In today’s Dub Hub:
- Draymond Green calls out Cavaliers’ defense for leaving James Harden isolated on Jalen Brunson in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
- In an interview with 95.7 The Game, ESPN’s Anthony Slater casts doubt on a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo trade to the Warriors.
- NBA reveals players selected for First and Second All-Rookie Teams.
Draymond Green has made a career with the Golden State Warriors as one of the smartest and most vocal defenders in the NBA, so it was no surprise he had strong feelings after the Cleveland Cavaliers blew a 22-point fourth-quarter lead against the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Speaking on The Draymond Green Show, the Warriors forward criticized Cleveland’s defensive approach against Knicks star Jalen Brunson, specifically calling out the Cavaliers for too willingly switching
defenders and leaving James Harden isolated against Brunson late in the game.
Brunson finished with 38 points in New York’s comeback win, but Green didn’t put all of the blame on Harden. Instead, he explained that asking Harden to consistently guard Brunson one-on-one misses the bigger issue. In Green’s eyes, Harden is there to carry a major load offensively, so the rest of Cleveland’s defense has to do a better job fighting through screens and not automatically switching every action.
It’s an interesting perspective from Green given that the Warriors dealt with similar situations for years with Steph Curry — ironically in playoff battles against Harden during his Houston Rockets days. Opposing teams constantly tried to hunt Curry defensively, so Golden State built counters around it like pre-switching to help him avoid bad matchups before they even developed. Even though Curry was capable of holding his own defensively, the Warriors also understood the importance of preserving his energy for offense, where he impacted the game the most.
Cleveland should be looking for similar adjustments moving forward as Brunson will surely continue to attack Harden and put pressure on their defense throughout the series.
For more on this and other news around the NBA, here is our latest news round-up for Thursday, May 21st:
Warriors News:
Kawakami: Steph Curry’s rationality, Warriors’ big-picture changes, and more | The San Francisco Standard
• In the last 12 seasons, starting with Kerr’s Warriors arrival in May 2014, Curry has obviously been only with the Warriors and he’s only had Kerr as his coach.
• In the same span, Giannis has been with the Bucks but has had six (if you count new hire Taylor Jenkins) full-time coaches.
• Durant has been on five teams (obviously one of those being the Warriors from 2016-2019) and had seven full-time coaches in that span.
• And LeBron James has been on only two teams but has had six full-time coaches since the start of the 2014-15 season.
Can Warriors draft another rotation player with their second-round pick? | San Francisco Chronicle
Surely, Dunleavy has his sights on scoring again in a second round with a cap-sheet crunch caused by lucrative commitments to Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green. Their pre-draft workouts are underway with a fleet of seniors training Wednesday afternoon at Chase Center: Louisville guard Ryan Conwell, Tennessee guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Houston guard Emanuel Sharp, Florida State senior Robert McCray, Duke forward Maliq Brown and Miami center Ernest Udeh.
ESPN’s Anthony Slater casts doubt on potential Warriors-Giannis Antetokounmpo trade
NBA News:
Spurs’ Dylan Harper (hamstring) exits Game 2 loss, set for MRI | ESPN
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson couldn’t provide an update on Harper’s status for Friday’s Game 3. Sources told ESPN that Harper will undergo an MRI on Thursday in San Antonio.
“[Oklahoma City] is as good as anybody,” Johnson said, with the series now tied at 1 and headed back to the Spurs’ home court. “They turn you over. So when you’re down some of your primary creators and initiators, it causes a little bit of an extra strain, whether that’s who to play, what to play, what to run, etc. It’s tough fully loaded against these guys.”
NBA announces this year’s All-Rookie First and Second Teams
In case you missed it at Golden State of Mind:
With Kidd’s exit, Mavericks show how tenuous an NBA coach’s job is
Dallas handed J-Kidd a 26-56 season after trading Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, a deal that Kidd insisted he wasn’t aware of until the eleventh hour, then showed him the door when a new regime walked in. Ujiri will build something in Dallas eventually. He always does. But don’t let the business language of “new direction” fool you into thinking a Finals trip two years ago didn’t happen. I’ll be interested to check out the opinions of those who watched his coaching tenure; will Coach Kidd get another landing spot soon?
Follow @unstoppablebaby on X for all the latest news on the Golden State Warriors.
