It was Feb. 27, 2016, halftime of a nationally televised game between the Warriors and Thunder.
The player was Draymond Green. His words, as relayed by Salters, were pointed. His target was coach Steve Kerr.
“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!”
“At one point, people were trying to get him to sit down, from what I could hear,” Salters reported that night. “And he was daring people, threatening people: ‘Come sit me down!’
So a somewhat crazy story came out today via Howard Beck over at Bleacher Report regarding Draymond Green and Steve Kerr. What’s shocking here is this fight came in the middle of the Warriors historic 73 win season. Things were going good from a team standpoint yet here was this near fight between a starter and a head coach.
Now, imagine the Warriors trading Draymond Green. As much as people love to hate on him, he’s the reason they can run this death lineup because of his ability to defend multiple positions and play bigger than what he is. Sure, having Steph and Durant helps, but Draymond is the guy that brings it all together.
Again, this was in 2016. Draymond was a known commodity. He was someone that would have brought a decent amount back in a trade. It also would have drastically changed the Warriors and their long term plans. Right now it looks like everyone will be locked up to long term contracts keeping this core together, especially if Klay takes the team friendly contract this offseason that has been reported.
Beck goes on to talk about how Green and Izzo had similar arguments during his time at Michigan State, which goes to show why I think Kerr is a top coach in the NBA. It’s easy to say he just rolls the lineup out there and does nothing – which is also just false, because he’s one of the best ATO’s guys out there. It’s also all about balancing these personalities and making sure everything fits. Again, this is simply not as easy as most people on Twitter make it out to be.
Here’s a fun exercise though. Go look back at the rosters heading into the 2016-17 season. What’s a logical trade for Draymond since he, Izzo and pretty much everyone associated with him thought he was going to get traded?
