Vintage Draymond postgame on Wembanyama’s MVP “defense is 50%” plea, Steph Curry vs. “kick the can”, Moody, Gui, etc.

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Draymond Green gave an impassioned eighteen-minute postgame Q&A! Only comments I’d like to make are:

1. I’m still not sure I agree with letting one Wardell Stephen Curry come back and play (see previous article). The loss of Moses Moody to a long-term injury effectively leaves the Warriors with nine players under contract for 2026-27, seven of which are playable on Opening Night. I would be really careful with those remaining seven. You have to be more and more careful the more bodies you lose.

2. On that note, I would actually want to shut down Green himself, although the team only played ten players against Brooklyn. It’ s all about asset management and, in this case, asset protection. Nate Williams has only six games remaining where he can be active under the two-way contract rules and there are still nine games to go. Malevy Leons was listed as out with an illness. LJ Cryer, De’Anthony Melton and Kristaps Porzingis all seem to be playing with minutes restrictions, still. It might be hard to shut down Draymond just due to the need for bodies to get through any given 48-minute game without wearing guys out, but we shall see.

3. I’m not as worked up about Victor Wembanyama’s campaigning for MVP as Draymond is, because I am at peace with the fact that a select group of media members votes on the award. I’ve said it a million times: I don’t waste my time with CRAP (comparisons, rankings, awards and predictions). I’m all about the process, so when a select group of media members have voted for decades along the lines of “what name will look credible on the Wikipedia page (it used to be in sports almanacs) for NBA MVPs,” you will get a certain type of selection. I also understand that an NBA player like Dray would be extra-sensitive to these awards because they are literally tied to salaries, whether directly or indirectly. That part is unfortunate and that rule should be improvised.

Here is ye embedded video and ye transcript (paywalled) from postgame vs. the Nets. It will be taken out from under the paywall when the next article on this Substack gets posted, so if you are a free subscriber, you will just have to wait a little bit…

00:00 The (Play-in) tournament, do you care about that? Do you kind of, have you already gone about it as if you guys were gonna be in it? Just kinda what your thoughts on that?

00:07 DRAYMOND GREEN, POSTGAME BKN-GSW: Yeah, I definitely thought we was already in it, but great to clinch. Yeah, I thought we were in it already.

00:24 Steve said that you think you guys might be a little dragging, a little bit after seven games in 11 days. How are you feeling and what do you think of that?

00:32 You get back home, that first game is always tough after a long road trip like that, so to be expected, but I actually feel pretty good.

00:46 When you see that you guys are averaging, I think, 24 turnovers over the last four games, what do you think has going on there?

00:53 We can’t get sped up. I think we’re starting the game off getting sped up, not having proper space and getting to our spots and it kind of starts this domino effect, so then you have the first few turnovers and then it’s mental, right? So then all of a sudden you second guess a pass, then you throw the pass, and now it’s too late and so guys just gotta get outta their own heads. Play the game. The game tell you to pass, pass the ball game. Tell you to shoot, shoot the ball, you know? But I think it’s quite a bit mental, if you ask me.

01:35 A career high 31 points for Gui. As a fellow second round pick, how much can you relate to the work he’s put in to get to this point?

01:42 Man, you want my honest answer or you want me to sugarcoat it a little bit? My honest answer is when Gui got here, he did not look like an NBA player and he just put his head down, work every single day. You come in the gym early, he’s here, usually finishing up. You get here early on your time, he’s usually finishing up. What he’s been doing, he came in earlier today, he’s in here and so he worked to become this guy. He didn’t show up and then all of a sudden he just got an opportunity to show what, who he is. Like, he worked to become this person. You’re talking countless hours in Santa Cruz. Never once has complained, has always stuck to the process. And like I said, from the day that he got here, he never veered off the path. Stayed head down, working, and he’s getting the opportunity now to show everything that he’s working on and the game that he’s built. And it’s a beautiful thing to see, but I think for me personally, what I admire the most is just seeing him climb to become this guy. Look at earlier in the year, he got on the court just by going to get offensive rebounds. He didn’t get on the court by doing what he’s doing right now. He got on the court by — he was going to go get a rebound offensively, defensively. He was going to get the board and afforded himself an opportunity to then show who he is. And so, I mean, I couldn’t be happier for a guy. To watch him blossom into what he has.

03:29 You guys have won six games since the All-Star Break.

03:33 That’s nasty.

03:33 That’s not the win rate you are accustomed to here. How are you finding meaning in a really tough span with a lot of injuries?

03:42 Who, me or the team?

03:44 You and the team?

03:45 Myself, you just can’t be the guy that quit when it gets tough. I’ve had some incredible years here, been a part of some incredible teams, banners, all that stuff, and it’s great and when that stuff is happening. You want to be at the forefront of it. You want to embrace it, enjoy it, all of those things. It’s great. When it goes a little left, you can’t jump off the train. You can’t walk around and pout. You can’t throw in the towel or what was everything that you did before? We use a word around here all the time, front runners. And I think we, one thing we did through our dominant run was took advantage of front runners and I can’t give that to these guys, you know? Could I throw in the towel? Possibly. But does that — what does that look like then for Gui Santos? But what does that look like for Brandin Podziemski? You’re talking guys who’s trying to build themselves a career. De’Anthony Melton came back here after year off, trying to build back to where he was. You can’t just throw a towel in on them. That’s just not, it’s not who I’ve ever been, and it’s not who I’m going to become, you know? I’d rather go out there and get my head beat in every night and I walk off the court, I’m gonna go home with my family, my kids, wife and I always say at the end of the day, the day gonna end. But I can go home knowing, all right, we won or lost, regardless, but no matter the circumstance, I’m gonna go out there and give what I can give. And with that, I can sleep at night. If I just quit and throw — I hate seeing guys who throw in the towel in this league, you know? But then they come back, next year starts, they come back. The respect that you lost throwing in the towel, don’t just pop back up. You lost that respect. That is gone. And I, one thing I can tell you as someone who’s taken advantage of guys who struggle to gain in the respect department, it ain’t a fun place to be, you know? No one respecting you. The NBA is a hard, hard life. It’s a hard — take that with a grain of salt. I know guys make money. I know, but I’m talking about to continue to do it, it’s hard. Like, to do that on a nightly basis is tough. Try doing that with no respect for you, and that battle could just get steeper uphill, so I pride myself on respect but you don’t gain respect in the great times. That’s just never how it’s been because we all can show up and smile and feel great when times are great, but I made a commitment to this organization long ago. And the commitment that I made wasn’t on the dotted line that I signed, didn’t say all good times lie here. Everything that come with that, you have to embrace. And so to be a part of this organization on the way up was magnificent. When it go down a tad, I’m not jumping off the train. It is what it is and I have a lot of pride a lot to fight for, but most importantly, I can’t throw the towel in on these guys, you know? Who do they turn to then? So I try to provide that for them In this time where Steph is out, Al is out, Jimmy’s out. I try to just be a steady force that looks different every night, but try to be a steady force to where they can turn and know someone’s in the foxhole with them that’s been there. And try to give them confidence in that way.

08:17 Kind of along those lines, what are you seeing with Steph right now behind the scenes and how hard is it for you, or even maybe for him, to look at the clock kind of ticking on this season?

08:29 I think it’s hard to look at the clock kind of ticking because you just know he want to play. Like, he want to be out there. And so it’s not hard for me looking at the clock tick away, like, oh man, like what he doing? Like, is he gonna get back? Like, that’s not how we operate, but I think where you get a little worried is he wants to come back and he hasn’t. That’s when you start looking at the clock tick. Like, hold on, man. Like, not from a standpoint of, like, yo, when he’s coming back? But just, like, I know he’s working to get back. And if not now, what’s going on? I think you, you more so get a little worried than anything, but not from a standpoint of, like, oh man, like, he gonna come save the day. From a standpoint of, like, man, your brother down, what the hell’s going on, you know? Do you think he should come back? I think you — it’s a slippery slope, telling the guy who love basketball you can’t come back and play basketball when they feel like they’re healthy enough to play basketball. So I think if there’s an inkling of a doubt with his knee, no. A no, but if he’s healthy and he can play, absolutely, because that’s what you put the work in for you put the work in to give yourself a chance to have a great season to get into the postseason and flourish on that stage. And so — and you don’t know how many opportunities you get. You could — you can always kick the can down the road and say, oh man, we’ll get back at it, but that don’t always work like that. We kicked the can down the road last year, we didn’t kick the can down the road. Unfortunately, Steph got hurt, but say we kicked the can down the road last year, like, oh man, we’ll get it back next year and then look at this year, you know? So you gotta take advantage when you can and I know he’ll be out there if he’s healthy, but I think if there’s an inkling of a doubt that he’s not in the space that he needs to be in, no, I don’t. But I think that for anybody. I think everybody — when we play this game, we want to be a hero. We all want to throw you a cape on and come save the day, but if that risk future injury for him, I don’t think anyone would be in agreeance that that’s the right move. Whether we’re 35-38 or 58-12, if you’re not healthy, gotta play the long game, too.

11:11 Dray, I know you guys just played a stretch of games without Moses. Did it feel any different tonight just coming after the injury that he suffered and knowing the seriousness of it, or was it just the same?

11:24 I think you feel the presence more in there than out there. Once you get on the court, you just playing with the guys that’s out there with you. No one’s out there, like, oh man, Steph was right here or Moses was right there or if Jimmy — like, you can’t play the game of basketball that way, but where you do feel is absence is in there, the spirit that he brings on a daily basis. Loon (Kevon Looney) has a little thing he used to do when we’re getting ready to leave the locker room. Moses took over that. All of a sudden you don’t hear that today. You notice it more in that stuff than the game. Obviously, you miss him on the court, but again, when you’re out there on the floor, you’re not worried about who you’re missing. You’re trying to figure out what you need to do to win. But his presence, you miss more than anything.

12:11 I just wanted to take you off topic for a second. Wemby the other day was really kind of vocal about his MVP case. You’re a guy in the past who’s has vocalized your own case. I’m just curious how you took that, just like his willingness to come out ?

12:28 I hated it and I absolutely loved it. And the reason is because — the reason I hated it, is because until Wemby said defense is 50% of the game, it was like, oh man, no one realized that, right? Like, no one realized that 50% of the game we play is on that end of the floor, so he comes out and make this profound ass statement and it’s, like, oh, of course it is. And everybody’s, like, oh man, he has a great point. Hello? You think? So I hated it because he had to do that. For that to then be said, all of a sudden you turn on the TV and everybody’s, like, actually maybe Wemby is the MVP. And I can agree with that. Maybe he is, but the fact that he has to come out and remind people, hey, y’all see what I do over there? It’s, like, an indictment on the game of basketball and everybody talk all of this stuff about, oh man, you gotta play both sides and everybody wanna crush Luka Doncic when Luka doesn’t live up to the standard of defense, but we got this guy defending entire teams and no one took it into account until he said, well, number one, defense is 50% of the game. I want to give him so much credit for such a profound statement, but honestly, was it really that profound? But it’s so true. And yet it took for him to say that for everybody to say, oh man, he’s right about that. And so that’s a little bit of it and yet, and still I love what he said, but there’s some doubt. My goal is by the end of the season, there’s no doubt. Like, I love the way he was approaching it and the reality is I said, I hate it, but I’m just telling you, man, in these awards, if you don’t talk, people can’t see. You’re talking a game of basketball. Let’s not act like everybody can just open their eyes and know what’s going on. We know that’s not the case, so when you’re talking these awards, I know everybody’s, like, oh man, you said this or such and such said this about themselves. Until Evan Mobley finally said something last year, nobody was gonna give him Defensive Player of the Year. Then he finally said something, he’s like, oh, alright, maybe we’ll take a look. So the reality is, if you don’t come out and speak for yourself, it don’t work and I tipped my cap to Wemby for being willing to sit up there on that platform and say, this is why. Not hide from the question, not say, oh man, they’ll figure it out. No they won’t. I’m happy he’s smart enough to know they won’t figure it out. You don’t help them see it? Damnit, they can’t see. Got blinders on because I don’t know how people don’t see this. 7’6, whatever you’d like to describe him as, chasing a guard around the three-point line and then somehow get back to the rim to block. I don’t know how that’s hard to see. Like, that’s not difficult to see. Some cases on defense, you say, oh man, the stats ain’t there. Wemby blocks shots, so even if you want — if you can only see the stats, well, this guy blocks everything, so say we don’t see it because of the stats. Well, there’s no excuse for this one, so maybe the conversation need to be had of, again, why do people not appreciate defense? But then everybody throw out these things of, oh man, we wanna see the game played a certain way. No, the hell y’all don’t. You don’t wanna see the game played a certain way. What you wanna see is someone score the basketball because here’s a guy that had to say, hey man, it’s 50% of the game to get his point across.

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