The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Draymond Green Show - Warriors in Japan, Ben Simmons Nets debut & Westbrook rumor

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

On The Draymond Green Show, Dray details the Golden State Warriors trip to Japan for two preseason games against the Washington Wizards including what he likes about the city, how impressive Steph Curry and Klay Thompson’s three point shootout was, James Wiseman’s play, and more. Then he goes around the NBA preseason for thoughts on Ben Simmons debuting for the Nets, Jamal Murray returning for the Nuggets, and rumors about Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Lakers.  Produced by: Jackson Safon #Volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The volume. The Draymond Green Show is presented by Fanduil Sportsbook. There's no better place to bet the action than on Fandual Sportsbook during the football season. It's easy to use. It's safe and secure. You get payouts in as fast as two hours. There's so many bet types. My favorite same game parlay bets.

There's live betting, player props, futures. If you're new, just download the Fandul Sportsbook app. To get started now, sign up. Please use the promo code Colin C-O-L-I-N. Fandul, Sportsbook, makes it easy. What's up, everybody. Welcome back to the Dremont Green Show. Training camp is underway.

I am back home. Home from Japan, where we play two preseason games against the Washington Wizards. Two wins. And so we are riding a five-game winning street as you know dating back to none other than whooping jackson's celtics um they're in a bit of a bit of turmoil right now uh not sure how the return to the finals looks but you know um resiliency allows the teams to show their true character.

So, you know, we'll get to see the true character of the Boston Celtics, led by none other than the young goat, young next greatest Jason Tatum. And I think he would do an incredible job adjusting to everything that's going on, leading his troops. But that's neither here nor there. Let's get right into it. The Doves trip to Japan. First off, absolutely amazing trip.

Japan's incredible One of my favorite places in the world The food is amazing The people are amazing It's beautiful It's like It's like New York City With Central Park all around it

What do I mean by that? It's very You know you have the big buildings You have some of the buildings Very tight together Like Times Square You know you have the big city field, 14 million people in Tokyo, if I'm not mistaken, or somewhere near there, only 8 million

people in New York. So to give you a perspective of the size of Tokyo, very vibrant city, a bunch of things to do, great shopping. The one thing that Tokyo has on New York City, and probably just about any other place in the world, is it has to be. the cleanest place in the world. I've heard Singapore is clean like that. I've never been.

But Tokyo, if I drop my steak on the ground, I'll pick it up, not dust it off, and eat the entire steak. I mean, like, you walk around outside in Tokyo and you don't see any trash cans and you don't see any trash. It's like the most incredible thing. Like, you walk down the sidewalks and, you know,

Like, just go walk down the sidewalk. I guarantee you it's some, like, spotted and, you know, it's been dirty and none of that. Like, I mean, it's so clean. And it's just peaceful and, like, it's safe and, you know, it feels good. Like, I mean, it was an amazing trip. And the Japanese fans, the Japanese people, they're so polite. I'm sure you all may have saw the video slash meme. like video of James Wiseman free throw and where the crowd goes completely silent.

It's almost like a tennis match. You know, when you're watching tennis and while the point is going on, everybody's silent. And then once, you know, once it breaks, everybody clap, they cheer, and then it's silent. That's how the Japanese fans were when you're shooting free throws. it was one of the most incredible things that I had seen. They're just super polite. They're not very loud. Like, they'll get excited about a play, and then it goes back down.

And that was a very interesting thing, because that arena that we played in, which, by the way, was the same arena that I had the opportunity to win to go metal in, which was very special. The locker room that we had was actually the locker room that we pour champagne in and still smell like champagne in there. I hope y'all understood that reference i.e. Cleveland. Yeah, great reference. But

absolutely incredible arena, and it's huge. Like, this arena seats 25,000, 26,000 people. And it was sold out. But it's, it's like the Japanese, they're just, they have a totally different way of taking a game. And number one, there's no heckling. You know, you go to games in America. and people spend their hard-earned money to heckle, which I always think is a pretty impressive thing because you spend your money that you work so hard for to ultimately feel worse about yourself because in heckling, it's just bad energy.

And no matter how you shake it, I don't care how you think it make you feel, what it's doing to your brain and what is doing to your psyche and your mood, it can't be good because you're just sitting there heckling. So shout out to the hecklers. There were none of those in Japan, which was absolutely incredible. Should take a note out of Japan's book, Japanese fans, you hecklers, you should really

try to learn from them. But, you know, it was just a great, great opportunity for us to continue to grow the game of basketball globally, for us to showcase our talents in another country. Rockerton was an absolute great host. And, you know, Rakuten is a partner or to go to and stay warriors. And they were absolutely incredible. My friend Mickey and everything that he's done

to, you know, just continuing to grow the game of basketball in Japan is absolutely huge. I had the opportunity to attend a court dedication where it refurbished the court, which was absolutely incredible. I had the chance to, you know, interact with some of the kids over there that's taking up the game of basketball.

I know you all probably saw where I swatted the shot. My mom, my mom texts me, and she said, did you apologize? I'm like, apologize for what, mom? She's like, apologize to the kid. Shot you block. She was like, I saw you, like,

kind of like, do this. And I was like, oh, when I swatted that shot, that ball went straight at the back and hit, it's actually a Warriors fan. Sis Korset, it hit him right in the back of the head, in the back of the neck. And, or, yeah, the back of the head in the back of his neck. And, I mean, the ball was flying.

So I turned my back, but I still was able to catch it. And it was a bit rough. And so I apologize for, that but that's why I was doing that not necessarily to apologize for the fan you I mean not the fan to apologize to the kid now I'm not apologizing for that at all that that's what's supposed to happen but that was great then we had um we had fan night that same day I'm sure you all saw stephen clay's three point um experience as I would like to call it that everyone had the chance to taking. That was absolutely

amazing to see, like, you know, the reason that's so incredible to me is because, like, no matter how great of a shooter those guys are, like you have off nights. And let me explain to you.

That day, we had the court dedication. I think Clay had another appearance. You know, it was a long process to get to the, to finally get to the moment that you all solve the three-point contest. It was an entire day thing. So, you know, we didn't have practice that day. So, you know, those guys didn't get a chance to stretch. They didn't get a chance to warm

up. It was just like sitting there watching all the stuff. All right, it's time to shoot and I think they gave them two minutes. And then you saw what you saw, which was Steph go absolutely ballistic. And then Clay pick it up and go absolutely ballistic. And why was that incredible to me? I'll tell you why it's incredible to me because like I said, no matter how great those guys shoot, you have to be a showman to do that. Like, when you go and you haven't stretched and you haven't warmed up and all of these things and the day that we had and then you can go do that, that's like, no, I just need to give this crowd something to cheer about. I just need to give them something to be happy about. And in order to do that, like, it's more to that than just going to shoot the basketball because you're a good shooter.

That's like, that's the thing that actually wins you championships. That's the thing that actually make those guys who they are. It's like, oh, there's a crowd here. Oh, they want to show? No problem. I'll do that. Like, that's a whole other level of mastery, like, when you can do that thing. And so shout out to Steph McLean.

That was an absolutely incredible thing to watch. Like Clay said, I absolutely loved watching them humble JP, Jordan Poole, that is. That was fun. And then Jordan Poole tried to take the passive aggressive route. Like, oh, they're only the best shooters in the world, but you weren't talking like that before JP. So that was absolutely good to see. And that was an incredible night. From those two preseason games, a couple takeaways that I had, number one,

Game one, James Wiseman. I know everyone's hype about the James Wiseman game that he had in game one. I thought his game was beautiful that he played. I thought he played with patience. He ran the floor. He sprinted. He defended well, had some good verticalities. The thing that I was most impressed by, and I know no one will speak about this and no one

will talk about it, but it's very important for James Wiseman because those are the things that get you on the floor. It's not, oh, man, he had a monster dunk the first play. Although, way to set a tone, big fella, way to let everybody know I'm back, I'm here, I'm here now, I'm healthy, let's go. The beautiful tone that the big fella set. But what I was most impressed with, and you may not have been able to see this on a TV and that's okay, but I'm going to tell you, James Wiseman, the way he communicated on the defensive end, the commands that he was calling out with loud as he was talking. I'm not sure James Wiseman knew exactly what he was calling or knew exactly what he was doing,

but what I am sure of is that when you hear someone talking like that behind you, it doesn't matter if they know what they're doing. You're going to feel like they know what they're doing because of the confidence that they're speaking with, how loud he was, the volume that he's speaking with. And so that's what I thought was absolutely beautiful. I hope, and I know he will continue to keep that up. He's been able to learn from one of the best at it in Kallon Looney and Loon is an absolutely incredible communicator

for a guy who doesn't talk a ton and didn't used to talk at all always been an incredible communicator although with Loon we had to kind of pull it out of him like hey man you're a little quiet like we know you know what you're doing and we know you know the call but we need you to speak up more and he's one of the best communicators around and James Wiseman has had him to study from and you can tell he's been studying

See, you never know when the guy's hurt, like, obviously you want the need to be healthy. You want the explosion to be there, the quickness, all of those things. You want to see those things. But you never really know how they're advancing mentally because that's the part that you really can't simulate. But what I do know is James Wiseman has been watching a ton of film. He's been taking a lot of things in as his time off has gone, his rehab process, as he's gone through his rehab process. And it showed. And like I said, it did not show from the dunk.

It did not show from the 20 and 9. It showed from his communication on the defensive side of the ball. And that's going to be a very big thing for him to continue to get minutes, for him to help this team. Healthy James Wiseman, a communicative James Wiseman, a James Wiseman who's using those God-given abilities that he has, only helps this team win another championship. And it was absolutely beautiful to see.

So way to play wise. That was absolutely amazing. PBJ has been shooting the lights out of the ball those first two games. Absolutely incredible to see. Shout out the PBJ, keep shooting the ball. And those were a couple of my takeaways. Obviously, Clay Thompson didn't play. Looking forward to getting Clay back out there on October 9th, as he himself said.

I'm looking forward to that. You know, Rick, who's been incredible. and managing all of our processes and just managing our bodies decided that, you know, didn't want to play Clay right away. And when you got a guy like Rick in your corner, you listen. You don't try to overstep that, especially as preseason.

There's no time for heroes. And so hopefully we'll get a chance to see Clay next weekend. Looking forward to that. But overall, our first two preseason games, I thought they were absolutely fun. It's kind of crazy to think, man, we just finished playing at the end of June and this September and we're playing the game again

absolutely insane nonetheless like I said before when you're doing that and you won a championship it's totally different than when you get to the finals to lose as I have experienced before. So we're back to and oh in the preseason means nothing but means something because who wants to lose? No one ever wants to lose.

And shout out to the young guys. There's young guys we were losing that game that second game in Japan. And our young guys came in, and PBJ, four for five from three, if I'm not mistaken. You know, if not four for five from three last game, he was definitely four for five from three the first game, one of the game.

But the way those young guys came in, Q. Weatherspoon, they came in, they brought energy. Ryan Rollins was absolutely incredible. But Dante Di Finchino, absolutely been loving what Dante is doing on the floor. Just another guy that can shoot the ball. knows how to play, gets his nose dirty on the defensive end, rebounds the basketball.

That was absolutely great to see. Jamichael Green, another guy who just gets it, understands it. Didn't quite get a ton of shots up, as that'll come, as people learn and figure out how to play with guys. But that's going to help us a ton of his shooting ability, so looking forward to that. So overall, positive notes for the dubs, leaving Japan and returning home. And, you know, we've said all along, our training can. really starts now. We had two days of practice before we went over to Japan. And over in Japan,

everything's just kind of haywire. So we get to finally lock in on camp. I'm looking forward to that. Absolutely incredible start to it, the first few days that we had and going to Japan. So looking forward to really lock him back in tomorrow for our practice. That'll be fun. Some other notes from the preseason. Ben Simmons back after 470 days. I saw. It was good to see Ben get back out there on the court. First, first bucket was a dunk. It was absolutely incredible to see. I think Ben is going to have a great year. With Ben's passing ability, the shooting that he has around him and Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Joe Harris, Seth Curry, just, I mean, that type of shooting around Ben Simmons, the way he can play, mate.

I think he's going to have a good year. I challenge Ben to not. get outside of himself and want to prove to everyone else what they want to see. Forget that, bro. You are all-star, three-time, all-star, all-N-B-A performer. You're Ben Simmons for a reason. Be Ben Simmons and be the absolute best Ben Simmons you can be. Fuck what everybody else talk about. I want to see him shoot a three.

I want to see him shoot a jump shot. What if he can't? And if he can't, oh, well, guess what he can do? And that's what I want to talk about. What he can do? I'm actually not about to go into it, but you get the point. What can Ben Simmons do? That's what Ben Simmons need to do.

Forget what y'all talking about or what you want to see. You don't matter. What matters is what he'd go out there and produce. Man, average 18, 7, and 7, y'all talking about he's a bum. Stop it. Ironically, Russell Westbrook averaged 1877 last year, and y'all said he's a bum. So, quite frankly, guys, you're incredible.

Because 187 and 7 and you were a bum, I think that's a kudos to you. So great to see Ben Simmons back out there on the floor. Also, Jamal Murray back out there on the floor. After 570 days, I think it was, to see him back out there on the floor is absolutely incredible. I feel like Denver right now is kind of in that sweet spot of where Joker's humming.

You got Jamal Murray coming back. They're trying to put the pieces around those guys, MPJ coming back, where, you know, right now is that time for them to start making that push to make that next jump. And Jamar Murray, as we know, having your point guard, one of your franchise players back in the fold, that really makes that realistic. So happy to see him back out there wishing Jamar Murray, a healthy season, an incredible season. Welcome back to the floor. And everyone wants to hear about these Laker rumors.

What are they? Russell Westbrook almost got traded before. Camp, who cares, he didn't. Russell Westbrook might get traded. Who cares? He hasn't. I think for me, the Lakers, what will be interesting is just to see how everything meshes together.

You know, who's going to play what position? Does AD play the five? Does AD stay at the four? Does LeBron move to the four? Does he stay at the three? Does Patrick Beverly start? Does he not? Does Kendrick Nuss?

Like, what's what? I think, you know, you just have to let the preseason play out with those guys and kind of see how it goes. But as I've always said before, you got a team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis and Russell Russbrook, never counting them out. Got to take them serious and we'll see what happens from there. Got De Ham in their culture. I know De Ham's bringing a different toughness, bringing a different flavor,

a different confidence, you know, especially being a former player or a champion, you can speak from a different place to those. guys. And so I hope D. Ham do well. Obviously, they got my brother Wianty over there, always cheering for Wianty as well. So, you know, we'll see what happens with the Lakers. But stop all of Russell Westbrook talk. That man is a Laker. They're trying to make it work, and it can work. When you are as great of a players as those guys have, it can work. And then I haven't Patrick Beverly to the foe, you're just going to win more games. That's been proven. All you got to do is watch the team.

Patrick Brevely is played on. That is a proven fact. So that is it on the Lakers. That is it on this episode of the Draymond Green show. Stay tuned this week. As we have a guest interview coming this week, Thursday, it will be an exciting one. Should I drop the name?

Should I drop the name? Maybe not. Looking forward to having Patrick Bradley on the show. First team, all defense. This will be a defensive conversation, but what it would also be, and most importantly, is a basketball conversation. Because in order to play defense like that, like this,

you got to know what's going on, and you got to know it in a major way. So I'm looking forward to that conversation. I've heard a ton about Patrick Beverly and how smart he is and looking forward to picking his brain and just talking about his journey. Y'all make sure y'all tune in later this week.

That's a wrap from this episode of the Draymond Green Show. We back, baby. Peace.