The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Draymond Green Show - Celtics Beatdown, LeBron's 40k, Victor Wembanyama's Rise

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

Draymond Green reacts to the Boston Celtics crushing the Golden State Warriors, the team's defensive strategy against Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, and why it's NBA title or bust for the Celtics. Then he discusses LeBron James reaching 40,000 points in the Lakers’ loss to the Nuggets, whether anyone can catch that record, the Milwaukee Bucks starting to get it together, and Victor Wembanyama separating himself from Chet Holmgren in the Rookie of the Year race. 0:00 Start2:00 Celtics vs. Warriors13:00 LeBron's 40k19:00 Victor Wembanyama Produced by: Jackson Safon #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. Yesterday was my birthday. So we got some exciting news to announce for y'all. We are going to do a jersey giveaway. I'll sign the jersey. It'll be yours. Head to the volumes, Twitter, or my Twitter, to check out what we will do or what you will need to do

in order to get involved in the giveaway. All you have to do is enter reply to the giveaway tweet with a picture of your subscription to our YouTube channel and podcast feed, and we will announce the winner on an upcoming episode. And maybe we'll give two give two giveaways. I'll figure something else. But make sure y'all go lock in and check that out.

And let's get into today's episode. Doves' last game was an absolute annihilation by the Celtics. And it was a very odd game. We lost by 52 points. Last game of a four-game road trip, which felt more like a six-game road trip. It's just so many games crammed in a short amount of days with crazy travel. and then that game being at 3.30

kind of made it get up on you really fast in the day because all of a sudden, you know, you're up at 11 o'clock essentially getting ready to leave. Like, you know, usually you're up, you're doing different things, whether that is a flow session or bike ride or, you know, going to the gym to get shots up. You're kind of getting up and leaving for the game.

So that's always a little weird. But in saying that, the Celtics gave us a pretty bad loss. The talk of that loss was Jalen Brown and how we guarded Jalen Brown. And, you know, people are really quick to talk about things like that when they don't work. But when you do things like that and they do work, you're a genius. You know, when you do something like that and it doesn't work, it's like, oh, man, why was such and such do that? And I'll be honest with you. It's not that, you know, we didn't implement that defensive game plan because we thought

Jaylen Brown can't make shots. You implement that defensive game plan because you feel like on the fourth game of a road trip, with all the circumstances I just named you, with the travel from Toronto, which was, I mean, into Toronto, which was absolutely crazy getting in at 7.30 in the morning, by the way, on the day of a game coming off of back to back. That don't always catch you the night of. It sometimes catch you a couple days later and not making any excuses

because it's no reason to make an excuse. We lost a regular season game, and whether you lose about 50 or one, a loss is a loss. So it's not to sit here and make some excuse. But in saying that, so you go into the game and you're like, all right, just so you all know, by the way,

in any defensive game plan, you're choosing to give something up. Like you have to. Teams are too good. Individual guys are too good to completely take everything away. So you have to essentially choose what it is that you're willing to give up that's going to beat you. And when making that decision, you choose things that gives you the best opportunity to win. So if we give this up, we think we can survive that. And so in looking at the Celtics offense, the way they've been playing, all those things, you're like, all right, you know, if, like, let's give this a try.

Not that Jalen Brown can't shoot the ball because we all know Jalen Brown can't make shots. But you almost go with the idea of like, he's going to take it up on himself to shoot more and more and more and more and take their offense out of rhythm. take their offense out of rhythm, makes it a lot easier to beat them. And yes, you usually employ that game playing with, like, guys who aren't as good as shooters as Jalen Brown. But in saying that, like I said,

Jaylen Brown's a 34% three-point shooter going into the game. So you're not overly worried that Jalen Brown's going to start hitting threes and start hitting threes. And he did. He made them, you know? And so guess what? You go into that game,

three and all in a road trip, you got a free swing. You know, if you come out of that road trip and you're like three and one with that road trip that we had, you feel pretty good about yourself. So you go on with this free swing, you implement this game plan,

and it didn't work. All right, cool. Your free swing didn't work. You had a fighter's change by throwing one knockout blow that didn't quite work out. We move on. But what I will say is

that Celtics team is they're really good. They are really good. Now, it did feel like they were playing with, like, finals level intensity out there. Just their reds were absolutely incredible. The force that they were playing with, I thought it was very interesting.

I definitely had a finals level intensity feel on the Celtics part. But in saying that, very good ball club, And they're going to be, well, we know, they are the force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference. Yes, obviously you had a Milwaukee Bucks. The Knicks, if the Knicks can get healthy, which is not looking very good. And I'm not sure it's going to get much better, not from the standpoint of health, but the Knicks is just a grinded out team. Tibbs is a grinded-out coach.

You're going to have long practices. You're going to have long shoot-arounds. Sometimes those things can catch up to you. So the Knicks are a grind-out team. Who knows where that goes? I know they got Mitchell Robinson out for the year, kind of probably expecting Jew back over the next couple weeks. I don't think there's much word on Jalen Brunson,

although watching that injury, by the way, and I'm no doctor. So you can take this with a grain. sought, but I am pretty in tune with my body. And because I am pretty in tune in my body, I can kind of identify some things that I may think. Again, I am not a doctor, and this is not the podcast of a doctor. Jalen Brunson injury was super weird. I'll tell you what it looked like to me. You have a nerve right on the side of your knee, but right under, I'm trying not to into all these terms because you're going to have some doctor come on here like, oh, I'm a doctor and that's not the correct term.

But anyway, your fibular head, right, which is the bone that sticks out kind of right on the side of your knee, right around that is a bunch of nerves. And what it looked like to me is he had a little impact with that nerve, which is why it looked like he jumped crazy, but it doesn't look like the hit was that hard. And so everybody's looking like, oh, man, that's weird. Like, that's a contactless injury, the knee injury, but... And that's not quite what I think it is. And the reason I think that is because when you look at him

try to get up and walk a couple of times, his ankle starts to roll. And with his ankle rolling like that, that is probably that nerve being hit and that nerve just not sending the signal to his foot to stay strong, his ankle slash foot to stay strong and stay in the right position, which is why it looked like his ankle kept rolling out to the left. That's just my opinion. As someone who's dealt with a nerve issue before when I missed that time in 2022,

it's almost like a spark plug. If you have a spark plug out in your car, it's not sending the signal. Well, that spark plug essentially isn't sending the signal to his ankle. and so his ankle looks weak and you kind of can't make out what the injury is. And so it's going to be hard to get a timeline for that because nerves do what nerves do. And if you remember when I had the issue,

it was like, all right, we'll reevaluate in two weeks. Oh, you go see the doctor. All right, we'll reevaluate in two weeks. And all that's simply saying is you're giving the nerve a chance to heal. So anyway, I probably got a little bit off topic there. But that's all. going to depend, you know, the Eastern Conference race that has a lot to do with it because

Jaylen Brunson is an all-star player and the Knicks goes Jailen Brunson goes. And so that was kind of my take on that. But anyway, getting back to the Celtics. Very, very, very, very great team. Happy birthday to my little bro, J.T. Day before mine, the Celtics game was J.T.'s' birthday. Yesterday was my birthday. The happy birthday to him.

and you got to get those guys a lot of credit. Interesting how they're defending. They're not really putting Drew on the best defender. I mean, the best offensive player, they're kind of using Drew as a roamer, kind of putting Drew where he can mess up teams' offense, you know, and kind of use his smarts. And then obviously you always had an option

to put Drew on the ball if that's not working, but it looked like they've been taking more of that approach, not only against us, but if you watch them, it looked like, they've been taking the approach a lot. And you usually see that with more shot blockers. You know, you like the shot blockers to roam so they can come weak side, protect the rim,

and not have to worry about shooters. But with Drew's defensive presence and how smart he is, he can read different plays, has good enough size to where if he is the backside help, he knows how to get up and, you know, always going to be in the right position, disrupt the offense. And so that was interesting with the Celtics.

and I think it is 100% of title or bust year for the Celtics. You don't get to continue being in the position that the Celtics are in and just get the opportunity after opportunity, especially with Jalen Brown's contract kicking in. Then you're going to have J.T. coming up getting that same level of contract pretty soon, which lessens your resources. So you've got to strike when the iron is hiding. So that's why I say championship or bust for the season.

Celtics, not for any other reason other than that new cap, that new salary cap and that new tax apron and second apron and all those things, pairs where you'll start to see the effects of those things. And it'll be with the team like the Celtics that have Jaylon Brown on a huge contract, JT's is on a huge contract, and that'll get bigger. Drew, who's going to be coming up, Prozingis contract. It's a lot of contracts. So we'll see what happens there.

but that is why I would say it's a bus, champ title or bus season for the Celtics. And moving on, across the way from the Celtics is a huge rival, and I mean Ray across the way, the Los Angeles Lakers. And they had some news this weekend with Brian scoring 40,000 points. Crossing first player in NBA history to cross 40,000 points versus the Nuggets on Saturday. Interestingly enough, everyone's saying like,

Oh, man, that record is way out of reach. But if you look not too far behind, Kevin Durant's right around 32,000 points. And Kevin Durant loves playing basketball. And I'm not sure when he's ever going to stop playing basketball because dude just, like, that's what he lives for. He lives to play basketball. And so I personally think there is pressure on LeBron to keep playing

and as long as he can and keep pushing that record further and further out because you have a Kevin Durant who's in, year 17, if I'm not mistaken. And like LeBron, who's in year 21, Kevin may be still scoring at a very high level in year 21. And so I think Brian needs to push this record out far as he can. And let's face it, Brian probably has another two or three years left playing. I don't know that to be certain.

Could be more. It could be less. I don't think any of us know that. But if he plays another two, three years, he's going to average at least 20 points. So you can figure in probably another 5,000 points. So that pushes it to 45,000. You got KD at roughly call it 32,000. So he need another 13,000 over give or take the next seven years.

Probably is out of reach. That's a very tall task. But man, it just keeps getting more and more incredible. The things that you see, Brian, what he's able to do. The way he took over games over the course of this weekend was absolutely, or coming into the weekend and over the course of the weekend was absolutely incredible. The fact that he could still do that. Got a tip you had to him.

Kudos on 40,000 points, first person ever. There aren't many firsts in the NBA. He's talking about an incredible league that's had great players for years, and back years, there aren't still many firsts that can be done. And to be the first to cross 40,000 point mark, still always talk about him being a guy that people don't say, oh, man, Bronzer score, which is crazy to think, and this man is the first person to score 40,000 points.

But you tip your hat to him, and they couldn't pull that game out against the Nuggets, which kind of sucks. You know, when you had those types of nights like, that you want them to end and the win just so it feel as good as you wanted to feel. Needless to say, the Denver Nuggets are real. I think they're unbeatable coming out of the All-Star break, as is another team, and one in which we're facing tomorrow, the Milwaukee Bucks are also unbeatable.

They beat the Clippers last night at home. No Yannis, Bobby Portis got off, Dame went off. And that team looked like they're rallying around Doc. Interestingly enough, you know, all the chatter going into All-Star break with Dot and JJ and Austin Rivers and Patrick Beverly. All of the top, the feuding. It looked like that team is like rallying, starting to rally around Doc, which I think is very commendable. I think it's very interesting. I also think that's what you are, that's what you're looking for when you, um,

when you bring in a coach like Doc, you know, essentially the thought behind that is, all right, well, we had a younger, younger and head coaching, Adrian Griffin,

we need to, someone that can get the locker room. And, you know, that's what a lot of people were saying, that Adrian Griffin no longer had the locker room. And if you don't have the locker room,

you can't win in this league. And so what this 5 and 0 start, out of the all start breakers, 6 and 0, whatever it is for the Milwaukee Bucks will say to me is that that team is rallying around the noise around their team, rallying around the noise around their coach. And they're using that as motivation and they're playing well off of it. And so got to get those guys some credit.

Like I said, we got them coming in here tomorrow. It's a big game for us, obviously. We know how crazy this race is in the West. Every night you're kind of looking at the stand. It's like, oh, man, this team lost. all we can gain the game. Ah, we didn't move here. You know, we didn't lose a game because that team lost.

So you kind of got that thing going in the West, especially in the play in. And right at the back half of the top six teams all kind of in a cluster right there in every game matter. And so a big game for us. First game of a, what, three-game homestand before we get back on the road. So I want to try to take care of all these before this Texas swing. try to get them done, stay in that race, even move higher up in the race, as that is the goal for us.

Before we get out of here, the basketball that Victor Wenbiyama has been playing, it's absolutely incredible. Now, I personally think Victor Wenmiyama is pulling away with the rookie of the year race. He's kind of creating that separation, 60 games into the season, only a quarter of the season left. It's time to start to create that separation if you can, and I think he's doing that. And as you know, I'm not really one that's really big on one-on-one matchups. But sometimes they do matter based on when they are in the season. And there was just a one-on-one matchup between Chet, Holmgren, and Victor Winemeyama, and Victor Winbiama handled that.

He handled that pretty handily. and some would say he was making a statement and sending a statement around the league and to voters. That's probably one of those ones that matter a little more with where we are in the season, with the rookie of the year race. Quite frankly, by all means,

I think Victor is pulling away. His last 20 games, he's still averaging 29 minutes per game, 23 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4 and a half assists, almost two steals and four blocks. On 49% from the field, 40 from 3, and 83 from the line. He's currently second and odds to win defensive player at a year, although I can't quite agree with that because they have the 24th best defense in the league. Now, that's where you kind of get into like his team is not that good, they're young, blah, blah, blah.

but what he's doing is incredible. But you just can't move the line like that. Like, you're not allowed to just because he's young and the team is bad, a guy on the 24th best defense in the league can win defensive player of the year. I don't agree with that. That's moving the line too far.

And if you're moving the line that far on defensive player of the year, like rookie of the year, yes, I'm not worried about Chet Holmgren's team being first in the West and the spurs being 14th or 15th, whatever they are. I don't put much into that because you're a rookie. Like to come in and say, oh, this rookie is going to win a bunch of games,

especially a team that get the number one pick probably means that team's not very good. That shouldn't decide the rookie of the year, and I don't think it will. But defensive player at a year is a different thing. Your team, that does require your team to have a great defense, and they just don't. With, you know, like I said, with being he's,

whatever their record is, and 24 best defense, that just doesn't work. But, you know, Wimby is 12th in the league in steals and firsts and blocks. And those are great numbers. And as he continue on in his career and that team gets better,

I don't think those numbers are going anywhere. I don't think Wimby's going to block less shots. I don't think Wemby is going to get less stills. with his length. And so he'll have these numbers and he'll have opportunity to win defensive player of the years. I personally don't think that is this year. Even if Rudy Gobert wasn't having the season that he's having and their team having the season that they're having, I still don't think you can give that award to somebody who's on 24th best defense in the league. If you are doing that, but then you got to move the needle back for Jason

Tateo. It can be, oh, man, they got to win a championship before Jason Tato can win MVP. You got to move that needle back. Because clearly we're just moving the needle whenever we may, whenever we feel like we can. If you're going to give Victor Win Binyama the defensive player at a year war. However, I think he's definitely running away with the rookie of the year award. If I'm being quite honest, I want to see him run away with the rookie of the year award. No disrespect to Chet Hungren. I think Chet Hungren is going to be a star in this league. But I just have an issue with second year guys, even if they missed the whole first year, winning rookie of the year. Because when you train with an NBA team, when you live an NBA life, when you learn NBA defensive schemes, when you're practicing with an NBA team, you're traveling with an NBA team, you're doing all of these things that NBA players do for an entire year, that makes a difference. Makes a difference in your body. Makes a difference in your mind.

makes a difference in how you see the game. It makes a difference. And so I just can't agree with second-year guys winning a rookie out of year. I would like to see Victor Wembeiyama win it. We had the same situation

with Ben Simmons actually won it, if I'm not mistaken, coming around his second year, which didn't quite feel that great. And then we also had the situation with Joe L. M. B., that I think he was actually three years in. And he was up in the race against Malcolm Brogden,

didn't ultimately play enough games and still came in second place, Malcolm Brogdened it, I'm taking it away. But it just don't feel right. Because, again, I know the benefits of living in NBA life, whether you're getting in the game. I didn't play a ton of my rookie year. Coming into my second year, even the little minutes I did play, but more importantly, the life that I was living

and training that I was getting, it makes a difference. And so I just can't agree. And I think that's a rule that Ben needed to should have been changed from the NBA. Rookies should be in line for a rookie out of year. And that's just my opinion. I'll leave that there. But it don't look like we're going to have that issue because the way Victor Winbiama is playing, he's making the decision easy for everybody.

So Chet being in first, Victor being in 14, does not decide that award. the play of those players decide that award, and Victor is making it very clear. I deserve that award. That's going to be a wrap for this episode of the Dremont Green Show. Make sure you all tap in this week. We got an interview coming your way. Don't forget to check the Twitter of the volume.

Check my personal Twitter for the giveaways. So just tweet us your subscription on our Twitter, well, the volume Twitter, or my personal Twitter, and we'll get you locked in, get your part of the giveaway, and there will be a couple items. Until next time, that's a wrap from this episode of the Dremont Green Show. Peace.