Great write-up, thank you. Cathartic in a way, at least insofar as my Dubs fandom.
I remember the mouthguard toss, but I forgot Steph still went to greet him right after the game. They've been trying to making it work, but by season's end they knew it just wasn't. If a team with championship aspirations needs to be a shared venture by the team members, last season was splintered by too many competing individual aspirations and agendas.
I appreciate JP's growth as a huge part of the post-KD Warrior's journey. A little patience with his ignominious rookie season was richly rewarded with his vital contributions to the '22 chip season. But while it's a shame things turned out this way, I think it was time for all parties to get a fresh start. Farewell to the Warrior's prodigal splash-son and rooting for him whenever he isn't playing against the Dubs.
I didn't watch a ton of Summer League, but the sleepery, I'm pissed/scared he's on another team guy is Hunter Tyson for the Nuggets. He did not look like an unathletic shooter. He looked like a polished, athletic off ball mover who needs to be accounted for on plays. He looked like he has combo forward size. He was a really good rebounder in college so it's not just the shooting/offense.
A guy like that is such a great fit next to Jokic. Think they may have just landed another plug and play rotation guy.
Great retrospective. Poole has had such a complicated career: from one of the worst players in the league (seriously, his rookie year was godawful) to halfway recent, well better than decent, and then, this last year, mostly miserable.
Poole's work ethic was legendary... until this season, when he was worse than the previous year at almost everything (although he did get a bit better at being a facilitator). In some ways, so much worse. Sorry defense, carrying violations, painfully consistent late-clock turnovers, and a diminishing playoff role as a result.
Was the result more because of the bag, the punch, or about even? We'll never really know, but hopefully being on a new team now gives him an opportunity to reset and be the player he wants to be...
I don't know man, whenever I watch Whitmore he just looks like a talented iso scorer who has no instincts for playing team basketball. I can see a path where he becomes a really good version of a player type I generally don't like. Haven't watched the whole game but since I've seen watching he hasn't passed the ball yet.
EDIT: Referring to the Summer League championship game against the Cavs.
6–17 with 3 rebounds, zero assists and a -23 seems like the type of line we’ll see a lot from Whitmore over the next 2-3 seasons. With an emphasis on the zero assists.
Also I remember seeing a draft comp for Podziemski of "Sam Merrill" which I thought was an insult but shit, Merrill has probably been the best performer in Summer League so maybe he's just a late bloomer.
But most likely the comp was made because both are white.
Yeah, but IMO I think we've seen enough from JR. I'd rather roll with Lester if we're going down the route of another combo guard. Nothing wrong with camp competition though.
I think that the Poole debacle puts the lie to Joe Lacob denying that there was a dual strategy to A) Win again now and B) Meld Wiseman, Kuminga, Poole and Moody into the 9 or 10 man playoff rotation. Bob Meyers didn't really agree that those dual goals could be accomplished, nor did he want to give the Lacob's control of the roster. Poole never bought into the core culture. He helped win in 2022, but the contract extension made him believe that he was more important than he was. And his ego did the rest. He was just rude and disrespectful. And stupid. Query: Who did Poole think was going to relinquish a starting slot, so that the worst defender and the most selfish offensive player could start? The punch, the contract, the Lacob interference, the general thing of many young players making more from their shoe contracts than their team contracts results in not smart kids not knowing who to listen to and respect. Entourages don't help. Poole was ego driven and not very smart on or off the court. Total train wreck. One could blame everyone or no one. Things happen.
Cult politics. The team/coaching is ultimately responsible for their players. The Warriors have morphed into the WinNow Cult, full of themselves and playing out their own demise. Even the fans now exhibit this cult mentality. Kinda sad.
I've actually been in a cult (when I was a kid, Adidam, look it up) and lol at that. There are plenty of things that remind me of cults these days. The Warriors and their fanbase do not.
But on substance, I think that the franchise expects championships. There's a fine line between hubris/entitlement and professional pride and drive. Personally, I think that trying to "win now" is a good idea as long as they have this core of players, but I don't think that has to come at the expense of preparing for the future. This season will be an interesting test of that, with the Paul and Saric moves in conjunction with the expected continued development of Kuminga and Moody.
We don't know what Bob Myers thought. If anything he exited the organization and we immediately started working a more focused plan on maximizing this timeline while developing just a couple future youngsters. Vs developing many in the context of a veteran contending team.
I think Poole thought he'd worked his way up the hierarchy with his new contract, and he expected to be treated as a leader, simply because he'd earned the contract.
I have a confession: I admit it's entirely unfair, and after all I never met the man, but something about JP bugged me from early on, long before he was successful and got his bag. It's unfair because he works hard, he seems soft spoken in public, he has lots of talent, and he contributed to winning a title. He can be an exciting player, albeit with the negatives that have already been discussed. Poole parties were fun.
But from his rookie year I felt this whiff of arrogance... most people called it "confidence" but it always felt like more than that to me. And I don't like arrogant people, even if they're talented. As a professional musician (and after that as a magazine editor), I worked with plenty of stars, some of whom were wonderfully humble and others offensively arrogant. So I never warmed up to JP. Never bought a lot on his island.
Now, I don't actively dislike him the way I do Kyrie. Kyrie does and says hurtful things. JP doesn't seem like that, aside from trash talk. Wiggs is his friend, and that counts in his favor. Luck to him in Washington. But I am not a bit sorry he's gone.
I don’t dislike Poole. He’s handling his move to the Wizards beautifully - saying the right things in the press and not dissing the Dubs. I hope he has a great year and a nice time in Cancun watching the Dubs hoist another Larry.
Bob Myers is like the Bob Iger of the Warriors: tall, charming, really good looking white male that because of those attributes, always appears to be blameless. 2012 draft? Kudos to Myers. 2020 Draft? Thats all on the Lacobs and their meddling. KD? Myers. Kelly Oubre? lacob.
In regards to Poole. Ive seen him play good team defense in small spurts. Felt it was a buildable skill for him. But ive said that in order to be a good team defender, you have to trust your teammates not because of scheme necessarily but because ur telling these guys that u recognize ur an offensive talent but that ur willing to go to war with those cats by putting in the work defensively. Something that obviously he wasn’t incentivized enough because he wasn’t happy with Draymond and it seems certain players weren’t happy with him
Fair enough, balance the scales and hold Myers responsible for his share of the FO failures as well as the successes. A lot of other people contributed (notably Jerry West) to building the Lacob-era Dubs, and Lacob opened his checkbook again and again. It was never all about Myers, nor would he ever claim otherwise, and he made his share of bad moves.
With that said, the bottom line is that Myers joined the FO of a team that mostly sucked for 17 years and quickly became a crucial part of building and sustaining a team that earned 6 Finals appearances (5 in a row) in the past 9 seasons and 4 rings. Diss that tall, charming, good-looking white male all you like; few GMs in NBA history can match that record.
In team sports I’ll always prefer a draft horse to a show pony. I remained suspicious of Poole’s future even with the Championship and if I remember correctly Kerr reduced his minutes as they went deeper into it. His lack of discernible development on D after “getting his bag” cinched it for me. I do wish him success in the NBA, however.
OT: Lamar Stephens was cut by the Spurs (I guess to make room for Cameron Payne?). Played the last three years with Cleveland. Not going to quicken any pulses, I'd guess, but he's occasionally caught my eye as a solid high-effort, end-of-rotation wing. An option for the last roster spot, maybe. (Or is he just a version of JTA, but without the hometown vibes and comfort in Kerr's system?)
I liked the flashes I saw when we played Cleveland. If the trend on his 3pt shot is real, and he could somehow get up to 33%-34%... but he's pretty exclusively parked in the corner... he seems very offensively limited... like a very poor man's GP2.
I loved Jordan during his time with us. I'm also not too disappointed that he is gone. JP was a great draft pick at #28 and would go much higher in a 2019 re-draft were it to be done today. I'm glad he earned his bag while he was with us, and I'm also glad that GSW will not be the ones responsible for paying him because I don't think his game (and his desires) mesh with this team's goals in the short term. In DC he will have more control of the offense and I'm sure he will respond with a dynamic year of scoring the ball. Anyone who has read my posts in the pasts about former players on this team who contributed to titles and my high regard for them, and JP is no different. I see him as big of a part of this dynasty's story as guys like David West and LB. Good luck, young man.
Seeing these clips just makes me more certain trading Poole was the right call.
....
Draymond clearly loses his shit in the worst of situations and Poole clearly has too much youthful pride to help cultivate a championship culture around him. Maybe he grows up or maybe he doesn't. But it's best to split draymond and Poole.
Draymond clearly messes up but he strikes as a genuinely good person at heart.
Or maybe this all means I've never been punched hard enough and don't know what I'm talking about
Draymond has punched two people that we know of (probably more that we don't). And threatened his coach.
In any business other than professional sports, Draymond would have been fired years ago. My definition of a 'good person at heart' is not one who resorts to violence,. That is compounded by HIS pride, where he is unwilling to change things, even when they clearly need to (his shot, his overbearing nature on the court, yelling at refs constantly).
I think it's wrong to call Poole on his pride and not acknowledge that the vets are also very prideful people and it leads them astray, too.
I've been thinking a bit about what I said about Poole. On the whole, I see a lot of understandable youth in him, he doesn't strike as a bad kid in any way.
Also, I've been conflicted by what I think about dray for years while always being fascinated for lack of a better word. After the punch, I was OK if the dubs let him go. It's not a take I take back for the reasons you listed above.
If Poole requested a trade, it had to happen anyway. I'm not saying I wish Poole was still here ... but I still think Draymond bears the largest share of responsibility for what happened, not Poole.
Now, as beli says, it's also very possible that Poole just wanted playing time or to start, and he would have been gone anyway. Doesn't excuse Dray's conduct, though.
But what led Poole to request a trade? Even if he wanted to start, he had a case for starting. The team was much better when he started the title year than when Klay started. So, its not a crazy idea to replace a declining star who needs serious load management with an up-and-coming youngster with energy to spare. Doing that MIGHT have made Poole become serious about defense, and he certainly played better team defense when he started the title year.
If not wanting to start, the other narrative also breaks is not somehow crazy. Poole tried to make it work for a whole season. The Dubs weren't gonna part with Dray, and Poole arguably wasn't going to have any chance to realize his potential on a team with Dray. . . . Sometimes there's a rupture, and even though you try hard to make it work, its just not gonna. At that point the wisest course may be to walk away.
I don't disagree that Poole had reasons to push for a starting role. He's got it now. Kind of a pipe dream to think he'd start over Klay though, unless Klay completely fell apart.
It's worked out OK. Poole gets his starting role, and has a chance to develop into the player he really wants to be (which seems to be a younger Bradley Beal).
Dubs get a guy, who *if healthy* should help them a lot now, and a tradeable contract to figure out future plans.
Not the best of all possible worlds, but serviceable.
Draymond wears it on his sleeve, and his basketball & cultural upbringing have made him someone who doesn't back down. With a person like that, if you push them one too many times, even by accident, you can expect they'll cross the line to prove to you that they're someone who won't back down. He's true to himself, for better or worse.
I think in 2019, people incorrectly pointed to the Draymond argument as the reason KD left when the real issue was probably more that they didn't play the style of basketball he wanted to play.
I think in 2023, people incorrectly point to the Draymond punch as the reason Poole left when the real issue was probably more that there was no starting role available for him.
Maybe. I certainly think the situations were multifaceted, too complicated to blame on one factor or person.
But my read is more cynical. In both cases, the guys Green went after were a financial threat to his long term position on the team. In both cases, he created situations that made it less comfortable for them to stay. And in both cases, they ended up off the team and his long term spot was protected. Machiavelli couldn't have done it better.
Durant openly questioned the Warriors system and suggested in the playoffs you needed isolation and that they needed to play more that way to prepare. So I don’t think it’s that simple. I do agree there were other considerations.
I think Durant is unhappy a lot and changes his mind often. It makes him kind of a sad figure for me. He is such a brilliant basketball player, an artist. But with all of his millions and his obvious talent, I wonder if he's found what he's looking for.
KD's definitely flakier, but idk more problematic. Dray's on the only team that has the history and personalities that makes keeping him on worth it I think. This happens on anyone besides mayyyybe the Lakers and idk if he'd be on that team anymore.
The initial issue is why tf is Draymond so aggressively punching this small 23 year old, he could have easily just chin checked him n taught him a lesson, he hit that man like he hated him.
Then there's barely any punishment on Draymond which was super weird, I would have been arrested.
Then because the lack of punishment and awkwardness throughout the whole season Kerr let's JP(and klay again) play however tf he wants with no accountability for defense or bad shot selection, Yea it was a weird season...
This. I also thought the team's explanation for why they didn't discipline Green -- that doing so would let him off the hook, and that the veterans on the team would be able to hold him more accountable without a public discipline -- felt like gaslighting. Maybe behind the scenes, they were able to effect this magical discipline. But from the outside, it kind of looks like he got away with it.
Great write-up, thank you. Cathartic in a way, at least insofar as my Dubs fandom.
I remember the mouthguard toss, but I forgot Steph still went to greet him right after the game. They've been trying to making it work, but by season's end they knew it just wasn't. If a team with championship aspirations needs to be a shared venture by the team members, last season was splintered by too many competing individual aspirations and agendas.
I appreciate JP's growth as a huge part of the post-KD Warrior's journey. A little patience with his ignominious rookie season was richly rewarded with his vital contributions to the '22 chip season. But while it's a shame things turned out this way, I think it was time for all parties to get a fresh start. Farewell to the Warrior's prodigal splash-son and rooting for him whenever he isn't playing against the Dubs.
I didn't watch a ton of Summer League, but the sleepery, I'm pissed/scared he's on another team guy is Hunter Tyson for the Nuggets. He did not look like an unathletic shooter. He looked like a polished, athletic off ball mover who needs to be accounted for on plays. He looked like he has combo forward size. He was a really good rebounder in college so it's not just the shooting/offense.
A guy like that is such a great fit next to Jokic. Think they may have just landed another plug and play rotation guy.
Enjoying Klay-ters vs. Klay-thiests tourney. Like a summer league of social media feeds.
Stephen Curry says new doc ‘Underrated’ goes beyond basketball | TODAY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEIjgFVvZys
Great retrospective. Poole has had such a complicated career: from one of the worst players in the league (seriously, his rookie year was godawful) to halfway recent, well better than decent, and then, this last year, mostly miserable.
Poole's work ethic was legendary... until this season, when he was worse than the previous year at almost everything (although he did get a bit better at being a facilitator). In some ways, so much worse. Sorry defense, carrying violations, painfully consistent late-clock turnovers, and a diminishing playoff role as a result.
Was the result more because of the bag, the punch, or about even? We'll never really know, but hopefully being on a new team now gives him an opportunity to reset and be the player he wants to be...
I don't know man, whenever I watch Whitmore he just looks like a talented iso scorer who has no instincts for playing team basketball. I can see a path where he becomes a really good version of a player type I generally don't like. Haven't watched the whole game but since I've seen watching he hasn't passed the ball yet.
EDIT: Referring to the Summer League championship game against the Cavs.
Corey Maggette with a 3 point shot
Good comp. And I don’t trust his 3 pt shot.
“I came here to drive the lane and shoot three pointers, and I’m all out of three pointers”
6–17 with 3 rebounds, zero assists and a -23 seems like the type of line we’ll see a lot from Whitmore over the next 2-3 seasons. With an emphasis on the zero assists.
Also I remember seeing a draft comp for Podziemski of "Sam Merrill" which I thought was an insult but shit, Merrill has probably been the best performer in Summer League so maybe he's just a late bloomer.
But most likely the comp was made because both are white.
Daniel,
Very well laid out article. Lots of things to ponder.
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1681110372877475842?s=46&t=uin-bDCpAMkWQkABBJ4tFA
Jerome Robinson returns to inevitably be cut when the regular season starts.
These are the types of people we should be taking runs at.
Yeah, but IMO I think we've seen enough from JR. I'd rather roll with Lester if we're going down the route of another combo guard. Nothing wrong with camp competition though.
What a great write up. Thank you.
I think that the Poole debacle puts the lie to Joe Lacob denying that there was a dual strategy to A) Win again now and B) Meld Wiseman, Kuminga, Poole and Moody into the 9 or 10 man playoff rotation. Bob Meyers didn't really agree that those dual goals could be accomplished, nor did he want to give the Lacob's control of the roster. Poole never bought into the core culture. He helped win in 2022, but the contract extension made him believe that he was more important than he was. And his ego did the rest. He was just rude and disrespectful. And stupid. Query: Who did Poole think was going to relinquish a starting slot, so that the worst defender and the most selfish offensive player could start? The punch, the contract, the Lacob interference, the general thing of many young players making more from their shoe contracts than their team contracts results in not smart kids not knowing who to listen to and respect. Entourages don't help. Poole was ego driven and not very smart on or off the court. Total train wreck. One could blame everyone or no one. Things happen.
Cult politics. The team/coaching is ultimately responsible for their players. The Warriors have morphed into the WinNow Cult, full of themselves and playing out their own demise. Even the fans now exhibit this cult mentality. Kinda sad.
I've actually been in a cult (when I was a kid, Adidam, look it up) and lol at that. There are plenty of things that remind me of cults these days. The Warriors and their fanbase do not.
But on substance, I think that the franchise expects championships. There's a fine line between hubris/entitlement and professional pride and drive. Personally, I think that trying to "win now" is a good idea as long as they have this core of players, but I don't think that has to come at the expense of preparing for the future. This season will be an interesting test of that, with the Paul and Saric moves in conjunction with the expected continued development of Kuminga and Moody.
Bubba Free John.................
We don't know what Bob Myers thought. If anything he exited the organization and we immediately started working a more focused plan on maximizing this timeline while developing just a couple future youngsters. Vs developing many in the context of a veteran contending team.
Very well said and thanks for putting into words much better then what I've been saying sense he got paid.
I think Poole thought he'd worked his way up the hierarchy with his new contract, and he expected to be treated as a leader, simply because he'd earned the contract.
I have a confession: I admit it's entirely unfair, and after all I never met the man, but something about JP bugged me from early on, long before he was successful and got his bag. It's unfair because he works hard, he seems soft spoken in public, he has lots of talent, and he contributed to winning a title. He can be an exciting player, albeit with the negatives that have already been discussed. Poole parties were fun.
But from his rookie year I felt this whiff of arrogance... most people called it "confidence" but it always felt like more than that to me. And I don't like arrogant people, even if they're talented. As a professional musician (and after that as a magazine editor), I worked with plenty of stars, some of whom were wonderfully humble and others offensively arrogant. So I never warmed up to JP. Never bought a lot on his island.
Now, I don't actively dislike him the way I do Kyrie. Kyrie does and says hurtful things. JP doesn't seem like that, aside from trash talk. Wiggs is his friend, and that counts in his favor. Luck to him in Washington. But I am not a bit sorry he's gone.
I don’t dislike Poole. He’s handling his move to the Wizards beautifully - saying the right things in the press and not dissing the Dubs. I hope he has a great year and a nice time in Cancun watching the Dubs hoist another Larry.
Isn't hierarchy established by the number of baddies following you on social? Pretty sure Poole is winning this one 😂
Bob Myers is like the Bob Iger of the Warriors: tall, charming, really good looking white male that because of those attributes, always appears to be blameless. 2012 draft? Kudos to Myers. 2020 Draft? Thats all on the Lacobs and their meddling. KD? Myers. Kelly Oubre? lacob.
In regards to Poole. Ive seen him play good team defense in small spurts. Felt it was a buildable skill for him. But ive said that in order to be a good team defender, you have to trust your teammates not because of scheme necessarily but because ur telling these guys that u recognize ur an offensive talent but that ur willing to go to war with those cats by putting in the work defensively. Something that obviously he wasn’t incentivized enough because he wasn’t happy with Draymond and it seems certain players weren’t happy with him
...Has anyone actually blamed Oubre on Lacob?
Fair enough, balance the scales and hold Myers responsible for his share of the FO failures as well as the successes. A lot of other people contributed (notably Jerry West) to building the Lacob-era Dubs, and Lacob opened his checkbook again and again. It was never all about Myers, nor would he ever claim otherwise, and he made his share of bad moves.
With that said, the bottom line is that Myers joined the FO of a team that mostly sucked for 17 years and quickly became a crucial part of building and sustaining a team that earned 6 Finals appearances (5 in a row) in the past 9 seasons and 4 rings. Diss that tall, charming, good-looking white male all you like; few GMs in NBA history can match that record.
In team sports I’ll always prefer a draft horse to a show pony. I remained suspicious of Poole’s future even with the Championship and if I remember correctly Kerr reduced his minutes as they went deeper into it. His lack of discernible development on D after “getting his bag” cinched it for me. I do wish him success in the NBA, however.
OT: Lamar Stephens was cut by the Spurs (I guess to make room for Cameron Payne?). Played the last three years with Cleveland. Not going to quicken any pulses, I'd guess, but he's occasionally caught my eye as a solid high-effort, end-of-rotation wing. An option for the last roster spot, maybe. (Or is he just a version of JTA, but without the hometown vibes and comfort in Kerr's system?)
I liked the flashes I saw when we played Cleveland. If the trend on his 3pt shot is real, and he could somehow get up to 33%-34%... but he's pretty exclusively parked in the corner... he seems very offensively limited... like a very poor man's GP2.
I loved Jordan during his time with us. I'm also not too disappointed that he is gone. JP was a great draft pick at #28 and would go much higher in a 2019 re-draft were it to be done today. I'm glad he earned his bag while he was with us, and I'm also glad that GSW will not be the ones responsible for paying him because I don't think his game (and his desires) mesh with this team's goals in the short term. In DC he will have more control of the offense and I'm sure he will respond with a dynamic year of scoring the ball. Anyone who has read my posts in the pasts about former players on this team who contributed to titles and my high regard for them, and JP is no different. I see him as big of a part of this dynasty's story as guys like David West and LB. Good luck, young man.
Couldn’t have said it any better.
Totally agree. Good kid. Hard worker. Wish him luck. Moving on.
Well said
Seeing these clips just makes me more certain trading Poole was the right call.
....
Draymond clearly loses his shit in the worst of situations and Poole clearly has too much youthful pride to help cultivate a championship culture around him. Maybe he grows up or maybe he doesn't. But it's best to split draymond and Poole.
Draymond clearly messes up but he strikes as a genuinely good person at heart.
Or maybe this all means I've never been punched hard enough and don't know what I'm talking about
Draymond has punched two people that we know of (probably more that we don't). And threatened his coach.
In any business other than professional sports, Draymond would have been fired years ago. My definition of a 'good person at heart' is not one who resorts to violence,. That is compounded by HIS pride, where he is unwilling to change things, even when they clearly need to (his shot, his overbearing nature on the court, yelling at refs constantly).
I think it's wrong to call Poole on his pride and not acknowledge that the vets are also very prideful people and it leads them astray, too.
Dam... Really good post.
I've been thinking a bit about what I said about Poole. On the whole, I see a lot of understandable youth in him, he doesn't strike as a bad kid in any way.
Also, I've been conflicted by what I think about dray for years while always being fascinated for lack of a better word. After the punch, I was OK if the dubs let him go. It's not a take I take back for the reasons you listed above.
If Poole requested a trade, it had to happen anyway. I'm not saying I wish Poole was still here ... but I still think Draymond bears the largest share of responsibility for what happened, not Poole.
Now, as beli says, it's also very possible that Poole just wanted playing time or to start, and he would have been gone anyway. Doesn't excuse Dray's conduct, though.
But what led Poole to request a trade? Even if he wanted to start, he had a case for starting. The team was much better when he started the title year than when Klay started. So, its not a crazy idea to replace a declining star who needs serious load management with an up-and-coming youngster with energy to spare. Doing that MIGHT have made Poole become serious about defense, and he certainly played better team defense when he started the title year.
If not wanting to start, the other narrative also breaks is not somehow crazy. Poole tried to make it work for a whole season. The Dubs weren't gonna part with Dray, and Poole arguably wasn't going to have any chance to realize his potential on a team with Dray. . . . Sometimes there's a rupture, and even though you try hard to make it work, its just not gonna. At that point the wisest course may be to walk away.
I don't disagree that Poole had reasons to push for a starting role. He's got it now. Kind of a pipe dream to think he'd start over Klay though, unless Klay completely fell apart.
It's worked out OK. Poole gets his starting role, and has a chance to develop into the player he really wants to be (which seems to be a younger Bradley Beal).
Dubs get a guy, who *if healthy* should help them a lot now, and a tradeable contract to figure out future plans.
Not the best of all possible worlds, but serviceable.
Draymond wears it on his sleeve, and his basketball & cultural upbringing have made him someone who doesn't back down. With a person like that, if you push them one too many times, even by accident, you can expect they'll cross the line to prove to you that they're someone who won't back down. He's true to himself, for better or worse.
I get that, but while understandable, there are still lines a guy can't/shouldn't cross. I think Green crossed one of those lines in this case.
Well... yeah. Anybody who knows him knows he will cross that line, for better or worse.
Which is to say, you need to know how how to read a room and adjust accordingly.
Well, depends on your goals.
I think in 2019, people incorrectly pointed to the Draymond argument as the reason KD left when the real issue was probably more that they didn't play the style of basketball he wanted to play.
I think in 2023, people incorrectly point to the Draymond punch as the reason Poole left when the real issue was probably more that there was no starting role available for him.
Maybe. I certainly think the situations were multifaceted, too complicated to blame on one factor or person.
But my read is more cynical. In both cases, the guys Green went after were a financial threat to his long term position on the team. In both cases, he created situations that made it less comfortable for them to stay. And in both cases, they ended up off the team and his long term spot was protected. Machiavelli couldn't have done it better.
I think it was more ego than basketball style... KD proved he could do it with Curry and wanted to prove he could do it without him
That's worked out great for him.
Durant openly questioned the Warriors system and suggested in the playoffs you needed isolation and that they needed to play more that way to prepare. So I don’t think it’s that simple. I do agree there were other considerations.
It’s funny because Durant’s primary reason for joining the Warriors was their style of play.
I think Durant is unhappy a lot and changes his mind often. It makes him kind of a sad figure for me. He is such a brilliant basketball player, an artist. But with all of his millions and his obvious talent, I wonder if he's found what he's looking for.
KD's definitely flakier, but idk more problematic. Dray's on the only team that has the history and personalities that makes keeping him on worth it I think. This happens on anyone besides mayyyybe the Lakers and idk if he'd be on that team anymore.
The initial issue is why tf is Draymond so aggressively punching this small 23 year old, he could have easily just chin checked him n taught him a lesson, he hit that man like he hated him.
Then there's barely any punishment on Draymond which was super weird, I would have been arrested.
Then because the lack of punishment and awkwardness throughout the whole season Kerr let's JP(and klay again) play however tf he wants with no accountability for defense or bad shot selection, Yea it was a weird season...
This. I also thought the team's explanation for why they didn't discipline Green -- that doing so would let him off the hook, and that the veterans on the team would be able to hold him more accountable without a public discipline -- felt like gaslighting. Maybe behind the scenes, they were able to effect this magical discipline. But from the outside, it kind of looks like he got away with it.