Tag: Draymond Green

A look back: Shaun Livingston’s productive play in the 2016 playoffs

Shaun Livingston was effective as the Warriors’ backup point guard during the 2016 NBA playoffs.

Shaun Livingston was perhaps the best version of himself during the 2016 NBA Playoffs.

Livingston was in his second year with the Golden State Warriors, the most feared team in the NBA that season. Golden State had a historic regular season, going 73-9 to set the record for most wins in a season.

An unfortunate knee injury hampered Livingston early in his career, but his resilience and perseverance is clear. He went on to play 11 more seasons after suffering the injury in the 2006-07 campaign, and some of his best years were with the Warriors.

Being on a title contender, he had a defined role during the 2016 postseason. He was to lead the second unit’s offense, meaning to score when necessary and set up his teammates.

One of Livingston’s best series was the first round, when the Warriors played the Houston Rockets.

Livingston played 26.9 minutes per game and averaged 13.2 points, tied for third on the team with Draymond Green. Livingston was second in assists per game (4.8) that series behind Green.

Throughout that postseason, Livingston played 21.4 minutes a game and averaged 8.2 points, his second-highest playoff average. Livingston also dished 3.3 assists per game, the most he had in any of his postseasons with Golden State.

The first round was filled with solid performances for Livingston, but the NBA Finals was where he shined.

Livingston had one of his best games ever in Game 1 of the Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, scoring a playoff career-high 20 points as the Warriors won 104-89. He led the Warriors in scoring that game, and his midrange jumper was blossoming.

Standing at 6-foot-7, Livingston used his length to back down opposing wings in the post during the Finals, and he’d rise for midrange shots.

According to Basketball Reference, Livingston shot 50% of his 2-point field goals from 10-16 feet of the hoop. He shot 42.9% from that area, with his midrange jumper being a key part of his arsenal.

Livingston didn’t score in double figures again the rest of that series, but his impact was felt in other ways. He averaged 2.9 assists, the highest of any Warriors player who didn’t start in any games. Livingston also grabbed 3.4 rebounds per game, ranking fifth on the team.

The Warriors lost the historic Finals, but Livingston was arguably at his peak. That midrange jumper was lethal in the Finals, and he was one of Golden State’s best reserves because of it.

Livingston isn’t too far removed from the game, as he retired in September 2019. A three-time champion, Livingston finished his career as one of the most reliable backup point guards in the league.

 

 

 

Kerr got advice from Michigan State’s Tom Izzo to better coach Draymond Green

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr sought advice from Draymond Green’s Michigan State coach, Tom Izzo, to get advice on coaching Green.

Every player requires a different teaching style, and Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr figured out early that he could do more than just try a communication method and wait to see how it turns out.

In the Runnin’ Plays podcast with NBCSports, Kerr said he has reached out to old coaches and mentors for help with players including forward Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.

“(Michigan State coach) Tom Izzo and I have become good friends because I decided I wanted to really know how to coach Draymond and I sought his advice,” Kerr said.

The way Green interacts with teammates has received national attention, and not always in a positive light, but his leadership was undeniably an integral part of the glue that helped Golden State become a dynasty.

Kerr learned how to best communicate with Green.

“I think that’s a big part of being a coach in the NBA, is really learning your players and understanding what makes them tick,” Kerr said.

It took an on-court lesson with Thompson to teach Kerr how the shooting guard clicks. He recalled the moment from the 2014-15 season on the Runnin’ Plays podcast.

“My very first season, I lit into Klay. I took an early timeout, lit into Klay, and he didn’t respond very well,” Kerr said. “He went out and was kind of rattled, made a couple mistakes.”

Thompson averaged 21.7 points that season, which at that point was a career high, and made his first All-Star Game.

“I kind of checked that box,” Kerr said. “I said, ‘Klay’s not a guy who’s going to respond to yelling.'”

Like he did with Green, Kerr reached out to others who had worked with Thompson in the past.

“I figured that out and asked a couple of people who knew Klay better,” Kerr said. “They said ‘Yeah, yeah, you’re much better off just talking to him and explaining what you want. If you yell at him he’s gonna shut down.'”

Kerr learned about his players quickly and led the team to a championship in that first season as coach.

“I think you get a feel for each player pretty quickly as the season begins, as you begin to communicate with players,” he said.

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Charles Barkley and Draymond Green’s beef is getting old

They really need to squash this.

The Charles Barkley and Draymond Green’s beef is getting a bit stale at this point.

These two have feuded for years since Barkley said he wanted to punch Green in the face. Of course, Green has fired back on a few occasions. They even squashed the beef at one point. But this season? It’s come back with a vengeance. Especially since, you know, the Warriors suck.

On the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Green was asked about the feud between the two and where it stems from. He responded by saying Barkley was jealous of the success that he’s had as a basketball player.

How did Barkley respond? In the pettiest way possible, of course. He called him the “worst member of the boyband who doesn’t realize he’s standing next to Timberlake.” Word, Chuck. Word.

A good beef makes for amazing content and pretty funny moments. And, for a while, this beef was good. Extremely good.

But it’s getting pretty childish now. Barkley is just lobbing personal insults at Green at this point and Green is responding by ridiculously trying to diminish Barkley’s Hall of Fame NBA career.

We have to be real about this one, y’all. It’s kind of jumped the shark. They need to be adults about this, squash it and never speak again. That’s the only sensible way to end this.

Breaking down who would win between Heat Big 3 and peak Warriors

A playoff series between the Miami Heat’s Big 3 and the Golden State Warriors at their peak would have been great to see.

The Golden State Warriors are the best team of the 2010s, winning three championships in the decade.

But the Warriors would have some competition against the Miami Heat, a team that peaked just a few years before they took off.

Heat legend Dwyane Wade hopped on Instagram Live with Steph Curry on Friday night, and he asked Curry which team would win: the Heat’s Big 3 or the Warriors at their peak?

Curry said the two could settle everything out on NBA 2K, but Wade laughed and said he isn’t good at the game. Still, with the two team’s peaks only around four years apart, it’s a hypothetical matchup that could have been relatively feasible if the Heat had a longer run.

Offense: Warriors 

The Warriors have revolutionized offense, with Curry and Klay Thompson being the sharpshooters for a team that heavily utilizes off-ball actions and misdirection.

At their peak, the Warriors screened teams into oblivion, and with Kevin Durant in the picture, they were basically impossible to guard.

Though they boast great shooters, the Warriors have never relied on shooting from deep — that’s why their best teams had the most productive offenses in league history. They were unpredictable, while still having the threat of elite shooting.

When they won the title in 2017, the Warriors ranked fifth that regular season in 3-point attempts per game (31.2). When they won a second straight championship in 2018, the Warriors ranked 17th in 3-point attempts (28.9).

Golden State’s motion offense has been filled with position-less lineups, but what’s interesting is that the Miami Heat’s offense was the predecessor for the Warriors’ success.

The Heat were pioneers when it came to showing how small-ball lineups could work in certain situations. That was when LeBron James began playing more power forward, working in the post against smaller defenders.

James had multiple shooters to pass out to if necessary, with Shane Battier, Mike Miller, Mario Chalmers and Ray Allen being viable options.

Like the Warriors, the Heat were also good at controlling pace. James and Wade were crucial for that, with Wade’s slashing and scoring ability being the perfect complement to James’ passing skills.

The Heat’s offense was effective, but the Warriors get the edge here. No team in NBA history has put on an offensive clinic quite like Golden State has.

Defense: Even

The Heat’s defense was smothering at its peak, and their blitzing would be the main reason they could hang with the Warriors.

The only chance any team had against the Durant-era Warriors was to apply pressure on the perimeter, while also having enough rim protection to cover any backside options.

The Heat had both during their run, with players like Wade, Battier, James and Norris Cole helping suffocate the perimeter.

Chris Bosh and Chris Andersen anchored the defense in the interior, with the big men being No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in blocks per game during the team’s 2013 title season.

Miami’s ability to go small would be crucial as well. Teams need to be able to switch on the perimeter to guard Golden State, and the Heat’s athleticism and quickness would allow them to defend the pick-and-roll and keep the Warriors in front of them.

Though the Heat’s defense was elite, the Warriors boasted just as good a defense at the height of their powers.

Much like the Heat, the Warriors regularly had the perimeter on lockdown, with Thompson and Andre Iguodala leading the top of the defense. The Warriors ranked first in steals per game (9.6) during their 2017 title season.

Draymond Green has always been an important fixture of the offense, with his quality facilitating and screen setting being his best attributes. But he is also a significant presence for the Warriors’ defense, and his ability to play center has helped unlocked their positionless lineups.

The 2017 Defensive Player of the Year, Green is one of the best help defenders of all time, as his basketball IQ helps him be in the right place at the right time.

He can guard any position, and the Warriors would be able to contain the dynamic duo of Wade and James.

Prediction: Warriors would win, but the series would go the distance

With both defenses being great, it’s hard to put one over the other. That end of the floor would be tightly contested, and whether Miami could score enough points would be the difference.

During their 2013 title season, the Heat averaged 102.9 points per game and shot 39.6% from deep. During their 2017 championship season, the Warriors averaged 115.9 points per game and shot 38.3% from the 3-point line.

It’s difficult to see the Heat being better offensively than Golden State, though.

With a Hall of Fame-level offense, the Warriors would win, but it would be a close series because of the Heat’s stifling defense.

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Draymond Green says Kevin Durant changed after ’17 Finals, not being considered better than LeBron

The Golden State Warriors forward believes Durant wanted validation as being better than LeBron James that he didn’t get.

Draymond Green, like a lot of us, has plenty of time right now. But this week, following the premiere of “The Last Dance,” and Green being a part of the last great dynasty that the league has seen with the Golden State Warriors, he has spent the past week shining more light on the dynasty that dominated the league for the past five years.

Green already went on record this week saying that older players romanticizing the rivalries of the old days more myth than truth and then later in the week, he criticized his former teammate Kevin Durant. Durant’s role and eventual departure in the Warriors dynasty is the main story in Ethan Strauss’s new book “The Victory Machine,” which illustrates the forces that brought together and eventually broke up the dynasty.

One of those, according to Strauss, was that after Durant and the Warriors beat LeBron James and the Cavs in the 2017 NBA Finals, neither in the court of public opinion nor at Nike where both are signature athletes, was Durant considered to be above LeBron. And in an appearance on Showtime’s All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Green confirmed that the lack of a change in opinions about his status in the pecking order changed Durant the next season.

According to Green, after that Finals, Durant would take more issue with the style of play of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, even though the Splash Brothers weren’t doing anything different. Green also criticized Durant for never addressing the elephant in the room with the Warriors, that 2018-19 was going to be his final season with Golden State.

Now, Durant is on the Nets with Kyrie Irving, the same teammate with whom LeBron won his crown jewel title. If Ty Lue ends up joining the Nets as a coach, we will have some idea of what it would be like to see Durant in LeBron’s place.

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Maverick Carter says Steph Curry would have ‘trouble’ guarding him

LeBron James’ business partner and friend Maverick Carter made some hyperbolic comments the other night about Steph Curry’s defense.

The quarantine has everybody saying things that we are probably not going to hold them to in the long run. And given the lack of sports we’ve had for such a long time, folks are going to be more prone to hyperbole than usual. Such was the case on Sunday night when Maverick Carter, LeBron’s business partner and co-founder of UNINTERRUPTED and SpringHill Entertainment, suggested that Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry would “have trouble” guarding him during the UNINTERRUPTED “After Party” show following the first episodes of “The Last Dance.” 

During that show, Curry’s teammate Draymond Green also used an example from the show of Michael Jordan playing Danny Ainge in golf during a playoff series as an example that the NBA wasn’t as “cutthroat” as people say it was in the 80s and 90s. Then Carter, in trying to talk about team building and relating it to Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and the Bulls, suggested that Stephen Curry’s defense is so poor he’d have trouble guarding him.

“If I’m the best at doing my thing, I need the other people to clear the way so I can do my thing. So Scottie (Pippen) took care of everything else. They brought up those stats. Scottie was second in rebounds, second in points, first in steals, blah blah blah.

“It’s just like the Warriors — the world knows Steph (Curry) can’t f–king play defense. I’m 38 — haven’t played a decent game of basketball in 18 years — Steph would have trouble guarding me.

“But Steph is the greatest shooter in the world. When that motherf–ker gets rolling you can’t stop him — he can hit any shot from anywhere on the court.

(Hat-Tip NBC Sports Bay Area)

Obviously, Carter is clearly exaggerating. And I’m not going to hold him too hard to things he said after likely having a few glasses of 1942 during “The Last Dance.” But he did say it. However, if it was that serious, Green likely would have taken a lot more offense to the notion that Curry is a poor defender. While it may have been true early in his career, Curry is not a liability on defense. It’s hard to impossible to have an All-Time defense like the Warriors had over the previous five seasons with a “bad” defender.

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Draymond Green calls out myth of more cutthroat, competitive 1980s-90s NBA

Golden State Warriors guard Draymond Green used the example of Michael Jordan playing golf in the playoffs with Danny Ainge in 1986.

Players these days are just to buddy-buddy. Players these days have been at all of the same camps and now they work together both on and off the court.  These are just a few of the complaints that have been levied against the current era of the NBA, led by LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry. But Curry’s teammate Draymond Green, who is also represented by Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, believes that history shows a few of those myths to be untrue.

While it is absolutely a fact that players these days have benefited from the league’s increasing financial power, many of the trappings of the NBA remain, as laid bare by the first episode of “The Last Dance,” a documentary about Michael Jordan that aired this weekend on ESPN. In the first episode, Jordan, known to the basketball world as the greatest competitor its ever seen, plays golf in-between playoff games with Boston Celtics guard Danny Ainge. This struck Draymond as a hilarious part in the story, given Jordan’s reputation and the projecting often done on Draymond’s own era by players from the past and fans who won’t let go of it.

Draymond was a guest on UNINTERRUPTED’s After Party show, which followed “The Last Dance.”

Nobody is questioning Jordan’s competitiveness, but just because we are more aware of the friendships that NBA players have with each other that are made in competition, doesn’t mean it’s more prevalent now than it ever was before. Everyone gets paid more, yes. But it’s not as if everyone is more friendly now just because of the money.

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Draymond Green sounds off on Kevin Durant for being ‘elephant in room’

There was tension in Golden State during Kevin Durant’s last year with the Warriors. Draymond Green said it was all on the now Nets forward.

The tension between Kevin Durant and Draymond Green during the former’s last season with the Golden State Warriors was apparent. The reason why seemed pretty clear, as well — the team didn’t know if Durant was sticking around.

Now a member of the Brooklyn Nets, Durant clearly didn’t stay with the Warriors.

After Durant signed with the Nets, Green expressed he didn’t find out about his ex-teammates plans to leave. Nor did he mind that, stating to ESPN:

He didn’t owe it to me to tell me before he told everybody else. We did what we had to do. The thing that people forget about in this league is like, this is our lives.

But it appears Green did have an issue with the way Durant left all his Warriors in the dark over the course of the 2018-19 season. The forward laid into Durant on Uninterrupted, while discussing 1997-98 Chicago Bulls’ contract situations, which were highlighted in the latest episode of ESPN’s ‘The Last Dance”:

Our situation was a little bit different. From the standpoint of it was contracts on players. It wasn’t necessarily the organization. For instance, Kevin took the one year deal on his own, so that was kind of the elephant in the room.

And although Steve’s [Kerr] approach was like ‘Hey guys, let’s enjoy this year because we don’t know what next year brings,’ you got, Kevin’s contract, you got Klay’s [Thompson] contract. And I kind of got thrown in that contract thing although I had another year after that year, which was this year. And so that was kind of the elephant in the room. And although Steve would kind of hit on it of like, ‘let’s just enjoy this year for what it is because we don’t know what the next year holds’ — it didn’t carry necessarily the same weight.

Because what should have happened was Kevin come out and say ‘Hey man, like this is it like so, let’s do this’ or, ‘this isn’t it.’ You know what I’m saying? But you can’t just leave the elephant in the room. Because what happened was, the question came to us every day. Every time we spoke to the media, Klay and myself was asked about our contract, and it was strictly due to Kevin. Because while that was going on, Klay was saying, ‘I want to be a Warrior forever. Like, I want to be here we started this thing. This is where I want to be.’ I’m saying, ‘I want to be here for my career, we started this, we built this — I want to finish my career here with the guys I started it with.’ And then you kinda had Kevin, like, ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do next year,’ and it don’t matter, but it does matter because you’re not the only person that has to answer that question.

Once the subject of the media came up, Green seemed to get particularly frustrated.

And to be quite frank with you, you’re honestly the last person that has to answer the question because you don’t really say [expletive]. Like, you don’t say much to the media. If anything, you tell them to shut the [expletive] up. Well, I don’t tell them to shut the [expletive] up. I kinda have a conversation, so I’m stuck answering that question all the time.

RELATED: Kevin Durant doesn’t think Michael Jordan gets enough credit as a shooter

RELATED: DeAndre Jordan, Garrett Temple react to ESPN’s ‘The Last Dance’

RELATED: Spencer Dinwiddie weighs in on first two episodes of ‘The Last Dance’

Draymond Green says Kevin Durant’s looming free agency was ‘elephant in the room’

Draymond Green spoke about the impact of Kevin Durant’s looming contract decision with the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors.

If the Golden State Warriors’ route to five consecutive NBA Finals captures a documentary, there’s a strong chance Kevin Durant will be a compelling focal point in the film. From his arrival to his exit, Durant was a polarizing character during his three seasons in the Bay Area.

Durant helped bring two championships to Golden State, taking home Finals Most Valuable Player awards with each ring. However, his final season in Oakland ended in a different fashion than it started.

The 10-time All-Star’s closing minutes with the Warriors came in game five of the Finals against the Toronto Raptors. Durant suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon injury in the second quarter in Toronto. The former Most Valuable Player hit free agency in the summer and left the Bay Area for Brooklyn.

Throughout the 2018-19 season, Durant’s imminent free agency decision loomed over the Warriors. Where he would play in 2019-20 was a consistent question.

Draymond Green joined Maverick Carter and Paul Rivera on Uninterrupted’s “WRTS: The After Party,” for an interview. The former Defensive Player of the Year spoke about “The Last Dance” documentary series and similarities between Golden State’s recent run and the Jordan era Bulls.

Green credited Phil Jackson for acknowledging 1997-98 could be the final run for the Bulls. According to Green, there was a looming “elephant in the room” in Golden State due to uncertainty with player’s contracts, specifically Durant’s handling of his impending free agency.

Via @uninterrupted on Twitter:

Our situation was a little bit different. From the standpoint of it was contracts on players. It wasn’t necessarily the organization. For instance, Kevin [Durant] took the one year deal on his own, so that was kind of the elephant in the room.

And although Steve’s approach was like ‘hey guys let’s enjoy this year because we don’t know what next year brings,’ you got, Kevin’s contract, you got Klay’s [Thompson] contract. And I kind of got thrown in that contract thing although I had another year after that year, which was this year. And so that was kind of the elephant in the room. And although Steve would kind of hit on it of like, ‘let’s just enjoy this year for what it is because we don’t know what the next year holds’ — it didn’t carry necessarily the same weight.

Because what should have happened was Kevin come out and say ‘hey man, like this is it like so, let’s do this’ or, ‘this isn’t it.’ You know what I’m saying? But you can’t just leave the elephant in the room.

Because what happened was, the question came to us every day. Every time we spoke to the media, Klay and myself were asked about our contract, and it was strictly due to Kevin. Because while that was going on, Klay was saying, ‘I want to be a Warrior forever, like I want to be here we started this thing — this is where I want to be.’ I’m saying, ‘I want to be here for my career, we started this, we built this — I want to finish my career here with the guys I started it with.’ And then you kind of had Kevin, like, ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do next year,’ and it don’t matter, but it does matter because you’re not the only person that has to answer that question.

(WARNING: video contains strong language NSFW)

Until the Warriors get their own edition of “The Last Dance,” there will always be questions regarding the season that ended with the Warriors losing the chance of a three-peat.

After signing a free-agent deal with the Brooklyn Nets, Durant is still recovering from his Finals injury. He will have to wait until the 2020-21 season to have a reunion with Green and the rest of his former Golden State teammates on the court.

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Warriors players tune in for the premiere episodes of ‘The Last Dance’ documentary

Eric Paschall and Draymond Green tuned in for the first two episodes of “The Last Dance” documentary.

After an overwhelming amount of hype, ESPN premiered the first two episodes of “The Last Dance.” The 10-part documentary follows the Michael Jordan era Chicago Bulls teams. The first two episodes chronicle Jordan’s rise from a prospect at North Carolina to becoming the NBA Rookie of The Year in 1985.

The Bulls divide with general manager Jerry Krause, and Scottie Pippin’s Chicago contract were both featured in the opening episodes. Former Bulls guard turned Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr also made an appearance in the debut episodes of the documentary.

Like many in the basketball world, a pair of Warriors players checked in on social media to show they were tuned in for “The Last Dance.”

Before the documentary kicked off, Draymond Green shared a clip on his Instagram story of him watching the film.

Via @money23green on Instagram:

Eric Paschall fired off a bevy of Tweets during the airing of the “30 for 30” documentary. Golden State’s second-round draft pick started by thanking ESPN for releasing the feature. Paschall commented on multiple topics from the Last Dance, including the spacing of the 1990s era of NBA basketball and Jordan’s scoring numbers as a rookie.

Via @EPaschall7 on Twitter:

 

After the first two chapters, Paschall wasn’t done, calling for ESPN to release the entire documentary.

The Villanova product will have to hold until next Sunday when episodes two and three are slated to air on ESPN.

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