OAKLAND -- What previously was considered in the abstract now is banging on the brains of the folks who run the Warriors. The Draymond Green Experience, such an intrinsic aspect of their recent success, has become a dilemma.
As they look at the immediate future of the franchise, they wonder how much longer can they overlook Green’s sharp edges while squeezing him for everything he has.
Trade or no trade? What on earth do they do?
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If the Warriors trade Green, they’d create a vacuum that nobody else in the NBA can fill. Go ahead. Look around the NBA. Who else checks as many desirable boxes? He’s a catalyst at both ends, a superior communicator on defense, with the gift of applying vision to angles to stimulate the offense. They know it. He knows it, too.
He’s also a blowtorch among young men that just want to play good basketball, and even the best blowtorch can be too much to bear. They know it. Does Green?
If the Warriors keep him, they’d be a better team. They’d also be constantly bracing for moments like that which occurred Monday night in Los Angeles and threatens the delicate chemistry that has served them so well.
What to do? Something? Nothing? Now? Later?
Golden State Warriors
That’s the hazy tomorrow into which the Warriors are gazing as of Wednesday morning. With the exception of the brief respite provided by a lackluster win over the wholly defective Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, the defending NBA champs have hated every hour since about 10 p.m. Monday, when Green went at Durant with a searing intensity that was, by consensus, over the top.
Durant had a hard time believing what he was hearing that at one point during Green’s diatribe he actually chuckled. And not because he thought it was funny.
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It was that tirade, which included insults and profanity and caustic references to Durant’s imminent free agency, that forced the Warriors to take action they hated, suspending Green for the game against Atlanta.
The decision clearly pained general manager Bob Myers and coach Steve Kerr. Myers and Green have acknowledged their special relationship. It hasn't been unusual for them to talk on the phone into the wee hours, whether it’s Green assuring Myers that all is well, or Myers talking Green off the ledge.
Durant’s decision to play coy with his future has put his teammates in an uncomfortable position. They understand and defend his right to choose where he wants to work. They also wish they could avoid the constant conversation around it.
You might remember, during the team’s trip to New York last month -- where Knicks fans showed attention upon Durant in an effort to recruit him -- that Andre Iguodala directed a joke at his teammate.
“Welcome home,” he said as the team approached Madison Square Garden.
Iguodala’s jokes usually come with a side of purpose. He doesn’t mind delivering the message that lets Durant know his teammates are acutely aware of the chatter around his free agency.
Green didn’t resort to humor. He put it on blast, and did it in Durant’s face.
The Warriors didn’t like it. They’re trying to coax Durant into coming back next year and beyond. There is a strategy to everything they do, and it’s transparent.
They didn’t suspend Green to appease Durant. They did it to inform Green that what he did was not to be tolerated. Not by them and not by Durant. It’s one thing to scold, quite another to berate.
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The worst of it for the Warriors is that Green made an error in judgment, and not only failed to admit it but turned on Durant for basically pointing it out. Durant wasn’t cool with that, and it seems nobody else on the Warriors was cool with it, either.
This entire disturbance was set in motion by Green’s decision to keep the ball, rather than pass to Durant, in the final seconds of regulation Monday night.
It’s a simple thing, unless you’re the Warriors and you’re trying to gauge the value of having Green versus the massive void of not having him.
There’s no easy call here, which is why the Warriors have been hoping to avoid it altogether. They can’t ignore it now. They have to make a decision they don’t want to make, and they have to figure out when.