The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Draymond Green Show - Timberwolves Force Game 5

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

Draymond Green breaks down the Minnesota Timberwolves’ win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4 to extend the Western Conference Finals, Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns having big games, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving struggling, and keys for the rest of this NBA Playoff series. Dray also breaks down the Boston Celtics sweeping the Indiana Pacers, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s big closeout game, Ty Lue getting an extension for the Los Angeles Clippers, and the tragic passing of Bill Walton. 00:00 - Start 02:45 - Wolves-Mavericks Game 4 14:00 - Winning is a mindset 25:00 - Mavericks adjustments 33:00 - Celtics sweep Pacers 41:00 - Ty Lue extension Produced by: Jackson Safon #Volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. See dkng.com slash B-Ball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Draymont Green Show. They say we may have a series. Minnesota Timberwolves take game four on the road. They are now headed back to Minnesota, which I was just recently informed when I was there, that it's called like the state of lakes or Minneapolis is like the city of lakes or state of a thousand lakes or something of that nature.

And it threw me for a loop because obviously I'm from the great state of Michigan and we are the Great Lake State. And so I just didn't know like anyone had anything about that. their state that was anything about lakes. And so I gained a little more love for the state of Minnesota because y'all are a lot like us. So, yeah, but they are headed back to Minnesota for game five. And we will get into that. We will also touch on the Celtic sweeping the Pacers and what was a close series yet

not so close at all. We will talk Tailu and his extension. And last but not least, the great Bill Walden, rest in peace. But don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Appreciate you. Thank you to all our loyal subscribers. We appreciate you as well.

T. Wool's beat the Mavericks, 105 to 100 in Dallas for game four. It's funny because on air, I remember hearing somebody say yesterday, like 100 points probably won't win you the game. And T-Wills get the 105. Dallas only gets to 100. And 105 happens to be enough.

Ant-Man comes back with it. Avengers, 29, 9, and 10. 11 for 25 shooting, 2 for 5 from the 3, 6 turnovers, which we'll get into that a little bit as well, not Ant Man's turnovers, but the turnovers as a whole for Minnesota. Kat came back with Avengers, 25 points, 5 rebounds in 30 minutes while battling foul trouble. Most of the half, first half, and pretty much most of the game. However, finished 9 for 13 shooting 4 for 5 from 3 Also ended up filing out the game

Luca, another triple double, 28, 10, and 15, 7, 21 from the field 4-411 from 3 Kyrie didn't have a Kyrie Irvin type night With 16 points 4 assists, 6 for 18 from the field One for 6 from 3 And so there you have it In the words of the great Shaquille O'Neil in the words of the great Charles Barkley,

the stars got to play well. And that's one side of the story. It doesn't quite tell the whole story. However, it does tell one side. Now, if you look at this, they ended up outscoring Luca and Kyrie. Katta ended up outscoring Luca and Kyrie, 54 to 44.

And if I am the Dallas Mavericks, you can leave that game feeling a few different ways. You can leave that game feeling like Luca didn't play well, Kyrie didn't play well, PJ Washington didn't play well, and we still had a chance down the stretch to win the game, only lost the game by five.

You could look at it that way. If you're Minnesota, you can look at it and say, we've been in this position each game. This series could easily be flipped the opposite way. And we finally made the necessary plays we needed to make down the stretch. And on top of that, they scored 30 points off our turnovers. If we cut those back, we're smooth selling. Now, there's a lot of ifs and if it was a fifth, we'd all be drunk right now.

However, if I'm leaving that game, my thoughts would be Minnesota always have a chance because Ant Man's demeanor and Ant Man played last night the way that he, that we've grown accustomed to Antman plant. Not in the first three games of this series. The first three games of this series, it almost looked like, eh, was sick or something. And like, I don't want to be one of those Instagram doctors or face. So, like, take this with a grain of salt. But to me, it just looked like he was sick, like he was gas. Like, for the majority, part of all three games, he was gas. Like, wasn't playing with the same force, was settling for a lot of threes.

Like, wasn't getting downhill at all. And that's not the ant man that we've grown to know. and I heard him saying his post-game press conference last night, he said, you know, I just wasn't running to the corner and not getting the ball or shine away from the ball. And I heard him say that. And Ant Man strikes me as someone that, hey, he's never going to make an excuse. So he's never going to come out and be like, yo, I was sick.

If somebody on their staff come out and say sick, all hell going to break loose because then they got to deal with him. And so I just don't, he doesn't strike me as, he's not an excuse maker. Like, he is a leader. He is a young guy who wants it. And we, you know, we've talked about that all along. And so he just doesn't strike me as someone who'd come out and make an excuse. However, if you were watching the same game I was watching, he just didn't look the same.

And when he came out and said last night, like, oh, I was shined away from the ball. I was just running to the corner. That's just him taking the blame on himself. Like, come on, place all the blame here. don't go blame my guys, don't go blame Cat, don't go blame Rudy Gaubert, place all the blame here. So I was running to the corner

hiding from the ball. Ant Man ain't never going to be somebody that run to the corner and hide from the ball. As the young fellas say, he running up the chimney for the smoke. He ain't running to the corner and like hiding from the ball. I've seen guys do that in this league,

superstars do that in this league. He don't strike me as one of those that's just going to run. run to the corner and sit there because of what may go wrong. Don't strike me as that. That ain't who he is. So I ain't rolling with that. And to me, it just looked like something was off.

Lung's win was a little off. Didn't have that same burst that he had last night. Like, you saw it right away last night. He got that ball in transition. Boom. You're like, oh, he's here today. Right? Like, he here.

And when he did that, it also jolted their team. You could also see them. All of a sudden, they went from like this to like, oh, we're here. Because that is their emotional leader. Obviously, he's their best player. But he's also their emotional leader. He's also their leader. He wears a lot of hats for that team.

And, yeah, that's just not a guy. that's going to do that. So everybody poked their chest back out. Cat continues his streak of playing awful in the first half, comes out with his chest poked out in the second half. A couple drives to the rim, lay up. Another drive to the rim, lay up. Sweet, baseline, and one.

Then he hit the three, right? So he worked inside out. Coaches have always told me, like, you want to play the game inside out. You never want to play the game outside in. You want to play the game inside out. You start in, you work your way out, you build a rhythm in, work your way out,

the rhythm carries over. They've been playing the game outside in with a huge size advantage. So not taking away, you're not taking advantage of that size advantage. So if you can't take advantage, of the size disparity, then the size just comes a liability

because you're definitely not fast enough on the other end to keep up with those guys. So if you're not going to punish them on the offensive end for being that small, then the size is kind of all for nothing. And for three and a half games, that's exactly what we saw. In the first quarter yesterday,

Minnesota outscore Dallas and the, They're paying 14 to 2. Second quarter dollars evened that out. Now, they didn't even the total out. The second quarter was just even. Ant-Man ended up in foul trouble in the second quarter. Rudy Goberra ended up in foul trouble in the second quarter. Kat ended up in foul trouble.

All of them was in foul trouble in the first half. And those numbers evened out. The second half started, they came right back out. And you can tell that their game plan was, We're not shooting many threes. We're getting to the basket. In turn, Ant Man goes two for five from three. He's been taking 11 threes, 12 threes.

Cat goes four for five from three. He's been taking nine threes, eight threes. He goes four for five. And the first one doesn't come until he's been going to the basket and getting whatever he wanted. Now, I am not of the group that thinks Kat shouldn't shoot threes.

Cat's a great shooter. If you can do something as well as he can shoot the basketball, shoot the basket. However, the slump that he was in, I think over the last six games or something, prior to last night, he was four for 32. At that point that you're shooting that bad and you're playing against a team

that you actually have an advantage on if you go in the post, yeah, I'm not saying stop shooting him. But you can't lead with the three. And Kat made that adjustment. And he played his best game of the series. Now, I'll tell you what, something that I do when I am in these playoff series and I face elimination. And because sometimes this stuff is just mind games.

Like, it's mind tricks. Like, sometimes you got to fool yourself. It's funny because math texts me last. last night, right when Luca got into it with Kyle Anderson. And Matt was like, look, Lucas just does, like, Luca, Luca just finds stuff to get himself going. And I'm like, absolutely. And you can clearly see it because, yes, it was a close-out game.

Yes, all of that. Dallas don't believe that Timberwolves can beat them. And so they were kind of just, like, going through the motions. And I won't, like, say they weren't playing hard because it's the conference finals. But it wasn't the intensity level that you thought you'd see. And Luca immediately was getting feisty at a few people. And you can tell he's just trying to bring himself up.

But anyway, I kind of have this thing where we go through, you know, say we're down in the series. I'm wearing all black, probably some black forces. And that's that. Why? Because number one, I don't need to waste any time thinking about an outfit. We got a game to play. Number two, I can care less how I walk into this arena looking.

I need to win some games so we don't get eliminated. Number three, I'm in all-black sweatsuit. Not the best-looking black sweatsuit. Some black four-suits. some black glasses. I'm going to war. Like, this ain't about how I look in the tunnel. I'm going to war.

I don't got time for none of that. And so, I think, number one, Cat should probably take a page out of that book. Like, Cat be fresh walking in. Gotta give it to him. He's been putting his fist together for the last few years. I got to give it to him.

But sometimes it just ain't time to think about it. that. And like, that's something that I do, like, when our back is really against a wall. And quite honestly, I can't remember how it's maybe failed me once or twice. But it usually come through for me because it's just winning is a mindset, winning is a mentality, winning isn't an X or O, winning is a mentality. And I just want to remind myself and be short that the moment I step out of this room or out of my house or the moment I step out of the car off this bus. I got one thing on my mind. That's something going to war. I'm going to rob somebody for what they think is theirs and I think it's mine. And so that's the demeanor that

Minnesota got to have like, yeah, you got one. Nobody wants to get swept. But guess what now? Minnesota going to have the same intensity that they had in game four to start game five. Now, I think they'll be happy to get back home. They'll have some energy for sure. There is nothing like facing a suite. Nobody wants to get swept. Think about it. Shaq said I spent sweat five times in my career.

People can name off the amount of, I saw CP on ESPN another night. Like, I've been swept one time in my career. named it off right like that. People remember being swept. And people keep track of that. So nobody wants to be the team that didn't win a game in a series. Like, that sucks, man.

And so they came out how we expected them to come out. Fisty, chippy. You saw Rudy Gaubert. I told you, I love watching the games within the game. Man, Rudy Gaubert, Chuck, Kai. Rie a couple times. Just running down the court. Boom.

Boom. Luca a couple of times. Boom. Gaffer, boom. I said, oh, he's setting a tone. I see it. I respect it. Nobody will give them credit for that

because people don't watch the game with any game. You know what they saw? Man, cat had 25. Ant man had 29. Yeah, they got to do that. Don't get me wrong. Not taking away from them what those guys did. But you got to set a tone.

And I thought Ant Man definitely set the tone offensively. Jada McDaniels and Rudy Gaubert set the tone defensively. Kyle Anderson came in and took that to another level. Jada McDaniels was all over Kyrie.

Kyrie never was able to get it going. That's also a matchup that Kyrie hasn't seen much of. So Kai is going to have to make that adjustment. Kai is a wizard. I have no doubt that he'll be able to make a moment. the adjustment. But Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gaubert set a tone. Rudy like, no, you ain't just running down the court

getting a free run. Boom. Nah. And by the way, Scott Foster, Ed Malloy, Billy Kennedy, they was letting it go. They was letting it go. Yeah, those guys ended up in file trouble, but I tell you what,

they could have caught way more files than the file trouble that those guys ended up, and they letting it go. It's an elimination game. You're going for a suite. I don't call tiki-tack stuff. I saw a few people like, oh, Scott Foster. Scott Foster's there.

We know what time it is. Yeah, we do know what time it is, Scott Foster there. He ain't calling all that ticc-tack stuff. That's what time it is. Ain't no tic-y-tack going to be called. Not with Scott. And by the way,

you ain't going to get them much complaining because you know what you're going to get with Scott. I told you all, Scott, one of my favorites. because I know what I'm going to get. I don't have to guess. You know, some referees come into the game, they act like they cool with you.

You think y'all cool. You say something, boom. Like, yo, I just had a full conversation with you, bro. How that happened? Like, how we end up there? I just have full conversation with you. Go to the game. End of the game, we have full conversation.

And then you just hit me with a tech guy fass? Like, why are you fake like that? You ain't getting that from Scott. You say hello to Scott. Hey, Dremont, how you doing? I'm great, Dremont. It's good to see you. Good to see you too, Scott.

Family doing well, family's great. Scott, how about you? Great. All right, Scott, have a good one. You have a good one too, Drey, Ma. And then I know exactly what I'm getting from there. Every single time. Don't come up to me on no bullshit.

I'm going to tech you. You continue. I'm going to throw you out. It's just that simple. you got something you want to talk about. Great. Come on over here. Let's talk about it. Tell me what you think. I'll tell you what I saw.

That's that. We ain't got to go back and forth about it. You could say something back. Like, Scott, I'll just check. All right, cool, I got you. But if you go the wrong way, he's going to tech you. So you know what you're getting with Scott. So I love to see Scott coming, actually.

I am not of the bunch that's like, oh, man, Scott here. Oh, like, no, I actually like, because you're going to get the real and you know what you're getting. So, anyway, they let a lot go. And when Rudy Gobert setting the tone like he said with the physicality, Jada McDaniels with the physicality, Hawking Kye, then their defense was set. Ant Man set the pace on the offense. Had a great first quarter, if I'm not mistaken.

I think he had 17 in the first quarter. And then Atman ended up in foul trouble. But they stayed afloat. Nasree made a couple of plays. Nikiel Alexander Walker made a couple big shots. Mike Conley got inside the lane. And I think most importantly, Ant Man got to the free throw line.

So with them setting the tone that they were setting, Ant Man getting to the free throw line, now you're playing against a set defense every time. And they already set the tone. Dallas, however, so you get into the free throw line, but you're turning the ball over, they kind of cancel each other out, right?

Like Dallas got some runouts off the turnovers, but they didn't get runouts off missed shots because Ant Man was getting to the free throw line, shot eight free throws in the first quarter. We haven't seen that, Ant Man, because we haven't seen Edman attacking like that. And so it was just a totally different, totally different bar club.

I think the absence of Derek lively was huge. Definitely makes a difference. He brings a certain injury to the group. certain balsiness um block some shots obviously lob threat graded in the short row

uh man he makes the reeds in the short row he's even starting to finish in the short row on a short row and so they miss lively for sure uh I'm not sure what happened to Dwight Powell man Dwight Powell was

Dwight Powell was good for many years and he just he's not giving them much at all so much so that they brought Maxie Claibor back who pretty much said before the game like, yeah, my shoulder are not right. But I'm a play.

And I thought that was very interesting because they'll need Claibor, I think, against Boston. They're able to get through this series, which I think they will. And they'll need Claibor against Boston because Claibor will spend some time on JT for sure. They like to put Claibor on long, that they got.

And so you got, yes, you know, we know PJ, we know D. Jones going to start on Jalen and, we know they'll start on Jalen and Jason. But you go to your bench, who those guys are going to be. I think Josh Green will probably be too small for those guys. And so you'll need to size. However, they had to throw them in harm's way because Dwight Powell haven't given them anything.

which has been shocking. Like, Dwight Powell was good, man. For many years, him and Luca had that connection. And it's just been bad. It's been bad. Not sure what it is, but they need lively back. So I thought that was a big loss. But I think we've all known,

and Minnesota has now figured out, it's going inside is their strain. not shooting a bunch of threes, going inside against the, because you're not going, you're not a better shooting team than Dallas. That's for certain. They are not a better three-point shooting team than Dallas.

So you're trying to out three-point them. The one game that you actually outshot them from the three, you still lost. Because you're not doing what can make you successful against those guys, which is not shooting a three. Yes, of course, it's the NBA. You're going to take some threes. Got to take some.

threes. But again, it can't be leading with that. And so I think the players of the Minnesota Timberwoods finally figured out, man, I need to go inside. They even posted Rudy go Barrett up a couple of times. Now, a couple

of them, Luca had some bad files. Like, they've been following Rudy on the pocket pass, like floaters. They've been following them on the post-ups. And I don't understand it. Like, just make him make the shot. If he made the shot, great. Guess what? We get the ball out fast, we gone, boom.

You get the ball of Kyrie. Hand went after. So, after May baskets, if I'm Dallas, I'm like, yo, we want to get the ball to Kyrie. You know why? Because I want to see if Kyrie can give me a one-man fast break because he's more than capable. So let's see if Kyrie pushed his ball up the floor, what we get out of it. Even if it's not a one-man fast break, what it will do is. it'll cause some cross-matches.

Minnesota is being very particular with their matchups. And if Kyrie gets the ball and go, it's going to cause some cross-matches because now say if you got Rudy's shooting and he makes it. Now Kyrie get the ball. As soon as the ball come out of the net, boom, boom, Kyrie gone. Now Rudy got to sprint back,

which means he ain't going to be able to catch up Gafford if Gaffer take off. Derek Jones take off. We saw it once where Lukin through Derek Jones live. Boom. And so I want Kyrie going on one-man fast break. Luca going to then make his way down the court. Once Luca get down the court, if nothing there, we can swing the ball.

Luca, we can get into our stuff. It's 20 seconds left on the shot clock, plenty of time. Because Kyrie getting it up fast. And I think that's something that Dallas should do. I think that's one of the adjustments that they can make. On any made shot, Kyrie's in the game, you sprint to the ball, get the ball to go. See if we got something. If not, boom.

because I think now that Minnesota's going to try to take advantage of their size, Dallas needs to put more of an emphasis on taking advantage of their speed, their quickness. And I think that's one way to do it. Ant Man, as I said, had a much better shoot a night. And I think that was all the product of him getting to the cup, him getting to the paint. Even some of the shots he missed. He missed a couple of bunnies in the lane, which I should. think he can make, but even if you don't make them, it's the mindset, it's the mindset, it's the mindset, and that

mindset and that mentality is what those other guys follow. When Ant-Man body language was this, and he ain't have it, guess what? Rudy Goberra's body language was this, and he ain't have it, guess what? Cass' body language was this, and he ain't have it. So it's no surprise to me that cat played well yesterday. Because the aggression that Ant-Man came out with made it okay for Kat to say, oh, well, I can play this way too. So almost like a right of pass, like, oh,

well, he did all I can do the two. So, that's all Amman to me. That's all Amman. Amman started off going to the hole. Kat started off going to the hole. When that man was started shooting off jumpers, Kat was starting off shooting jumpers.

So that's no coincidence. As I've said before, these guys follow Edman, and that's a heavy, heavy, heavy load to carry, but he's more than capable, and he did it last night. Now, unfortunately, and I guess fortunately, you still got a chance. Got to do that three more time. We shall see. Before we move on, and I give you my prediction for game five,

there's a lot of talk about Lucas Fowl that he got that Filed Cat Out and Luca Hunt Files. Here's what I'll say about that. Yes, Luca does hunt files. There are also a lot of other guys in NBA that hunt files. I don't think Lucas game is built on hunt files

because Luca is a tough shot taker and a tough shot maker. However, he's a very smart player. And if there's a spot where he can draw a file, you can bet your bottom dollar. He's going to draw the file. I don't think Luca is someone who seeks files. Because there's a lot of guys in this league that seeks files and turns the ball over and seeking those files.

Luca is not a turnover guy because he's seeking a file. So does he seek files? Yes. To his detriment? No, I do not think that at all. The particular play where he filed cat out, Everybody like, oh, he jumped forward. Did he lean forward a little bit?

Yes, but Kat came forward so much that you make yourself susceptible to the call. Now, can Scott Foster say, oh, we take that out the game? Yes, you can. But like I said, on that one in particular, cat leaned so far, jump so far forward that you almost have to call it

because he left his feet, got in the air. and when he made the contact with Luca, he's turned sideways. Now, I think he would have been better off if he jumped forward straight ahead, and he made that amount of contact, but he was straightforward. I think he would have been better off. The fact that he was turned sideways,

Scott Foster almost have to call that. I haven't seen the L2M report. Jackson, I'm not sure if you've seen it. I'm not sure if the NBA said that that should have been a no-com. car, but if I had to bet, and I'm not allowed to bet, so take it with a grain salt. If I had to bet, I'd imagine they said it was the correct call. So that's my opinion on Luca hunting files.

I definitely think Luca seeks to draw files, for sure, by the way. Most great players do. However, I don't think he's one of the guys that does it to his detriment. I don't think so. My prediction for game five is Minnesota will win game five by double digits. And then Dallas will go back home and win game six. The reason I think that is because Minnesota will come out swinging and if they're able to build a lead, you see a lot of times in those situations that team like, you know what, we ain't got it.

We're going back home. We'll close it out then. But let me tell you, don't make that mistake. Injuries happen, the longer these series go on, the unknown can take place. So you want to close it out as soon as you can. And if I'm Dallas, we screwed up a golden opportunity last night. We can't screw up another one tomorrow. We got to do all that.

If I'm Dallas, I'm like, this is a must win. You know why? Because even if we don't win in game six, guess what, y'all? This is a must win. I'm Dallas. This is what I'm saying. Because we have to reach, we have to reach their intensity level. They're down 3-0.

Understandable we don't reach their intensity level. Human nature. But we can't not reach their level twice. Because if we can't reach their level two times in a row, then they get the confidence. And going back to game six, all the pressures then on Dallas. The reason why I'm comfortable with all the pressure being on Dallas

because Luca and Kyrie, we all know, we all know, both of them will produce when those moments are there, when they matter, when the moment is the biggest, when everything's on the line, those two guys are going to come through. So I got Minnesota game five, Dallas game six. And other news, the Celtics sweep the Pacers, Another comeback win. Three out of four wins were comeback wins.

What do I make of this? I don't make much of it outside of like, Boston knew they could beat them. They toy around, toy around, toy around, toy around, get to the end. All right, here we go. They knew they could beat that team, especially once Holly Bird went out. Now, game one, Jalen Brown hit the shot.

Indiana should have won that one. But all the other games, Boston knew, like, we're fine. just hang around, close it out at the end, and they did exactly that. Congratulations to Jalen Brown winning the Larry Bird Eastern Conference MVP trophy. Well deserved, thought he played great. I thought it also could have went to J.T. However, not upset at all about seeing Jalen get that award. I thought it was great for him and J.T combined for 55 points yesterday.

and I thought they had a good showing. I do think if, you know, you know, congrats to them on getting back to the NBA finals. I do think if they match up with Dallas or Minnesota, but I don't think Minnesota's going on. I think that will cause some problems, and we'll get into that later more when it matters. But got to give Andrew Nimhart a lot of credit.

And I spoke about Nimhart on the pod before. Um, Nimhard, man, dude is a soldier. Like, small, got that chip on his shoulder, like, walk around with his, like, he got a little man syndrome. Uh, but his demeanor he carries picks up 94 feet. Like, you got to love it, especially at that size. I always tell guards that size. You come into this league, if you want to stay in this league and you that size, you better

go pick up 94 feet. Do that mean you taking the ball from a guy? No, brother, this is the NBA. The likelihood of you taking the ball from an NBA point guard is very low. But you just got to work them. Turn them a couple times. Take a little bit of time off to shot clock. That's what small guards have to do in this league.

And Andrew Nimhart does that. He plays with that chip on the shoulder, like I said. What he's shown me is his ability to score the basketball. You know, I knew he could shoot the three decent. I knew he could get to the whole, you know, straight line. I didn't know he can get in this bag and pull up mid. He stopped and get to the cup. I ain't know he had all that.

But he continues to show more and more, and it'll be interesting, you know, as his contract continues to play out over these next couple years, how teams will view him. What will his progress be over the summer? How does he come back next year? Because I think he can possibly one day put himself in a position to get a shot at being in a league,

guard in this league. You know, we saw Monta Mores get that shot recently in Washington. We saw Tyos Jones get that shot recently in Washington now. You know, some would say like, oh, I don't know if Roshan was the right place for them to take that opportunity. When you get an opportunity at a start rolling NBA, I don't care where it's that, brother, you take it. And so I think Nimhart will get an opportunity at some point or another, especially if he

continues to play the way he's playing. I told you, I like Nimhart. I like his demeanor. I like his game. His game continues to grow on me because he continues to show more and more. And when a guy continues to show more and more like that, when a guy go out, I have even more respect for him because that means you know like, oh, I got to play this role and I'm taking a back seat and play my role.

And I respect that because so many guys come in this league and can't figure out how to play a role. And it cost them. They think they're supposed to be superstars. And it cost them. I think that was actually one of the things that was hard. hurting Cam, Thomas, and Brooklyn. When Kyrie and Katie was there, he'd get some games where you're like,

oh, man, he went off and then he wouldn't play a bunch, right? And I think that was in large part due to that because he would never really find a role outside of just scoring a basketball. And if you don't in this league is hard, man, because very seldomly is a team just going to let you go out there and score. Now, he's in Brooklyn. They got rid of all their guys. And so he gets the chance to do that now.

But say if you get traded, the likelihood of a team just like, oh, we're going to give you the ball and you go score is slim, and so you have to do other things. And I think Nimhar is mastering that. And like I said, to watch him these last couple games, take on an even bigger role

and show what he's capable of against a great Boston Celtics defense. To all NBA defenders. You got to give Nymard's credit. I like his game and he continues to grow. Celtics makes it to the finals with only two losses, and everyone is saying that role isn't tough enough. Now, if I'm honest, I don't ever think the East is that tough.

But I've also made it to an NBA finals and lost one game along the way, zero games along the way, maybe lost one in the finals. Let's see. The year was 2017. You want to guess? Do you want me to tell you? And if I'm not mistaken, we lost one game in the finals.

Three straight sweeps and then up three out. Yep. I remember that. And no one would say, oh man, they road wasn't tough enough. So don't give me the Boston Celtics road isn't tough enough. They haven't been battle tested, all of that. Whether they get to this NBA finals and win or lose will not be because they haven't been battle tested. Let me tell you that, okay?

You don't get to the NBA finals, and at some point throughout the year you haven't been battle tested. Don't happen. Won't happen. It ain't happening this time. Congratulate them on their run. Whoever you've placed in front of them, they beat down. They let a couple games get away that I actually don't think they should have let get away.

Nonetheless, they're in the NBA finals with two losses. And as I said, we'll get into that later. So moving on. Tai Liu signs a five-year, $70 million extension with the Clippers get the bag. T. Liu, get the bag. Well-deserved, my brother. Congratulations to T. Lou.

One of the best coaches in R-Leed. One of the more respected guys in R-Leod. continue to climb his way up and gets the extension that he deserves, deserves to be paid right up there with the top coaches in the lead because he is one of those guys. So shout out to T. Liu. Shout out to Rich Paul. Clippers going into that new building.

They're going into that new building with at least Kawhi Leonard and with at least Tai Liu. And I think that's a great way to roll into a new building. So congrats to them. Congrats to T. Lou, like I said, well deserve my brother. Much love to T. Lou. And before we get out of here, rest in peace to the great Bill Walton. I mean, I have many memories of Bill being around, especially during Luke's time here.

But, you know, he'd even come around a couple times here and there once Luke left here. and just always great, amazing outlook on life. Incredible candor, incredible spirit, free spirit, super big smile, always. Grin is from here to here. Just always brought great energy, man. And, you know, I'm not old enough to act like I know how great of a player, Bill one was. I've seen highlights. I've seen a couple games.

but I'm I don't you know outside of what I've read and heard um you know I can't speak much to his playing career but I can speak to the man that I've met had the opportunity to spend some time around and I can also speak to the color commentator because anytime I can turn on like sometimes you be just scrolling through the channel and it'll be like Hawaii version versus somebody. And like Bill Wards is doing the game. And I'll stop and watch the game. And I'm not really watching the game.

I'm listening to Bill Walson talk. Because it's funny. The things he say are hilarious. And like Reggie, you know what's saying yesterday, he'll be talking about basketball in the roundabout way, but you probably don't understand it because he's gone about it in the roundabout way and mixing in some life

and some one-liners, and he'll hit you with an open-ended, and Lee, you're like, oh. And absolutely incredible watching games with Bill Walton doing the game. I mean, so amazing. Funny, lighthearted. I mean, just incredible.

Like, he's not attacking anyone. Although Shaq said he attacked him. I never saw that from Bill. Just an incredible man. Raised an incredible man who I know really well, Luke Walden. As I said on the podium, Luke Walden are at the desk. Luke Walden was the coach when I made my first All-Star game. Luke started that year coaching because Steve wasn't doing well.

We started off 42 and 4. It's actually the year we won 79. I mean, excuse me, 73. And Luke's incredible, man. Luke is an incredible basketball in mine, but an even better human being. And he's every bit of bill. Like, not ass outspoken,

although if you're around Luke, super outspoken. but looks just like his father, carries himself just like his father, walks just like his father, the same stature as his father, worship the ground as dad walk on. And to see Luke go through this, it hurts my heart.

I send my love to Luke, Bree, their children, Bill's wife, Lori, Luke's siblings. I send my love to all of them because the world lost an incredible man. The NBA family lost an incredible family member. And as Charles Berkeley said,

the world was a much better place two days ago when Bill was still in it. So we're going to miss Bill. The spirit that he brought to the NBA will live on. And I know the NBA would do right by memorials for him, keeping his name alive because he was great to the NBA, a great steward of the game. We love Bill Warden. Rest in peace, big man.

We're going to miss you. That's a wrap from this episode of the Draymond Green Show. Peace.