Why Would Any Team Trade for 'Sick Brawler' Draymond Green?
DALLAS - I am both amused and confused by the aftershocks of the NBA indefinite suspension of the wildly out-of-control Draymond Green. ... from a league perspective and from a Dallas Mavs perspective, too.
On the one hand, his boss with the Golden State Warriors, coach Steve Kerr, is now voicing grave concerns about Green's penchant for on-the-court violence, Kerr saying, "This is about more than basketball. It’s about helping Draymond. I think it’s an opportunity for Draymond to step away and to make a change in his approach and his life.''
A lovely sentiment. Except ... a foundation of Green's entire career is his work as an "enforcer'' and an "intimidator.'' As much as any basketball player ever, Green beats people up for a living.
Indeed, Kerr's organization just gave him a four-year, $100 million deal ... that contract coming even after Green viciously punched teammate Jordan Poole in practice. And of course, even after dozens of injurious actions during NBA games over the last decade.
But now they want him to 'change his life''!?
In recent weeks, Green needlessly put Minnesota's Rudy Gobert in a chokehold and took a wild swing at the face of Phoenix' Jusuf Nurkic. And these are not aberrations; this is who Draymond Green is.
Need a video reminder of how Green "wins''? Brace yourself ...
Why didn't the Kerr and the Warriors want to "help him change his life'' when he was doing these exact same things while his tactics aided them in winning four NBA titles?
Now comes the next move. Assuming "indefinite'' isn't "forever'' - though maybe it ought to be - Golden State has a decision to make.
Keep him, maybe by listening to ESPN's Ryan Clark, who writes, "Draymond isn’t involved in domestic abuse, criminal activity, off court violence or skirting fatherly responsibilities. His life isn’t out of control. ... Be a professional.''
Clark is obviously moving the goalposts ... er, the backboard, and missing the point. Nobody is saying Green is a criminal in the legal sense. But he is absolutely a criminal in the basketball sense. He is absolutely "out of control'' between the lines of the basketball court.
“We need Draymond,” Kerr said recently. OK. There is it. Golden State will wait this out, and whether Green gets "fixed'' or just slaps a Band-aid on whatever has been wrong with him for a long, long time ... Golden State will take him back.
Or ... there are the stories about a trade. .. including odds being set that make the Mavs the favorite here.
We will dismiss out of hand the embarrassing proposal created by CBS Sports that would have Dallas give up the farm in order to trade for Green to pair with Luka Doncic.
But what about oddsmakers who have Dallas as his No. 1 destination by the Feb. 9 trade deadline? We've written before that the Mavs could use his defense and rebounding and even "tough-guy'' persona.
But that was before we heard Kerr talk of this as if it is a psychological problem, a behavioral problem.
Oh, and it was also before the "indefinite suspension.'' You want to trade for a guy a) about to turn 34 b) with three years and $77 million left on his contract who c) would rather "brawl'' than "ball''?
Green punches and kicks and flails and chokes and the NBA finally got sick of it ... so sick of it that the coach who knows him best is essentially saying that Green is sick.
Let the Warriors deal with their own disingenuousness and hypocrisy and with a problem that is in part of their own creation.
The Dallas Mavericks wouldn't trade real assets for a player with a broken leg or a broken neck. There is no reason to do so for Draymond Green, who by Kerr's own admission is somehow "broken'' as well.
