The Golden State Warriors suffered a terrible loss to a Memphis Grizzlies team missing almost all of their top players. After the game, Steph Curry and Draymond Green reportedly had an exchange on the locker room about how bad the team has been defensively.
During an episode of the Warriors Plus Minus Podcast , The Athletic’s Anthony Slater said, “And then in the locker room postgame, [Draymond Green] and Steph [Curry] were over there like, relatively loudly discussing how bad they’ve been defensively. Going through the numbers and talking about how bad they were when they were out and like they’re bottom-five, and discussing, ‘Oh wait, which teams are we better than? Like the Pistons, who else?’ And this is something that the locker room can hear them discussing.”
Understandably frustrated with their team’s defensive effort, Curry and Green made that known with this locker room discussion, per Slater. The defense is one of many issues the Warriors have right now, and it’s arguably the biggest of them all. A great defensive team throughout their dynasty, the Warriors are currently 25th in the league this season in defensive rating. For reference, they were 2nd in 2022, the year they won the title.
An elite defense is almost always a requirement for every championship team, and the Warriors are far from that standard right now, which Green and Curry recognize.
by Lord_Vanguard
24 Comments
#PassiveAggresiveLeading
Not sure I understand….were the two of them insinuating they’ve been good on defense and everyone else on the team bad? Please elaborate?
People don’t want to hear this but Curry is one of the biggest culprits on defense with his over helping and sad inflatable arm close outs.
They both have a lot of nerve. Draymond has been unavailable due to BS, and Steph is flailing and getting cooked like BBQ chicken. Pathetic
That…
Is kinda a bad way to go about it if that is to be believed. (Can’t always trust media these days.)
I would very much like it better if they came out and said it just like how Curry did it in Game 7 against SAC.
I do not believe this interview yet but if this is true you can’t lead a team by just being passive like this cause it turns into a situation where you guys don’t make it clear who is making the mistake or not being cooperative to the team.
It is better to identify the problem and then do something about it either privately or as a group.
Edit: My only experience is being a project leader at work but at the very least some things are universal when it comes to leading a group. And this approach doesn’t work much from my experience.
I understand the former DPOY Draymond critiquing the team’s defense regardless of his availability. But Steph? He should just focus on his own defensive fundamentals
if true then Curry and Dray are not good leaders, this is immature bullshit talking about people in front of them without including them. say ‘hey everyone we gotta discuss this shit’ and then fucking discuss it as a group
Who cares. They can say whatever they want in the locker room- it’s their team, they’ve won 4x. Dray looked like the best defensive player out there his first game back and has nothing to prove in that arena. Yes he fucked over the team with his dumb acts but that doesn’t excuse everybody else’s disastrous play. Team is fucking weak as shit, they should be pissed and say whatever they want. At least it’s direct and out in the open. Wiggins and Kuminga are supposed to be these all-world defensive players, and they both look absolutely horrible out there. Kuminga’s offensive game has obviously improved but defensively he is a total liability with his cluelessness when not on ball.
Clickbait merchants at their best
Given the lack of POA defense, this team needs a rim protector and for it to be drilled in to stop over helping. Maybe CP3 and some draft stuff for Clax and Dinwiddie (if the Nets aren’t keeping Clax).
why tf is steph talking shit lmao. he’s been one of the biggest defensive liabilities this season.
Frustration for sure boiling over. But I laugh cuz Steph be throwing the rock all over the gym since forever.
Not sure how true this story is, but it’s true the defense is atrocious…
Literally every game I watch now just has the opposing team drive straight through the paint and score easily, or we just let them shoot open 3s, which they hit… because they are wide open uncontested 3s that even the worst 3pt% players will make.
This is made even more painfully obvious when we’re behind and need to get stops… I’m sitting there like “okay, we need to get a stop here… just don’t let them shoot a wide open 3” and then that’s exactly what they do.
It’s become almost a certainty that the opposing team will score on their possession unless they attempt some boneheaded play like a turn around fade away jumper they didn’t need to take.
Meanwhile every time we have the ball I’m afraid of a turnover from a lazy pass, or the opposing team’s defense crushing us to the point where we get 24 second violations because the team isn’t moving enough to create open looks. Lots of those “Steph has it so lets all just stand here doing nothing while he’s double teamed and has no shot and no outlet” situations.
Yay, Draymond’s first game back and already being a terrible leader with passive aggressive airing of dirty laundry for the media.
Instead of complaining, how about help your teammates get better.
This sounds like two people with dry senses of humor commiserating over their defense and a reporter deciding to add their own interpretation to it to spin it into a story when there is literally no story to be had here.
Dray was extremely vocal and transparent about their defense both in his post game presser and on his podcast. Steve has also been very vocal about it. So has literally every player that went to the podium for post game interviews after the last few games (Dario, Loon, Klay, etc.). So acting like Dray and Steph seemingly sarcastically commiserating about their defense is them being passive aggressive and that the rest of the team (who unless they all came down with amnesia is more than aware of how bad they’ve been defensively) hearing what they were saying was tantamount to mean girls gossiping to one another and the subject of that gossip overhearing is just so stupid.
Zero need or reason to try and foment imaginary toxicity/drama at a time when the team is already dealing with enough.
Pistons catching strays left n right
Hey, maybe it’ll work, but that’s passive aggressive leadership.
Curry is a great guy by all accounts, but is he a leader?
Draymond has incredible potential to lead, but a leader cannot be volatile.
And Kerr? He seemed to be great at all of this 8 years ago, but now he seems like he doesn’t know how to balance his leadership with that of his vets? What’s this team’s message? What are we striving for? What’s our motivation?
Our current leadership doesn’t seem to know how to answer any of that.
Maybe we should be drafting actual bigs. Imo, saric is not helping us. We don’t need another three point shooter, we need a big. He spends more time trying to get three than he does getting boards
Looks like Steph just entered his villain arc.
I believe the lack of a secondary option on offense affected Curry’s defense. He works so hard to get open, sometimes requiring a lot of effort as he is constantly getting doubled.
You only do this if you expect people to be traded and you divide the locker room. It’s old guys versus new all over again.
warriors defensive rating rankings since curry came into the NBA
2009/10 – 29th
2010/11 – 26th
2011/12 – 27th
2012/13 – 14th
2013/14 – 4th
2014/15 – 1st
2015/16 – 5th
2016/17 – 2nd
2017/18 – 11th
2018/19 – 13th
2019/20 – 26th
2020/21 – 5th
2021/22 – 1st
2022/23 – 17th
2023/24 – 25th
Old small and slow. Of course we suck at defense
Hate to say it but Curry needs to improve his defense and those sloppy turnovers