Draymond Green has a well-earned reputation as one of the NBA’s most notorious instigators. Beyond all the technical fouls and borderline dirty plays though, is one of the sharpest basketball minds in the game. Green’s basketball IQ was nearly as important as Steph Curry’s shooting ability in helping the Golden State Warriors win four championships in the last decade, as his former teammate David West told the Knuckleheads podcast this week.
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West explained how the Warriors stayed three steps ahead of other teams during his two years there (both of which resulted in titles) by having Green and assistant coach Mike Brown strategizing on the best ways to win.
He claimed Green’s mind thought so far ahead that he had contingency plans for every team they’d face, and it revolved around scoring. He claimed,
“Draymond got strategy for days … you gotta get to like 120 [points], right? So even if your two main guys get 40 apiece, that’s only 80. The rules hadn’t quite shifted to the foolishness that they are now, so there was still a little bit of bumping and holding and nudging guys, so it wasn’t totally out of the game yet. We had a group that could make adjustments and could play just about any style of basketball.”
West used LeBron James as an example of what he was talking about. He said the Warriors had the mindset that their chief antagonist could get 50 but it wouldn’t matter because the Cavs didn’t have players around him to score. He also cited a tough matchup against the Trailblazers as a case where they put this strategy to use.
“We had a tough series one of those years with Portland, with Dame [Lillard] and CJ [McCollum], and it was like, ‘OK, let ’em both average 30. That’s only 60 points. Where they gonna get the next 60 from?'”
Warriors’ bench played a pivotal role in championship runs
West had a long and productive career that spanned 15 seasons and saw him make two All-Star teams. This was a guy who averaged over 18 points a game five seasons in a row, but he embraced the role of being a key role player at the end of his career after he essentially took over for Marreese Speights.
Together with guys like Shaun Livingston and Andre Iguodala, West gave Golden State an edge that, combined with the overwhelming nature of Steph, Klay, and Draymond, made them nearly impossible to beat in those days.
That tough series he mentioned against Portland? The Warriors swept the Blazers by an average of 18 points per game in that one.
