Warriors president of basketball operations Bob Myers spoke earlier this year about being able to move past Draymond Green‘s on- and off-court missteps because of the “built-up equity” that Green and the Warriors have established in their relationship over the years, but that equity took a major hit this week, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic, who says Green has to earn back to the trust and respect of his teammates after punching Jordan Poole during a practice.
As Amick writes, the consensus within the Warriors’ organization is that Green’s decision to swing at Poole was “wildly unjustified.”
As the Warriors carefully deliberate their next steps with Green, the team is also taking “every legal course of action” to investigate how video of the incident was made public on Friday, per Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- The Warriors will face more intense scrutiny now that video of the altercation has leaked and Stephen Curry‘s leadership will be put to the ultimate test, Marcus Thompson II writes for The Athletic. Sources tell Thompson that Curry spoke to the team after Wednesday’s practice and has been in frequent communication with Myers and head coach Steve Kerr about how to handle the situation.
- The fact that Poole and Green are both entering contract years further complicates how the Warriors might move forward following this week’s incident. Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report spoke to multiple scouts and executives to get a sense of how comfortable they’d be signing Poole and/or Green to contract extensions.
- It doesn’t sound like Andre Iguodala will see any action during the preseason, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, who tweets that Golden State is slowly working the veteran wing back into game condition. It’s also doubtful Iguodala will play much early in the regular season, Slater adds, since the team wants to manage his usage to make sure he can contribute down the stretch and in the playoffs.
Winning cures almost everything but Dray knows he fd up.
I lost a lot of respect for Draymond. Going into this contract year I’d trade him instead of losing another piece. That was bush league. I can’t believe he did that. That looked like a thug on the street. Not a 4 time champ. Sorry. Passionate or not that doesn’t belong on any team. Let alone this one. Guess he’ll get a chance to retire a Piston after all.
Why would you have any respect for Draymond “The Nutkicker” Green to begin with? You can appreciate his game without respecting him, especially since he phoned in an entire season the year Steph and Klay were hurt.
Poole should get a free swing at Draymond and be done with it.
Speaking of Draymond, should this have been called a foul against Hayward? Does Draymond get drafted higher if hes a Final 4 hero?… link to m.youtube.com
Meyer will bite his lip to keep Green motivated but we all know Green days are most likely numbered now that he started all this. For a guy who likes to talk his mouth off he is being very quiet on all this.
It’s Myers, not Meyer. And Green is clearly motivated. Curry loves that fire in Green. If Poole wants his big contract, he needs to find some of that fire. He needs to get better.
Is Green helping that team if he is going to start fight with players? He did the same to KD. Maybe its Green that wants out because he been very chummy with LeBron this year. Might be best to cut the cord now and move along.
The Warriors won without KD. Green is obviously motivated.
He also cost them a championship by getting suspended and almost did the same last year. Green is not giving GSW a discount and will go to who will offer the most money. If the young guys turn it up I rather see them get the money.
I’m sorry but getting mad at LeBron for t bagging him on national television is one thing. This is another. I’d wished he treated LeBron that way instead of Poole. LeBron t bagged his way to a championship. And the reason I’ll never respect LeBron…. ever
@Giants
Please get this straight. Just because the GSW won last year, years after KD left, does NOT mean they would’ve won without him those two years he won a chip as part of the team. He was the best player on the team and the Finals MVP. You absolutely needed him.
They won without Durant before and after his stint in San Fran. How many rings has Kev won without the Warriors?
@ KnicksCavsFan:
It’s HIGHLY likely they would have won without KD.
Enjoy your memory of the rigged title the league handed the Cavs and move on.
Green’s beef with KD occurred after Dray decided to play hero ball, where he dribbled into traffic under the basket in the final seconds of a key game. He ended up losing control of the ball and the Dubs lost the game. KD was open for a pass at the elbow. I’m long-time Dubs fan, and appreciate what Dray has done for the Dubs, but Dray totally fd up and
KD let him know about it just minutes after the game–as he should have. But Dray is much better at giving advice than he at taking it, at least in the moment. Dray telling KD that the warriors won without him is pretty weak. And given Dray’s outsized role on and off the court, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that that the turning point in KDs decision to leave. I say all this to illustrate just how big a problem the Dubs have with Dray in a leadership role, especially if his on the court performance begins falling off.
@CoolinB
Excellent send well said. Somehow the world has made KD the villain for choosing to leave GSW.
@Giants74
Why do you constantly criticize Poole? The fact is that he’s an excellent young player that HAS gotten better every season.
I read somewhere that Draymond was told to not bring this up immediately on the pod.
It was always going to make sense to move of Draymond, if the finances necessitated moving off of one of the Big 3 (Green’s game will just age less gracefully). So yes I agree the GS FO will possibly use this as pretext to deal him next summer.
Draymond might have just blown his first ballot hall of fame ticket. He mght even lose out on future tv and endorsement opportunities. His overall value plummeted. He either has to opt in next offseason or have to agree to less than 4 yr extension at less than current contract. He really fu*ked up. He should be grateful that Poole didnt get hurt. :(
How has Draymond’s value plummeted?
@Giants74 Sucker punching your teammates in the jaw at practice when you’re supposed to be a veteran leader is bad. And then you add in his negative offensive value.
So, you have never watched the Warriors. Negative offensive value? That’s ridiculous.
You’re right. Every GM in the league is lining up for a 33 year old 6’6” PF who can’t shoot and sucker punches his teammates.
@sharkey What negative offensive value? When you have guys like Curry and Klay, why do you need to shoot a lot?
You’re making my point for me. You and I could rack up assists when you play with Curry and Thompson. What does Draymond actually bring to the table offensively? He’s talked about his value swinging the ball to the other side of the floor to reset the defense. I learned that when I was like 10-11 years old.
And he’s a system guy. The times he’s played without those guys and that team Green hasn’t looked the same
Within the organization it has. I guarantee it. Myers is saying what he’s saying to put this behind the ASAP. But you can’t unsee this. Punk move. Let a losing team over pay him. After you take a few firsts for him. Bye bye
They seem more worried about how the video got out then the punch itself. The team was deliberately trying to keep this story vague and in-house. Meyer was full of it when he said it wasn’t much and Green might be suspended. Just like the Celtics were trying to tone down Udoka’s actions at first before the truth came out
Is anyone totally surprised by this? Draymond has always bordered the line and he crossed it.
I don’t think this is some massive deal, fights happen with teammates occasionally as these guys are all alpha males.
Obv Green was wrong to punch Poole but I think you fine him, suspend him for a week and move on.
Amen RyanO
Honestly it’s more about the video than the actual act IMO. As anyone of the age of 18 can attest to, a “punch” can mean a lot of things.
That video shows a solid swing and connection, and with no audio it looks almost out of nowhere (yes Poole shoved him but shove to haymaker (on a teammate no less) is an escalation).
If there’s no video then I think this is basically what you say. Fine and move on.
Problem is… there IS video.
Also, serious question:
What’s worse, in your opinion, Udoka’s consensual transgression or Draymond suckerpunching a teammate as viewed in the video?
I
Tough to say as it seems like there are some holes missing in the Udoka story. Either way, I doubt Draymond gets more than a cursory suspension (5-10 games at best), even he gets suspended at all.
But that’s also why I’ve thought (like most) that the Udoka thing has some serious reporting gaps. (Good) Teams just don’t suspend vital parts of their organization unless the transgression leaves them essentially no other choice.
I think the league suspends Green and it was purposely leaked by the team so that they didn’t have to hand him the penalty – the league will handle it now.
Kind of a cop-out by the team.
I think he misses a minimum of the first two regular season games (which, obviously, includes the ring ceremony).
Saves him – and fans – from an awkward situation of whether or not to cheer for or boo him.
Yeah!!!
If you asked me Dray crossed that line along time ago. He’s gone out of his way to kick Steven Adams in the nuts several times over the years and seems to enjoy doing so. He may have cost his team a title when he did the same to LeBron.
Green never kicked Lebron in the nuts. Swing and a miss was used by the league to absurdly call it a flagrant, despite there having been no contact to Lebron.
This wasn’t a fight. It was a sucker punch. Big difference. Poole wants him out of his face. Never thought a punch was coming or he would have braced for it.
LMAO warriors are more concerned with a video leak than Draymond punching Poole. What a joke.
Of course they are. Can you imagine if anyone could just record any team’s practice without permission and sell clips to the highest bidder (not just media but other teams)? Considering these are highly competitive and multibillion dollar businesses, not only can it damage their reputation, it can also lead to damage via corporate espionage and theft of trade secrets. It could leak strategy, violate medical privacy during rehab, compromise work on plays. This is a serious breach.
Also it will mess up access for the media moving forward. If incidents like this happen then no one can be trusted to observe a practice.
1. Releasing a 30 second clip of an incident that showed no practice or insider stuff related to anything of importance isn’t the same as selling tapes of teams running plays and calling out signals and stuff at practice. Not even close.
2. Being more concerned that a 30 second clip of Draymond became public after attempting to downplay the incident and looking to take legal action against someone for releasing the 30 second clip without even punishing Green yet is a complete joke.
3. Youre bringing up stuff completely unrelated to what actually happened. Almost like you have no actual defense for the incompetent response by the warriors organization.
He’s bringing it up because it’s a “what else has been leaked?” Scenario. And very valid. This one was sold to TMZ. Selling info to other teams won’t get media play will it? You’d never know
GSW is trying to repeat. Ofc they’d try to keep it in house.
They thought their spin aided by their media allies would get them past this. The video threw a spinner in the works.
“DirtyDre” and PollutedPoole”. ………
At it again. Warriors should sell high on Poole now. They can get a #1 pick.
@ KnickAl
Nonsense. Why would they gamble on a pick when Poole is a known quality player when they want to repeat?
Zero chance that happens.
It the video doesn’t leak this conversation doesn’t happen. Factor that into your takes
Jay-Z and Ray Rice are definitely in agreement
If the sucker punch didn’t happen, there’s no video to leak. Dray should’ve been a professional
Golden State is a veteran, championship team. Draymond has a lot of throwback in him. Golden State will handle it internally and it will be done.
Ain’t nobody on Golden State trying to “catch Draymond’s hands” after witnessing that. He remains central to the leadership of the team. Draymond now has “Bobby Portis” status in the league. Nobody wants to catch those hands!
Once Jordan Poole gets past the embarrassment of going viral from getting clocked they will move on as an organization.
Poole will be remembered for this for the rest of his life.
The video’s bad. Not like … Ray Rice bad but to throw a haymaker at a teammate in practice, in an era where any type of physical fighting is less and less glorified, is just at the very least a major PR headache.
But there’s a basketball reality here as well.
Draymond was near unplayable for hearty chunks of the finals. His last, say, 3 seasons have been, optimistically speaking, choppy. He’s a guy who’s made his bones as a versatile defender who’s now approaching his mid-30s (depending on how you categorize 33).
Basically this type of behavior, ideally, should be subsiding with his on court effectiveness.
The fact it seems Draymond is becoming more of a distraction off court as he becomes less relevant on it is probably something I’d be wary of if I was a GSW fan.
Well said.
Solid take, luckily GSW is so stacked they actually could afford to lose both Poole + Green and not really lose a beat. Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga have all-star ceilings already, and Wiseman might be Embiid 2.0 all along. Its a dumb sideshow that takes away from Steph’s short term legacy more than anything.
Warriors know how bad his back was last year. He recovered pretty admirably. But if he’s showing major wear and tear they know. Either this thing forces their hand or motivates him to play better take better care of himself and take less money.
His media spots and podcast have really became his focus. It has fed his ego something bad
Video leaker punished worse than Green
I have to wonder what the Warriors brass will do if this escalates further…
Who do they keep if it comes down to him vs me after something else happens…
You know they’ll work it out, but this is also very similar to the Portis and Mirotic incident… One could be put of the league very soon if they aren’t on this team… And that ain’t Poole…
What it Turner Broadcasting planning to do about Green’s contract?
Does NBA on TNT really want him on the broadcast team after this?
He might not get canned right away but unfortunately for draymond this is legacy ruining moment for him. Less endorsements, less contract, less everything. He really f*cked up big time.
IMO his only hope is to publicly admit he has mental health issues wrt anger management and impulse control and has begun professional treatment for it.
No more excuses.
He is such a great Warriors legend and the heart of title winning teams, but everyone is replaceble. Yes, Warriora play badly without him but eventually they will replace his energy and defense. It just takes time to fill that huge void.
You always worry he might do that in the game, but for him to do it against smaller teammate and try to get away with it and justify it is simply unacceptable. He could have easily injured Poole and hurt Poole’s career. :(
Please keep it real, Green hasn’t either “tried to get away with it” nor “justify it”.
The team (not Green) tried to keep it in house, which the video rendered impossible. But Green apologized, there’s been no comment from him so far.
What I mean is trying to get away with it with just simple apology or some talk about Poole’s attitude or draymond trying to be a good vet oe Poole might have proboke it. All this talk coming from draymond camp to media. He had no real remorse before the video leak.
Who are you to judge whether or not his remorse was real?
He’s now made a statement during a 40 minute news conference:
“I was wrong for my actions that took place on Wednesday and for that, I have apologized to my team. I have apologized to Jordan, and I wanted to take that a step further: With the event yesterday with the video leaking, there is a huge embarrassment that comes with that, not only for myself, as I was the one who committed that action … but the embarrassment that Jordan has to deal with, and this team has to deal with, this organization has to deal with, but also Jordan’s family.
I’m disappointed that this is something I created that we have to go through,” Green said. “And like I said, for that reason, I’ll do all that I have to do to make it right. I failed as a leader. I failed as man.”
“Jordan’s feelings are most important. to be honest, I don’t know how he really feels. That’s not a bridge we really crossed yet, nor should it be a bridge we should cross yet.”
Green said he’s going to “take some time to myself.” Draymond: “I will continue to stay away. I’ve been away. I will continue to do work on myself. And continue to give guys space.”