recently when his budding star crossed the line.

"You have to find the edge, you find the balance," Kerr said. "About two years ago, [Draymond] was good. This last year, a couple of times he went over the brink. That's the challenge."

Green had a career season and the Warriors won 73 games, but they couldn't finish off the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.

It will be interesting to see how the Warriors' chemistry is affected now that there is another All-Star, Kevin Durant, in the mix.

[Guiness]

Warriors' Klay Thompson fires back at unnamed source in ESPN story

Sam Amick , USA TODAY Sports 4:11 p.m. EDT October 21, 2016

OAKLAND – So much for Klay Thompson being the understated one in the Golden State Warriors’ bunch.

Thompson, who broke out of his media shell during the NBA Finals four months ago when he locked verbal horns with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James, came to the defense of his team on Friday in the wake of an ESPN story about Warriors forward Draymond Green

In the piece, which detailed the sometimes-difficult dynamic between Green and his Warriors’ teammates and coaches, an anonymous team official was quoted as saying, “The guys might be frustrated by his antics, but they had an opportunity to prove themselves without him in Game 5 (against the Cavs when Green was suspended) and they played like a bunch of (cowards).”

 

Thompson, his voice rising and his arms animated, clearly took exception to it.

“How are you not going to put your name to that quote?” he began. “It’s easy to point at someone and call them a coward, behind a shade or a shield you know? But why don’t you put your name to it, and then you can call us cowards. That’s fine. You can tell us that.

“But to say we played like cowards, and you’re not going to quote the guy who said it? That’s weak to me…That actually got under my skin, because I’m like, ‘You call us cowards but you’re not going to put your name to the (quote)?’ You know what I mean? You’re not going to quote who said it, just going to say ‘Oh, some executive said we’re cowards?’ Get out of here. That made me mad.”

 

Green’s leg kick in James’ direction in Game 4 led to the suspension, with the Warriors – who led the series 3-1 at that point – falling 112-97 in Game 5 en route to their collapse.

 

“We played our hearts out that whole playoffs, the whole season, and then you’re going to call us cowards and not put your name on it,” Thompson said. “Get out of here.”

 

[phantomJoker]

Halimaw GS ngayon puro Pure shooters. May scorer pa with KD. Will open up a lot of things para kay Idol Steph Curry.

[tonytony098]

Mukhang malabo na matalo ngyon gs

[phantomJoker]

Mukhang malabo na matalo ngyon gs

I am GSW fan pero defense pa rin they can be the best offense team pero laylay sa defense ala din. They need a good full court defense kasi pag nasa half court na kinakain si Curry ng bantay. Like ng last Finals. Super confident si Kyrie kasi kaya niya si Curry on a 1-1.

[baron69]

Lakas line up nila. Hope to see both Cavs and Warriors in the finals.

[Nel Horan]

ang that was frustrating for an opening night...

[phantomJoker]

One game pa lang naman yan. Bawi yan. This will be a lesson. Kampante gaming pa eh hahaha

[toshi175]

Two games now. They will figure it out!

[*kalel*]

I think 3 people in gs scored a combined 75 points today and yet they only beat the pelicans by 8.... i hope steve can romp up their d so that they can really be the super team that they are....

[Guiness]

Warriors irked by '3-1 Lead' skeleton prop at LeBron James' Halloween party

 

Tuesday, November 01, 2016 01:47PM

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Certain members of the Golden State Warriors didn't take too kindly to the props LeBron James used at his annual Halloween Party over the weekend.

 

The part they took exception to was a skeleton James had stationed on a stage with "3-1 Lead" inscribed on the bass drum head, a clear shot at the Warriors squandering a 3-1 series lead in the 2016 NBA Finals.

 

 

Last January prior to the Warriors' first visit to Quicken Loans Arena since winning the 2015 title there, Cavaliers players felt Curry was disrespectful in saying he hoped the visiting locker room still smelled like champagne.

 

"I don't think they like that Steph [Curry] said that," Warriors guard Shaun Livingston told ESPN. "... Guys see it and everybody feels their own way about it, but it just fuels everybody for the next time we play them."

 

Maybe this was James' way of issuing some payback.

 

Draymond Green just flashed a massive smile when ESPN asked him about James' skeleton prop.

 

"More power to them," he said. "I already got enough fuel. I don't need more. Enjoy."

 

But the best part is when Draymond discusses what happens if the Warriors meet the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals again: "And then, if Cleveland comes out of the East, I want to destroy Cleveland. No ifs, ands and buts about it. But I also know that there’s steps to get to that point. And if and when we get to that point, I want to annihilate them."

Klay Thompson, visibly irritated by the subject, sternly told ESPN, "Man, I don't care about that."

 

Curry simply said, "I'm just going to keep it quiet." He then shook his head and giggled.

 

Kevin Durant even chimed in, although he wasn't a member of the Warriors last season. However, he knows what it feels like to be up 3-1 only to lose the next three games. He stated he's not about the back-and-forth shots.

 

"I'm a basketball player, bro. I'm a basketball player," Durant told ESPN. "If you've got any disputes or any feuds or anything with anybody that plays the game, let's just check it up. That really don't mean s--- to me, all the jokes."

 

Durant said he can empathize with how both teams are feeling about this situation.

 

"I wasn't here last year but I obviously know from being on the team, you don't want to see nothing like that [from Cavs]," he said. "Me personally, it's just jokes because you still have to play. Just like I'm sure there were so many jokes that went on about Cleveland and LeBron over the years, and you still have to play on the court. So none of that s--- matters until you duke it out on the court.

 

"I understand why anybody would [be mad] and I understand what LeBron is coming from. If you won a championship for your city and you did it in historic fashion, it's something that you'll never forget. So, no hard feelings. I understand where both sides are coming from, I guess."

 

These two teams will meet for the first time this season on Christmas Day in Cleveland. There will be no love lost.

 

"It is what it is," Livingston added. "All it is is more fuel for the fire. That's it. We're not going to say, 'All, that's great, we like it.' But it is what it is. It's part of the sport."

 

[calvinzero]

In spite of breaking records, the Warriors has not yet in the consistent level in terms of team chemistry. They are still not sharp enough if you are talking about interior defense. Bogut and Speights can do that type of defense unlike Pachulia and McGee(he lost prime and I'm frustrated).

[EL_PY]

In spite of breaking records, the Warriors has not yet in the consistent level in terms of team chemistry. They are still not sharp enough if you are talking about interior defense. Bogut and Speights can do that type of defense unlike Pachulia and McGee(he lost prime and I'm frustrated).

 

Tama ka jan sir. Mas nag shift sila sa offense. Pero nag suffer defense nila. Curious kung hanggang saan itatagal nila sa inconsistency nila.

[SebastianC]

i just hope they get better in time for the second half of the season and the playoffs.....another chance to meet the cavs is what they deserve

[YourMavic]

yeah. too much temper.

[Mango Man]

i don't they'll win 70+ games again in the regular season, but still the team to beat in the Western Conference.

[Vertrag1]

GSW dominated LA Lakers earlier this day!

[*kalel*]

82-game season .... they are starting to pick up

[Guiness]

Warriors-Grizzlies Takeaways: Memphis runs Golden State off the floor for a change

The mighty Warriors get a mean dose of Grit-Grind in Memphis

• by Matt Moore
• 8h ago• 4 min read

 

"We sucked," Stephen Curry said after the game, and he wasn't lying.

The mighty Golden State Warriors cruised into Memphis having won four straight, and coming off a dominant victory against the Clippers and a good win vs. the Jazz. Memphis was without Mike Conley, their best player, Chandler Parsons, their third-best player, Vince Carter, their seventh best player, James Ennis, their backup small forward, and Brandon Wright, their backup center. The Warriors beat Memphis by 50 in their first matchup last season.

 

Grizzlies 110, Warriors 89. At one point Memphis led by 30, their biggest lead of the season, vs. any team, at any point.

Sports, man. Probability does not equal inevitability. And you can never, ever count out these Grizzlies, who have won six straight, and are 6-1 since Conley went down.

Takeaways, each in the form of one word:

 

WEIRD.

Tony Allen, Marc Gasol, and Zach Randolph all hit more 3-pointers (one each) than Klay Thompson (zero) and as many combined as Steph Curry. Tony Allen (19 points) outscored every Warrior not named Kevin Durant. The Grizzlies held an advantage from 3-point range until garbage time. JaMychal Green outrebounded Draymond Green and both Warriors centers. The Grizzlies got 30 points off 23 Warriors turnovers. And the Warriors shot only 60 percent from the free-throw line.

 

So when Curry said "We sucked," he was not kidding. It wasn't one thing or five things going wrong for Golden State. It was absolutely everything, and make no mistake, much of it was caused by what Memphis did.

PHYSICAL.

The Grizzlies were everywhere, physically, vs. the Warriors. They bodied and controlled them, they challenged and bumped them, they played the kind of defense they're so renowned for. Watch Tony Allen bust this screen and get into the contest on Thompson.

 

In other surprising news, Klay Thompson did not score 60 because Tony Allen is not Monta Ellis.

The Grizzlies were like that all night. You knew they were there the whole time.

 

WHOOPS.

The Warriors had 23 turnovers. Of those, 11 were bad-pass turnovers. They just couldn't hold onto the ball. Half the time Draymond Green was slinging the ball to imaginary Warriors. (Maybe he's making up teammates the way he makes up perceived slights.) The other half of the time, Shaun Livingston, Ian Clark, and Anderson Varejao were dropping bad passes.

 

REPLACEMENT.

Warriors fans will often say that the biggest thing that went wrong in Games 5,6, and 7 of the Finals, outside of Draymond Green's suspension, was Steve Kerr playing Anderson Varejao long minutes. Andrew Bogut was injured, and Varejao struggled. I've often thought that Varejao gets too much blame for the issues.

He got appropriate blame for the debacle Saturday. Varejao couldn't defend to range, couldn't contain in pick and roll, couldn't handle passes dealt to him at point-blank range. It was a rough, rough go, and Varejao finished with a minus-18 in 18 minutes. It was rough. JaVale McGee finished with a respectable minus-2, but he was also really bad, chasing blocks and falling down to allow wide-open layups.

 

Zaza Pachulia was out with an injury, and while when facing Memphis, no one gets to play that card right now, the Warriors bigs were so bad it really stood out.

 

VERSATILITY.

The Grizzlies hedged in the pick-and-roll with Marc Gasol, switched with JaMychal Green, dropped to contain with Zach Randolph, and blitzed with Tony Allen. Teams always talk about throwing different looks at the Warriors, but the Grizzlies actually did so, and that helped them keep contain. That's a difference between a good defensive team and a great defensive team. Golden State missed looks they can hit, but Memphis also executed the game plan you would want, even short-handed.

 

WENDIGO.

A nickname I've given Marc Gasol for a mythical beast. Gasol finished with 19 points, eight rebounds, six assists, two blocks, and shot 6 for 12 from the field, despite facing constant double-teams. He hit turnaround shots on Draymond Green, found JaMychal Green (2 for 2 from deep) on corner 3s, and generally was superb. Gasol is carrying this team with the injuries and playing like a franchise player should.

 

He also absolutely dominated Draymond Green when the Warriors left him in single coverage.

 

FORGET.

The Warriors had a terrible game. Curry missed shots he usually makes, the offense had no rhythm, Green and Thompson looked completely out of sorts. It's true that last season, the Warriors never had games like this, but this isn't last year's team. That much is evident. The Warriors will bounce back and everything will be fine. Andre Iguodala missed this game and while, again, the Grizzlies had way more injuries, Iguodala's injury leaves them without a calming presence defensively that unlocks their vaunted smallball unit.

Throw this game away and never think of it again.

 

REMEMBER.

This is what Memphis does. Every time people bury them, put them away, say there's no chance, they prove people wrong. Tony Allen is constantly underrated for his impact because he doesn't have a great jumper, but even on offense he was great. This Memphis squad plays together, and coach David Fizdale has done a tremendous job this season. Signature win for Memphis.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im9Av4htYRA

Edited December 11, 2016 by hahnz