Klay Thompson‘s departure to Dallas broke up Golden State’s longtime big three. It almost happened last summer, according to Draymond Green. In an episode of his podcast (Twitter video link), Green revealed that he briefly thought he would be joining the Grizzlies as a free agent in 2023.
“I called Klay, and I called Steph (Curry), separate calls, and Steve (Kerr) and I was just telling them like ‘Yo, I’m leaving. I’m going to Memphis,’” he said.
Green wound up re-signing with the Warriors on a four-year, $100MM contract.
We have more from the Southwest Division:
- Free agent Markieff Morris hinted on Twitter (link) he’s planning to return to the Mavericks. “I’m coming back. I want bro to come with me,” he said in a reply to a fan urging him to re-sign with Dallas. His “bro,” naturally, is Marcus Morris, who is also a free agent. Markieff Morris, 34, appeared in 26 regular-season games and one postseason contest last season.
- Thompson’s decision to join the Mavericks ends a lengthy history of the franchise falling short in its efforts to attract quality free agents, The Athletic’s Tim Cato opines. The reason why Thompson wanted to go there is that the franchise’s image has changed. There’s a newfound belief that Dallas offers a family atmosphere and comfort alongside its basketball success, Cato concludes.
- The Rockets could follow the Sixers’ blueprint for creating max cap space, John Hollinger of The Athletic writes. If they forgo rookie scale extensions for Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun and keep cap holds on the duo next offseason as restricted free agents, Houston can make other roster moves to generate max or near-max cap space. The Rockets would have to decline team options on Fred VanVleet and Aaron Holiday and waive Jock Landale to do so, Hollinger writes. The Sixers put Tyrese Maxey‘s extension on hold until this summer and cleared as much space as possible. They wound up winning the Paul George sweepstakes.
Marcus would get up more shots a game than Klay could dream of.
Slovenia up by 7 at halftime vs New Zealand in both teams final group stage game at the Greece OQT. If Slovenia lose or win by less than 10prs they’ll be eliminated from a chance at making the Olympics. New Zealand is guarding Luka very physically & have held him to 5-14 but the Wonderboy still has 19pts halfway thru. Vlatko Cancar is playing pretty awful for Slovenia so far. Setting up to be a great 2nd half
Dominant start to the 2nd half has Slovenia up 17 on NZ halfway thru the 3rd. Luka up to 24pts & is playing at an elite level rn
If they can’t beat NZ by double digits they do not deserve to be in the Olympics. Its like losing to a division 2 college team in the NBA.
Well they beat NZ by about 20 & their reward is getting to face Giannis & the host Greeks on Saturday. But you’re clearly sleeping on this Tall Blacks squad. They just beat Croatia yesterday. If not for Slovenia having an extra day of rest they possibly beat both these teams. Shae Ili was pretty much unstoppable for NZ just now but he didn’t get much help & to be frank the refs were a major obstacle as well. I’m pretty sure Luka shot more fts than their entire team just now. In any case this NZ team is def much better than any DII team. They actually compare well vs the best of D1 (UConn/Houston/Purdue)
Dray and Ja on the same team?
Draymond has said in the past how much he admires Ja’s game. So, yeah, Draymond would have been a good fit there with Ja, JJ, and Desmond Bane.
Did he admire his game or the money?!
@steven st croix , if you spend anytime following Draymond’s media, you quickly realize that he constantly invents s**t to bring listeners to his podcast.
This is at least the 3rd time over the past year he’s raised signing with Memphis.
It started as: “I was seriously considering talking to them”.
Then it became: “We were talking, but it didn’t go on that long”.
Now, it’s: “I got an offer and had decided to leave, but I was talked out of it”.
Draymond’s not going to be left out of a media cycle.
The Warriors are a mess… Keeping Dray over Klay might look ok on paper to some people who love defence…
The entire NBA knows it’s too much of a volitile situation for any success to happen… No one wants to end up like Poole and be Draymonds scapegoat…
On top of having that much money tied to someone who misses games from suspensions and injuries…