Draymond Green advised the 2021 MVP, Nikola Jokic, on his bad defense, the Nuggets center took constructive criticism and came back with an improvement.
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Having a great basketball mind and talking basketball good enough that you can make a living in sports media are two different things. Don’t get the wrong notion here, nobody is pointing towards Stephen A Smith or Skip Bayless.
But Draymond Green will be some otherworldly analyst after he retires and does it on a nightly basis. The Warriors’ point forward already deepens every basketball fan’s knowledge of the game whenever he makes an appearance as a guest analyst.
The 3-time NBA Champ is never shy to call out players, who he believes have major holes in their game and are capable of improving on it.
Be it his teammates or a player from opponent teams, Green gives his two cents, even if it means that the Warriors will have to face better oppositions. He once suggested something to The Joker, which made the Nuggets Big make certain improvements in his already tremendous game.
Draymond Green’s suggestion on defense helped Nikola Jokic
Denver Nuggets have been one of the best teams in the West for the past two seasons, and Nikola Jokic is one of the reasons why. But still, the Serbian giant lacked a certain element in his game that basketball fans are aware of. It’s his defense that fans and experts always believe 2021 could improve on.
A part-time expert analyst, Draymond Green, also has a podcast namely The Draymond Green Show. On one of its recent episodes with his former teammate and NBA Champion Matt Barnes, Green shared a story from the time he heavily scrutinized Jokic’s defense during an appearance on Inside The NBA and the mistakes Jokic made during the first half of a game.
“I went at Jokic’s defense. I’m like, ‘If they’re gonna ever be a good team, he’s the backline of the defense, he has to be good defensively.’ I showed four clips. Him not rotating over as the low man, him not moving, four clips. And I was very critical of him.”
Draymond Explains The Time Jokic Thanked Him For Breaking Down His Defense On TNT!@TheVolumeSports pic.twitter.com/AEyNHtdf31
— ²³ (@PlayoffDraymond) December 22, 2021
Green then says Jokic told him that he saw the criticisms from that segment, agreed with the points Green made. He then worked on it and believed he has improved defensively.
“I said you’ve 100 percent gotten better. ‘I’ve been watching you this year, and you’ve 100 percent gotten better.’ That was a big moment for me because this TV thing is new.”
As new as Green believes he is into broadcasting, his insights compensate for everything he is trying to improve on. As far as Joker and his performance this season goes, he is having another MVP caliber year.
When he’s not, they play like the worst team in NBA history (minus-15.2 per 100).@johnhollinger has more: https://t.co/uYh9yRryoW pic.twitter.com/ToTwmLgDXy
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 22, 2021