Draymond Green is definitely a controversial player due to his play style and personality. He has been criticized a lot in recent memory due to his outburst during a Golden State Warriors practice session where he ended up punching Jordan Poole.
There have been some suggestions that Draymond Green may want to leave the Golden State Warriors. In fact, NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith stated that Draymond Green believes this is his last year with Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, noting that Green wants to join the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I can tell you right now, [Andrew] Wiggins and Poole are a priority,” Smith said. “I can tell you right now that Draymond Green is expecting this to be his last year in Golden State. Now, he wanna be a Laker. He ain’t gonna tell anybody that, but don’t think I don’t know. He’d prefer to be a Laker if he gotta leave Golden State. But he looking for a payday. He gonna get $25 million this year. He got a player option for $24 million next year. The Warriors are probably hoping he don’t opt in because they’d have to pay him on top of the cats that they know that they gotta pay in Poole and Wiggins.”
There is no doubt that it would be insane to see Draymond Green leave the Golden State Warriors, as he is a franchise legend who won four championships with the franchise. However, it looks as though if Draymond Green does leave the Warriors, it won’t be right now.
The Warriors Are Not Trying To Trade Draymond Green Right Now
An NBA executive who recently spoke to Sean Deveney of Heavy.com claimed that the Golden State Warriors are not “pushing” to trade Draymond Green right now, also claiming that Green is a “tough guy to trade”.
“He’s a tough guy to trade because you don’t know what he will be asking for contract-wise, and he has a skill set that fits what they do but not what everyone around the league does,” one Western Conference executive said. “They’re not out there pushing to move him right now. Never say never, but it would be pretty shocking if they changed course on that.”
It is not easy to trade away a player who is as identifiable with the Warriors as Green has become.
“It would send a tough message to Steph and Klay,” the exec said. “To an extent, you want to keep those guys happy even if Draymond can be a headache for you, and they would not be happy about trading him.”
It remains to be seen if the Golden State Warriors will eventually end up finding a suitable trade for Draymond Green. However, it doesn’t seem as though they are actively making calls about him right now.
Hopefully, we do see Draymond Green reconcile with the team in the future. While this incident with Jordan Poole has clearly created tension between him and the team, he could potentially find a way to make up for it going forward.
