Many believe the preseason altercation between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole set the tone for the Warriors’ 2022-23 NBA season.
And Green himself is one of those people.
Green spoke to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on a “Stephen A’s World” broadcast during Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets on Tuesday and explained how his Poole punch caused a domino effect that hampered the Warriors in the first half of the season.
“We’re not playing right now, because when you talk about the foul, when you talk about all the slip-up we’ve had as a team on the road, not being able to come together,” Green said. “None of these things happen if they don’t happen, because the voice that I’m in and the departments that I run this team in, there’s been a ton of slip-ups because of me sitting back, me not saying nothing, me trying to allow this situation to unfold and give it time to heal.”
Green eventually felt comfortable enough to maintain his status as the Warriors’ vocal leader, but by this point in the season it was too late for Golden State, which had already developed some bad habits.
“I would probably say that starting in February, I started feeling like myself again and talking more,” Green explained. “But guess what, there’s been five months of the season where the slippage just happened. And in February, if this slippage has been going on for that long, you’re who you are. At this point, you’ve built those habits, this is who you are now.
“So to try and fix them then… it’s like you could improve a little bit, we did, we ended up in the second round of the playoffs. But not at championship level.”
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Green and the Warriors stumbled in the playoffs and were able to hold off the playoff-hungry Sacramento Kings in the first round, but ultimately fell to the scorching Lakers, who took advantage of the inconsistent and unruly Warriors in the semis. .
However, if Green and Poole’s altercation hadn’t happened on that fateful preseason day, Golden State might have solved its problems at the start of the season and could still make the playoffs to this day. .
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