Draymond Green became the face of the Warriors’ veterans who have concerns with the young role players and their commitment to winning. While Jimmy Butler was a bit colder about the situation, Stephen Curry indicated his optimism about fixing the tension in the locker room.
While the outside world might view this situation as a conflict, Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr, in fact, sees a silver lining in the matter. He believes that the veterans, especially Draymond Green, voicing their concerns, is a positive sign for the team morale and their path to fix the issues.
Steve Kerr appeared on the radio show, ‘Willard and Dibbs,’ where he spoke about supporting Draymond Green for voicing his concerns with the team.
“Draymond is our emotional and spiritual leader. When he says stuff like that, it’s good for us…Draymond always has his finger on the pulse of what’s going on with the team. He can be dramatic in the way he expresses it, like he was the other night, but it’s good for us.”
“He needed to put our team on edge. It wasn’t just a few comments to the media. Draymond has addressed the group a couple of times over the last week, so we’re already on this, and Draymond is on it.”
“If he says it to the media, there’s method to his madness. He knows the rest of the guys are going to see it, and he wants them to see it,” concluded Kerr.
While neither of the veterans named any specific players, rumors have suggested that Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski are the two players who are most likely to be the ones being spoken about.
Kuminga is prone to criticism for wanting out of the team and, resultantly refusing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team just to show other franchises what he is capable of doing.
Moreover, since Podziemski claimed earlier this summer that he wants to replace Stephen Curry as the face of the franchise eventually, he wants to prove his worth to the team as well.
While none of these sentiments may resonate with the Warriors locker room, it seems as though the veterans and the coaching staff are confident that the young role players can bounce out of their recent slump in form.
Curry was asked after the Warriors’ game against the Spurs, where he would rate the locker room tension on a range of one to ten. And the fact that he said only four shows that the franchise is confident about recovering from their slump to start the season and eventually figure out the team dynamics.
