SAN FRANCISCO – Draymond Green didn’t mind Microphones picked him up yells at teammate Buddy Hield to carry on – “Wake up the (expletive) or sit down with the (expletive)!” – within the Warriors' 109-105 victory over Phoenix on Saturday night.
The message was vital in that moment, and saying something along with your chest, as Green often does, weakens your point by backing away.
“Microphones are catching everything today, but I don’t care,” Green said at the rostrum after the sport. “Because everything I say, I say directly into the microphone. I don't care. It was necessary.”
Green's request got here after a 24-second violation that required Green to choose up a grenade at the top of the possession. Hield missed a read on a post pass, botching Golden State's set.
In the sport, Hield went scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting and at times appeared to let his shooting issues leak into his defense.
Hield, a brand new warrior, was mixed. He scores a minimum of 18 points in games and the Warriors are 8-0. They are 3-10 when he finishes in single digits.
Enter Green's admonition.
“We need Buddy Hield to play great, we need Buddy Hield to make shots,” Green said. “And we have all the confidence in the world that Buddy is going to make shots. But we have a post feed, you have a 6 foot tall guy on you? Get the ball here. It's easy. We are 16-15. We don't love that. So we just keep doing the same thing and sit back, “Oh, at some point this will change.” Or can we make a change?
“I know what it looks like when you win. I know what it takes to win. So, as a leader, it's up to you to figure out what it takes to help this team. If that means coming into contact with a guy every now and then, if that’s like screaming, then do that.”
Green and Hield have only been teammates for 31 games. The four-time champion said he’s attempting to determine what makes Hield tick. This requires trying out different leadership styles. On Saturday night, he broke out the “wake the (expletive) method.”
“You have to try different methods,” Green said. “Some people – Jonathan Kuminga, I go to them and say, 'This is what you have to do, look at it like this and do it.' If I yell at him, I don't think he will. He won't listen. He'll get out of here. Steph, sometimes I go to him, sometimes I yell at him. He responds to both.”
Green learned from Michigan State University head coach Tom Izzo that leadership requires a sensitivity to each individual. Personal communication with everyone adds up to a total.
“If you think that you're going to steer a team, you're an idiot – you’ve to steer individuals who make up a team,” Green said. “Leading someone doesn’t look like leading the next guy. You have to find out what makes guys tick, what gets a guy going. I’m still figuring it out.”
Green said he and Hield went back and forth after his profanities, which he welcomed. This type of conversation is normal on a basketball court. Healthy even.
It's important to be someone who can receive a screaming message, Green said. He noted that he doesn't have a problem with Dennis Schroder – who joined the team just two weeks ago – attacking him recently. The same goes for Kyle Anderson.
Green has always been a vocal leader, and it hasn't always worked out for him. His infamous bench fight with Kevin Durant in 2018 earned him a suspension and caused tension within the team. He I called recently Jordan Poole's punch was “one in every of my biggest failures as a vet.”
But Green is widely regarded as an excellent teammate. He is an Xs and O expert, a competitive beast and an organizational pillar. Coach Steve Kerr has raved about Green's influence, especially this year.
In the third quarter against the Suns, he was just trying to get through to Hield.
“To approach Buddy the way I did, we needed that in that moment,” Green said. “We’re flat, we just turned the ball over. Include.”
The overall goal is to create a culture of accountability. At the beginning of this season Kerr said The nice thing about coaching Curry is that “he lets me yell at him.” During a timeout against Boston, Kerr tagged Curry for a careless turnover. Curry later said he just desired to be coached like everyone else.
When players like Green and Curry are okay with getting knocked out, the remaining of the locker room notices.
Including Hield.
“I happened to play a lot of championship basketball, a lot of meaningful basketball,” Green said. “Buddy hasn’t had the opportunity to play much meaningful basketball in this league. Guess what? It's our job to make sure he understands what that means. And if people don't like it, then so be it. That’s why they don’t have four championships and I do.”
Originally published:
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