Draymond Green On ‘Podcast P With Paul George’

Draymond Green talks Warriors legacy, guarding Victor Wembanyama, and playing with Chris Paul on this new episode of “Podcast P with Paul George”.

Today, we share highlights from this week’s episode of “Podcast P with Paul George”–presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment–featuring 4x NBA Champion Draymond Green.

Fresh off signing a 4-year/$100M deal to return to Golden State, Draymond sits down with PG to discuss the special bond he has with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, what Chris Paul brings to the Warriors, and how excited he is to see CP3 unlock the potential of some of the younger Warriors.

Later in the episode, Draymond talks about the prospect of guarding Victor Webanyama, keeping tabs on every player drafted ahead of him, and why he agrees with Nikola Jokic’s comments about the NBA being a job.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

[31:12] DRAYMOND COMING INTO THE LEAGUE AS A SCORE-FIRST PLAYER, LOSING CONFIDENCE IN HIS SHOT AND WORKING TO GET BACK HIS 3-PT SHOOTING ABILITY

PG: “It’s tough when you do have pressure of having two of the best, with KD there, three of the best three-point shooters around you…and people do not understand that. You was a knockdown shooter and I know on 2K I’m hitting the three with Draymond…. He was a B+! of the best when KD was there.”

DG: “It was all confidence though. And now I”m working to get that confidence back still. Last year was a big jump for me, it was a big hurdle. For a while, I’d miss that first one and would be like ‘oh no, I’m gonna do the rest of that shit. I ain’t shooting no more. And now I’m starting to get over that hurdle like miss the first one, oh I’ll take another, miss the second take another. But I’m still not there. That’s what excites me right now about my career going forward. I feel like I’m starting to tap back into that and once I tap all the way back into that I feel like who gonna stop me.”

[44:12] DRAYMOND ON KNOWING EVERY PLAYER THAT WAS DRAFTED IN FRONT OF HIM AND THE PICK FROM HIS DRAFT CLASS THAT PISSED HIM OFF THE MOST

PG: “That’s funny you knew Miles [Plumlee] at #26. So you know everybody that got drafted in front of you?”

DG: Oh for sure! I keep tabs on all of them. I just be needing to know what’s going on with them.”

PG: “Who that got drafted ahead of you was like the most ridiculous to you?”

DG: “The most ridiculous? Which one? I mean shit…Listen not to throw salt at anybody but Andrew Nicholson was drafted over me at #19. Like you don’t even know how to pronounce his school [St. Bonaventure] At the time you all are comparing us as big men who can play back to the basket and face up. And I’m like #1 he don’t even look like a basketball player. I always tell people when it comes to winning, half the battle is looking like a basketball player. When you’re on a team and you look at the other side of the floor and you see guys that don’t look like baseketball players you automatically lose respect for those guys. So I’m like this guy doesn’t even really look like a basketball player. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t really have the body of Adonis but I just don’t see that. That was one that really really really really pissed me off! There are several others that went before me but that was the one.”

[50:49] DRAYOMND ON HOW INCOMING #1 OVERALL PICK, VICTOR WEBANYAMA AND HOW HE’D GUARD HIM

PG: “Wemby obviously went first in this draft. Fucking phenom! How would you guard him? Because I tell people like he’s elite, helluva talent but some of the shit I’ve seen, we’re not letting him do that in the NBA.”

DG: “You not just dribbling through me like the Harlem Globetrotters. I’m sorry. Don’t get me wrong he’s a phenom and one of the best things to happen to him was going to San Antonio and coach Pop. That infrastructure is gonna teach you how to be a pro…and their player development is unmatched so I think that’s huge for him. But some of the stuff is just, I mean come on bro. Again special talent and to even do some of the stuff at that size take a special talent but you gotta press into him. You can’t let him get comfortable. You let him get comfortable you lose, because you can’t block his shot. He may not even see your contest. So with a guy like that you gotta do your work early. I‘m crowding him from the time he starts running down the court. When they get the rebound and they start coming I’m crowding because I can’t let him get to a space where he’s comfortable. If you do that against talents like that…ain’t nothing you can do to stop that. So for me I’m all the way pressed up into him.”

[54:20] DRAYMOND ON THE ONE SKILL THAT SETS WEMBY UP FOR SUCCESS LONG-TERM IN THE NBA

DG: “Separate from anything else, that he can do him as a rim protector. That is what I think most people aren’t talking about and I actually think is what separates him…f he gets to the league and because he’s 7/5 he can’t handle it as much as he wants or because the 3-pt line is further he his shot isn’t as good, if all else fails, him as a rim protector is an as elite as we have in the NBA. So you already have one thing that already puts you in an elite category and that is a rim protector, and as we all know teams are looking for rim protectors. I mean there’s someone in the NBA getting paid as a rim protector probably making more money than you P which is a lot of money.”

PG: “Is he from France too?”

DG: “Yea, he is from France. You know, he gets paid a lot of money.. A lot of money as an elite rim protector.”

[1:01:20] DRAYMOND ON CP3 COMING TO THE WARRIORS AND WHAT HE BRINGS TO THE TEAM, AND PREDICTS THAT HE’LL “COMPLETELY UNLOCK JONATHAN KUMINGA’S GROWTH”

“I think hie brings a couple things. Number 1, I thought last year…and Steph said this in his press conference, we ran out of variety and what I mean about variety is in a team you need to have a variety…Our team last year didn’t have a variety of ways to score and I think CP adds another thing to the menu to address the topic of a variety of ways to score. Cp plays totally different than Steph, totally different than Klay, totally different than myself and Jordan Poole… I also think last year, Steph and I got split up a lot and me and Steph together we’re dangerous. Our minutes got split up a bunch because our second unit couldn’t figure it out and in turn I got put into the second unit to help stabilize things. That’s like 15 less minutes a game we’re together. Well now, CP can anchor that unit…and I think that is a big thing to helping unlock our team again…I’ll tell you one more thing that I think it unlocks and I look forward to learning this from him; I think Chris Paul will completely unlock Jonathan Kuminga and his growth. CP is great with young guys. DeAndrew Ayton looked like a bust before Chris came to Phoenix. No disrespect but more of a compliment to CP but people didn’t know what DeAndrew Ayton was gonna turn out to be and suddenly he became an all-star level player. So I think what he will do for Jonathan Kuminga and unlocking him is huge. Absolutely huge! And I look forward to learning that from him.”

[1:17:06] DRAYMOND ON ONLY RECENTLY REALIZING HOW SPECIAL HIS RUN WITH STEPH & KLAY IS AND HOW WELL THE THREE OF THEM FIT TOGETHER

“To say that we thought or knew we would be special together,I think that’s something we just realized. Because when you’re in it, it’s hard to see…Now what I did know… was like us three together nobody can beat us. But it still wasn’t like ‘yo this is something special.” It was like we’re nice and nobody can beat us. As of late you really realize like we really have a special thing. We’re not fighting over attention, we’re not fighting over you make more money than me, we’re not fighting over none of that. Like we really enjoy being together and Bob [Myers] really helped me realize that. Every time he’d come walking by me, Steph and Klay, we sit at the same table and he’d walk by and laugh saying ‘It’s so funny 10 years later you guys still sit together.’ When he first said it I was like, hm? Where else we supposed to sit? But then I started to think about and process what he’s saying. Not only are we still together 10 years later but we actually enjoy spending time with each other 10 years later.”

[1:41:10] DRAYMOND AGREES WITH NIKOLA JOKIC’S COMMENTS COMPARING THE NBA TO A JOB AND HOW NOBODY LIKES THEIR JOB

“I love playing basketball, love to compete but he’s not lying. I hate it. I don’t want to sound like someone who takes it for granted but to Joker’s point, it’s work. And you have to show up to work every day and perform despite what can be going on at work, what can be going on at home, what can be going on in the world. You have to show up and perform and it’s work. There’s so much bullshit that comes it and the politics but I wouldn’t trade my job for the world…”