First I just want to say I love the reasonable, thoughtful takes on Draymond from everyone because they hit right at home for me.
I WANT to like Draymond. He is a basketball savant and he is going to be himself unabashed. He’s absolutely mastered his role. These are all things I like.
@mgl absolutely nailed it on the lack of impulse control. That’s all it is. You don’t have this many infractions, this big of a target on your back, and keep doing it unless you simply cannot help it.
As to his teammates, there’s been visible frustration from Steph and Kerr so many times. It’s clearly a love/hate thing but it is not 100% support.
In terms of the angry black man thing (not that this needs to be a qualifier but will say, from a POC perspective here as well), everyone has to be careful to completely discount it. Inherent bias is exactly that: it’s inherent. It’s also pervasive. So it almost never plays ZERO role and I think anyone who admonishes it completely is doing some form of disservice. That said, it screams lack of accountability within the context of him not taking accountability otherwise.
Simply put, Draymond you come off angry because you hit people constantly and you’ve never been in control of your emotions on the basketball court.
A buddy told me that during that last game during Draymond’s latest meltdown, the TV guys said that Izzo called Draymond just that week to explain the importance of maintaining one’s composure.
Right like the reality is that Minnesota DID throw two different fans out of the last game for yelling racial slurs at Draymond, so he obviously gets that stuff
But when it comes to the you can’t go from whacking LeBron James in the groin to blowing up at Kevin Durant on the bench to punching Jordan Poole in the face to stomping on Domantas Sabonis’ chest to head-locking Rudy Gobert to hitting Jusuf Nurkic in the face and then go “it’s the media!”
and let’s be clear too - he’s never whacking people who fight back. he’s done plenty of things that ARE tough, such as staying disciplined on D late in games, surviving in a league without a jump shot, transforming his body. but he’s not swinging his arms at a charles oakley, beef stew, etc.
The only difference in this third quarter versus Games 1 and 2 is the defensive intensity.
The Celtics are not great at playing slowed down in the half court. New York has the right personnel for it and neither Jayson or Jaylen are efficient iso scorers.
People interpret their three point attempts as a lack of trying to score inside when they’re mostly last resort shots.
Right now they’re maintaining gap by scoring off turnovers. That’s it. Games 1 and 2 the intensity fell off to end the third and then the anxiety ratchets up.
