NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: WARRIORS vs KINGS

April 23, 2023

Draymond Green

Media Conference

Golden State Warriors 126, Sacramento Kings 125.

Q. Why do you think it was ideal for you to come off the bench and was that hard, to say, I've been starting for a long time here and let me come off the bench now?

DRAYMOND GREEN: No. When I watch basketball, I'm studying and I studied the game, and I saw what was working, you know. And we won. So I'm a firm believer in if something isn't broke, you don't fix it. Our offense was rolling and we played good defensively, really good defensively.

So I didn't want to come back and just shake things up just because I'm back. That's not right. Jordan went out there. He played well. We played well. He earned it. Our team earned that. You know, you don't -- there's a lot of -- a lot of guys who, you know, I mean, 11 years in, you start to feel a sense of entitlement. You know, like that spot's yours, and starting is yours. I never want to reach that point in my career where I feel entitled to something. Those guys don't fare well in the end.

So just wanted to do what I thought was best for this team and it was good for us.

Q. They decided to have you guard Fox at halftime. How involved were new those conversations? Did you like that change? What did you think of guarding Fox?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, I loved it. Fox is a great player, man. He's incredible. He continues to get better, and any time you draw the assignment to go guard the other team's best player, you appreciate the opportunity, and I definitely did. I wanted to go out and try to help this team win. So as far as that conversations went, they just told me, all right, you got Fox. I'm like, cool. Take on that challenge.

Q. Specifically when you were watching Game 3, what are things you saw were working?

DRAYMOND GREEN: Our spacing was great in Game 3. It was absolutely incredible. I thought it was really good for our offense. When I saw that, No. 1, it was very evident of where I needed to be on the floor. I think I did a good job of being where I needed to be tonight. I missed a bunch of layups, a whole bunch of layups, but it kept the floor spaced the way it needed to be spaced and I won't keep missing those layups. I thought it was great. Just really understanding the spacing on the floor and how I needed to play in space, as well, no matter who I'm out there with.

Q. Immediately after that crazy ending, you went right to Bob Myers and had a word with him. Can you share anything about that interaction?

DRAYMOND GREEN: Oh, yeah, we were just talking about the at the end of the game and really, how I could be better at the end of the game. I don't ever want to blame Steph and say, man, he called a time-out but I'm supposed to trail the play and not leave him on an island and I left him on an island, and then I gave up a three to Fox and let them cut it to one, as opposed to taking the three away, you're up four and if they score two, so be it. And I didn't do that.

So we were just talking about that and how I could be better down the stretch in that situation to make sure we don't get in that position again.

Q. When you went into Kerr's office and said you wanted to come off the bench, if he had disagreed, would you have argued with him?

DRAYMOND GREEN: No. No. (Laughter).

It was just a suggestion. And also, you have to understand the position that coaches are in. He's also in a position to where I've done a lot, and so just taking me out of the layup because I'm suspended for a game, if I don't agree with it, what could that do to this group, right. What could it do to us. Not that I would have disagreed but I think it's more so to let him know, like, if you all mull this decision, make it. Like it's totally fine.

Then he called me again yesterday, or -- what's today? Sunday? (Laughter).

Okay. He called me Saturday. And we were just talking about it, and he was asking me, "What are your thoughts?" Like this is why we wouldn't do it, X, Y and Z and I'm like, this is why we should do it X, Y and Z.

One of his words were, how are you going to feel coming off the bench? You have not come off the bench in nine years. How are you going to feel?

Who f---ing cares? Who cares how I feel? I mean, if I must answer the question for you, I'm fine. I'll be ready to go when it's time for me to go in.

But it doesn't matter how I feel. I think the right thing to do would be to start the game the exact way we started Game 3. Don't matter how I feel, and you know, so many times, I can appreciate that, you know, the courtesy, the respect, but who cares. It's about winning basketball games at this time of year, whether you come off the bench, whether you start, whether you play two minutes or 40, winning the game is the most important thing. So those are some are the conversations we had but I was definitely all for it.

Q. Is this the chance you guys have been waiting for all year to flip that switch? You have to go to Sacramento on the road, you guys have been bad on the road --

DRAYMOND GREEN: I don't think it's necessarily a switch to flip. We know what it takes to win on the road. We know what we need to go do, and you have to execute that. But we've known what we need to do all year and didn't execute so I don't think it's necessarily a flip of a switch. It's locked in on what you need to focus on and I have no doubt we'll do that.

Q. What message were you trying to --

DRAYMOND GREEN: I'm still here. And don't s--- change. Still here, and ain't no tech moving me off my square. You know, Fox felt the need to stand up for his guy. I respect it. I respect that 100 percent. But I'm still here, and don't nothing change me. Been this way for 33 years. I pray I can be with way for 33 more and it won't just be basketball, right. That comes to an end. But I am who I am, and everything else just is what it is. You don't like it, sorry. Not really but (laughter) sorry. But I like people to feel good. That's one thing in my life, I really appreciate is people feeling good.

So if this one makes you not feel so good, I apologize. But I am who I am.

Q. Does it feel better that you survived that kind of wild ending where you made a lot of mistakes? Does it feel encouraging that you survived it or is it more frustrating that you had a position to win and gave them a shot to win?

DRAYMOND GREEN: No. You know, you don't carry frustrations in playoffs. If this was a regular season game, you probably walk off and you're a little upset and you're like, man, should have never been this hard. But it's not. It's the playoffs, and every game counts, and so whether we win it going away and controlling the end or we have to fight to win it like we did today, you take the win and you move on. You look at that and you say, okay, what can we learn from that. Well, I know that I cannot leave the ball. I have to stay behind the basketball to give an outlet. All right. Cool.

I know and understand we're up four with under a minute to go; the last thing I can do is give up a three. I know that.

So making sure everyone understands those things and don't make the same mistakes I make I think is extremely important and you learn from that but you don't walk off complaining or with your head down. You won a game in the playoffs, you ride that momentum and try to go get the next one.

Q. This team has a tradition of guys stepping back and accepting a bench role, going back to Iguodala that started all this, Steph last year when he was hurt, comes off the bench for most of the Denver series. Do you feel this is just who you guys are? Was yours a little different? Is it something about the culture that says the main guys can take a step back at times?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, I think No. 1, it's who we always have been. You have guys on this team that are strictly about winning and about the team and if you are a guy that is not that way, you stick out like a sore thumb because that's been the culture here.

So for me, it was a very easy thing. We won the game pretty handily. You going to just walk in the door like fellas, I'm back, here's my spot, no, that s--- don't work like that. You do what's best for the team, and you know, with me just sitting and watching that game, I just thought that was best, and I thought it was clear as day, and I thought I could see that from a mile away, literally, a mile away.

I just that was the right thing to do, and Steph thought it was the right thing to do, Wiggs, doesn't matter who it is. Your time is your time and if it's not, it's just not, and I don't think it was my time to come in the starting lineup and make things about me. We won Game 3. Try to do the same thing in Game 4.

Q. Could it be the right thing to do the rest of the series?

DRAYMOND GREEN: If that's what Coach thinks and that's what works, absolutely. I would have to go watch the film and see how all of those things fare throughout the course of this game. But if it's right, it's right and I don't care. Play the same amount of minutes I normally play and doesn't really matter. That's kind of my mindset.

Q. Speaking of collaboration, when a couple of assistants mentioned at halftime, let's put Draymond on Fox in the second half, how did that conversations go and how did you like that challenge?

DRAYMOND GREEN: It was just very simple, Yo, you're guarding Fox and that's what we're doing.

I love the challenge. Fox is a great player and you know, any time you get -- have the opportunity, you take on the challenge and you feel good about it and you go meet force with force. So that's what I wanted to do.

I always knew, as this series has gone, that's something that we had in our back pocket. If I'm being honest, I was very happy that we pulled that card out of the pocket.

And Wiggs was doing a great job, you know, but when you have a great player like De'Aaron Fox, you can't just give him a steady diet of anything. It can work wonders. Great players eventually figure it out and so it was a different look that we gave him and I thought it was good. You know, when you get in these playoffs, it's a chess match. We know them; they know us.

So who is going to pull the card at the right time is important in these series and I thought Steve and our coaching staff did a great job.

Q. Steve said Klay's division was vintage two-way Klay. What have you seen in his progress on that side of the ball?

DRAYMOND GREEN: His progress is great. He and Rick and our training staff, they continue to put the work in. On the off days he's in here putting the work in making sure his body is ready to go. So you can always appreciate the effort that guys are putting in that everyone doesn't get to see in the world. You know when the preparation is there, and he's been preparing and he's continued to do that. He's been back playing all year; yet he's in that weight room every day, training room every day, doing the things to not only be ready to go but continue to get stronger, and he's doing that.

As far as him competing and looking like Klay, it's April. That is who Klay Thompson. Is he is one of the biggest and best winners I've been around and that's what matters most to him. It's never a doubt whether he's going to compete or not. That's who he is and that's why we've had the success when he's healthy; and when he was not, that's why we sucked.

Q. With everything at stake, what were you thinking when the ball gets swung to Barnes and he rises up three?

DRAYMOND GREEN: You've got to make that. It is what it is. We know Fox can make a shot. He won clutch Player of the Year. What I'm not going is giving him an iso with anyone and just watching him work and living with that. We are not going to live with that. We know that. Got to make somebody else beat you. If he hit it, great shot. He didn't. You know, whether he hit it or not, it's the right thing to make someone else beat you. He didn't; it worked. Great shot.

Q. You guys in the first half got beaten on the glass pretty good. Third quarter you came out with a whole different energy it looked like, in addition to you defending Fox. What changed in the third quarter because the energy level really went un?

DRAYMOND GREEN: We put bodies on bodies. We understood that, you know, they had their physicality, they controlled that department in the first half, and if you want to win these games, you have to control the physicality department. They controlled it pretty handily the first two games. They walked away with those two games. We controlled it in Game 3. We won pretty handily. They controlled it in the first half. They were ahead at halftime. We controlled it in the second half, and we were able to pull the win out.

It's very evident how important that is in this series and I knew, you know, we needed to be better in that department, so you try to take some things up on yourself and make sure you're bringing the level of physicality that needs to be brought and at the same time also lead and show other guy what is that level of physicality need to be, and everybody fell in line and did that. Loon, who is also a leader in that department, stayed physical the entire game, everybody else. You just mentioned Klay who was physical as hell the entire game. Wiggs was super physical. That's what it takes to win these games.