Draymond Green is a four-time NBA champion and one of the league’s most respected voices.
This past week, during an appearance on his podcast, Green pointed to Tristan Thompson’s impressive limited minutes with the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals and pondered why he was previously unsigned.
In Green’s estimation, veterans like Thompson are immensely valuable to organizations around the NBA.
“It’s why we see a lot of the things we see in terms of off-court issues: there’s no veterans showing these guys the way”
—@Money23Green speaks on the “veteran problem” affecting today’s NBA pic.twitter.com/a6de76TKQD
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) May 23, 2023
“That is actually a huge problem in the NBA. It’s why we see a lot of things we see as far as off-court issues,” Green said.
“Because there’s no veterans showing these dudes how to move, showing them the way.”
To Green’s point, the value of a true “OG” veteran is immeasurable. Obviously everyone knows about Udonis Haslem’s impact on the Miami Heat, but Al Horford recently also showed his value in that regard to the Boston Celtics.
According to Jared Weiss of The Athletic, Horford played an instrumental role in Boston’s epic Game 6 victory thanks to something he did off the court.
“They all could see they were blowing it,” Weiss wrote.
“Every player understood that while there were schematic changes that needed to be ironed out, this was an emotional problem. They were no longer connected, something their coach admitted to after their Game 3 dismantling.
“[Head coach Joe] Mazzulla said he needed to do a better job preparing his team to repair the disconnect, but Horford had seen this before. The Celtics had to find their togetherness and it was his job as the OG to make that happen.
“Horford told Mazzulla to ditch the film session, organizing a team trip to Topgolf instead. They needed to have fun with each other and feel the joy again.”
In the end, it ended up working. The Celtics displayed incredible camaraderie in Game 6, paving the way for that memorable last-minute tip-in by Derrick White.
Whether he is speaking on his relationship with Jordan Poole or opening up about his Golden State Warriors future, Green tends to keep it pretty real.
Big offseason for the Raiders. https://t.co/WTHxJiqwsn
— Game 7 (@game7__) May 28, 2023
The same applies to his observations about the NBA.
What wise tidbits will he drop in the future? Time will tell.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.