The Golden State Warriors have been on a bit of a skid of late, losing two straight games to the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers on the road, both without their best players in the lineup. The defense for Golden State wasn't good in either game, letting relatively unknown players like Ryan Rollins torch them.
Speaking of defense, recently, former Warriors NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant had an interesting take about the subject, claiming that offense is more important to winning championships.
Now, Draymond Green is firing back at those claims from his former teammate.
“I think when you look at any team that won a championship, they had a great defense. And if you look at most teams that couldn’t quite get over the hump, oftentimes it’s (because) they couldn’t get stops. That fact still remains, and I think that those who don’t believe it, don’t win. It’s very simple. Those who don’t believe defense is as valuable as it is, they simply just don’t win,” said Green, per Sam Amick of The Athletic.
“If anything, it was like a head-scratcher. I was like, ‘Huh?’ But like I said, on the flip side, it wasn’t that much of a head-scratcher because I know Kevin. …I didn’t see the whole context, so I also know that words get flipped. But I read what he said,” said Green.
An interesting perspective
If Durant truly believes that defense isn't as important to the game as offense, that could explain the putrid effort from his Phoenix Suns team last year on that end of the floor, resulting in them missing the playoffs altogether.
As Green pointed out, nearly every championship team in modern NBA history has at least a good, and in most cases elite, defense, including last year's Oklahoma City Thunder, who staked a claim as one of the best defensive units of all time.
This year, the Warriors will be looking to play some better defense than what they showed in the last two games if they want to reach their ultimate goals for the season.
