Draymond Green addressed last year’s altercation with Kevin Durant on a podcast by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that also includes Warriors GM Bob Myers. Green, who was suspended for one game after the November incident, said he began to question his future with the franchise and his standing with Myers.
“I started to tell myself in my mind, ‘Wow, [Myers is] flipping on me,'” Green said. “And it just felt like, ‘Wow, OK, is this not the guy I’ve known for all these years? Is he turning on me?’ And I started to tell myself all of these things, and then everybody’s like, ‘Oh my God, the Warriors sided with Kevin Durant.’ That was the hardest thing for me, because a lot of people don’t understand me. Bob does.”
Green added that he had to get over his “stubbornness” and accept that he mishandled the situation. He refused to apologize to Durant after being told to do so by Myers and coach Steve Kerr, and didn’t offer an apology “until I came to grips with myself.”
“What people don’t know — which is so hard to know, which requires time and energy — is Kevin and Draymond probably will be the closest guys,” Myers said. “They’re going to be friends for their whole life like this. … In the aftermath when they spoke, they laid it out for each other and they’re like, OK, I got ya. Like, now I know where you’re coming from, from both sides. But that could have happened earlier and that would’ve prevented it.”
There’s more Warriors news to pass along:
- Green is preparing to play the entire season without Klay Thompson, tweets Nick Friedell of ESPN. Kerr said yesterday that Thompson seems “unlikely” to return from an ACL injury, although the team hasn’t made any official announcement. Green said that it will be an “added bonus” if the All-Star guard can get back on the court by the end of the season.
- Marc Stein of The New York Times believes Andre Iguodala will sign with the Warriors next summer and finish his career with Golden State. Iguodala remains in limbo with the Grizzlies, where the Warriors traded him to open cap space. Memphis is hoping to get something in return for the former Finals MVP and has been reluctant to discuss a buyout.
- Rookie Eric Paschall has a chance to get consistent minutes, writes Monte Poole of NBC Bay Area. Paschall was used at center and power forward during the preseason, but his best opportunity may come at small forward. “Most guys when they come in, they’re just not ready for this level of strength and force that exists in the game,” Kerr said. “Eric’s ready for all that. He’s gonna play a lot this year. We’re really excited about him.”
Iggy will be 36 next summer, and he won’t be in high demand.
Meanwhile the Warriors have one of the youngest rosters in the NBA and their days of being title contenders are likely in the past. Sure they will get Klay Thompson back in 2020, but just having him plus Steph and Draymond doesn’t automatically make them a great team anymore, even with D’Angelo Russell.
2020 is a whole different story. They can sign as many vet minimum deals as they want. If they are like a 7th seed playoff team they probably keep the first round pick next summer and its the highest they have had in a while. They could move D-russ. Have several trade exemptions worth around 20M that they could acquire players who’s salary the current teams want to move. Will be able to see what they have in the young guys and where they need help. Can resign there own FA for more then this year, and have an MLE to use. They also saved like 200M in luxury tax payments on what they would have spent with KD and DPE + MLE this winter.
I mean they have work to do for sure, but a ton of additional moves will be open to them next summer to try and capitalize on the remainder of the big 3s prime years. On top of having those three the rest of the team while younger and not a power house like before has more upside then usual since less is known about the future of guys like Smily and Poole. Oh yeah and the worst kept secret in the NBA is that they will resign Andre next winter so he can play the rest of his career with the Warriors.
Well I guess it makes sense to you.
Bottom line is they are not good, no matter how complicated you seem it is.
No one is really talking about contending. Iggy is supposed to have a good relationship with ownership and an organization job sounds logical. He’s got a lot of money invested in the Bay.
Stop the contending talk, Dubs are years away
F*** Green, he alone F’d up the Durant relationship. His contract will go down as one of the worst in GS History