Draymond Green had an eventful summer to say the least. He was suspended from Game 5 of the NBA finals for an accumulation of multiple incidents involving other’s neither regions, he got arrested for a allegedly assaulting a college student in Michigan and capped it off by accidentally sending out an embarrassing snapchat all of his followers.
Before training camp, Green spoke with head coach Steve Kerr and said that he wanted to learn for his mistakes and grow as a person as the upcoming season approached. Kerr joined John Lund on Tuesday afternoon, and said that Draymond has made good on what he said, citing that the All-Star power forward as matured both on and off the court.
“We talked about it this past summer,” Kerr said. “He said he really wanted to grow and kind of learn from some of his mistakes and you always want to hear somebody say that, but you really want to see them do it. He’s backed it up and even in the locker room, behind the scenes, he’s just been really mature and he’s been a great leader, and I just think he’s found a nice kind’ve groove and a nice balance to keeping that edge but growing and just being a little wiser from day to day. I’m really proud of him for it, he’s been brilliant.
Despite a slow start, Green has also been brilliant on the court for the Warriors as of late, accepting a limited role from a scoring standpoint, and excelling in all other areas, especially on the defensive end. Kerr remembers exactly when he saw things starting to click.
“I thought the third game of the year in Phoenix, something clicked for him,” Kerr said. The first two games I could see the frustration on Draymond’s face and then the third game it was almost like screw it, I’m just going to go out and defend and do whatever I have to do to help us win. Since that point he’s been phenomenal at both ends, and other than points he leads our team in just about every category: assists, rebounds, blocks, steals. So he’s doing everything as always and its come also with a more balanced approach in terms of his emotion.”
“He’s cut back on the tirades and the anger and he’s found a balance. I think it’s fantastic.”
Listen to the full interview below.