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The Golden State Warriors may have failed to qualify for the 2024 NBA playoffs, but the presence of Draymond Green has loomed large nonetheless due to his appearances on TNT's Inside the NBA. Green has fully embraced his inner hater, as he has been rather unforgiving in his criticism of Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert.
In Game 5, however, Green was not in Minneapolis for Game 5 of the Timberwolves' 2024 Western Conference Finals clash against the Dallas Mavericks. That did not deter Green at all from keeping tabs on the game. Two hours after the scheduled tip-off at 8:30 PM E.T., the fiery Warriors forward tweeted out his reaction to the Mavericks' 124-103 demolition of the Timberwolves to end their season despite being mid-flight.
“WiFi just came on, on my flight after a while in the air… OUCH!! 😳😳😳 lol wow,” Green wrote on his official Twitter (X) account.
Draymond Green has been a thorn in the Timberwolves' side all season long; the Warriors forward even got into it with fans in Target Center after Game 2, with Green yelling out that Rudy Gobert sucks as a response to the fans' vitriol towards him.
Green may not admit it point blank, but his disdain for Gobert, and by extension, the Timberwolves, knows no bounds. And love him or hate him, the Warriors forward will be unabashedly himself.
Draymond Green goes on a hate tour
The easy clapback towards Draymond Green's tour of hatred against Rudy Gobert and the Timberwolves is that the Warriors failed to reach their goals for the 2023-24 season, thanks in large part to Green's inability to hold his emotions in check.
Green was already on edge to begin the season, as he racked up quite a few technical fouls for some incessant complaining and some questionable hits. But it was the Timberwolves that began to bring out the worst in the Warriors forward. As one would recall, on November 14, 2023, Green was ejected after just two minutes of game time after he put Gobert in a choke hold in an attempt to break up an altercation involving his teammate Klay Thompson.
The league suspended Green for five games for that offense, but it didn't take long for the Warriors forward to land in hot water once more. In only his sixth game since his return from suspension, Green then took Jusuf Nurkic out with a violent-looking hit. Green then drew an indefinite suspension that forced him to miss 16 games.
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It's quite odd that Green has beef with rim-protecting centers who hail from Europe. Green's animosity with Gobert is what's fresher in fans' minds, but the Warriors forward has been butting heads with Nurkic for quite some time now as well, with the two trading barbs earlier in the playoffs following the Phoenix Suns' first-round exit.
What's next for the Warriors?
The Warriors are in a weird spot in that they are too good of a team to willingly embrace a youth movement; for as long as Stephen Curry is on the team, there is a responsibility for the Dubs front office to surround him with as good of a roster as possible. However, they have few avenues to improve the team. They have been unwilling to part ways with their youngsters, preventing them from acquiring All-Star-caliber players who could help them win now.
Moreover, the Warriors' payroll remains burdensome; even if they don't guarantee Chris Paul's $30 million contract for next season, they will still remain over the salary cap. And that's without re-signing Klay Thompson, the Hall of Fame shooting guard who's been part of the Dubs' DNA over the past 13 seasons, who is a legitimate flight risk in free agency.
The Dubs could decide to trade away Andrew Wiggins, but that will leave them very thin on the wing. They could jettison Draymond Green, but he is the team's heart and soul, their defensive and playmaking anchor who elevates the team on both ends of the floor and gets the best out of Stephen Curry (and vice versa).
The Warriors won't have their first-round pick in this year's draft thanks to the Andre Iguodala salary dump in 2019, but they will have all their first-rounders from 2025 to 2029. This will give them plenty of draft assets to swing a win-now trade if they want to; teams may want to bet on the Dubs being bad in the near future, so those picks will have very good value.
Stephen Curry, however, is 36 years old. Father Time catches up to all. Thus, the Warriors will have to debate whether or not it's worth going all-in on one last run or whether it's time to face the music and accept that they might be a middle of the road team now.
