The Rookie Report #5: A new meaning to 'Choke Artist'
That was crazy to watch.
No getting around it, the headline this week is Draymond Green unnecessarily but understandably inserting himself into a conflict on the court. A minute and change into the game against the Timberwolves, things diverted from a typical NBA Tuesday night, and not because it was an in season tournament game.
Jaden McDaniels grabbed Klay Thompsons jersey, and Klay hugged in tight and grabbed McDaniels arm, and both refused to let go as they had a tug of war. Rudy Gobert, among other Timberwolves players, goes to intercede in the skirmish. He gets his hands on Klay, and pulls him back, and, for a moment, has his arm bent at the elbow underneath Klay’s neck.
Then, Draymond Green hit the RKO out of nowhere on Gobert, getting the seven footer in a headlock. This is playing on top of Draymond’s past antics like stomping on Sabonis, kicking his leg out on box outs to ‘accidently’ hit guys in the groin area, and punching his own teammate Jordan Pool at practice.
I don’t hate it though, in my opinion Draymond was clearly defending Klay. People are making a lot off the fact that he went for Rudy instead of Mike Conley or Karl-Anthony Towns, but the fact is Rudy Gobert was the only Timberwolves player outside of McDaniels to put hands on Klay. Rudy had no cause to do that, and he would ultimately be fined $25,000 for his role in the fracas.
That is the same amount the NBA fined McDaniels and Klay for, but Draymond, due in part to being Draymond and all the history I mentioned above, got suspended for 5 games. That brings me to the second reason I don’t hate it. With this, we will finally get to see an unlocked TJD. With the Warriors big rotation down to Looney, Kuminga, Šarić, and Trayce, there will be moments that he gets his chance to shine.
We already saw a few flashes of it in the last week, mostly defensively. He started the week off by decisively showing he is an NBA player by scoring 28 points in the G league game, along with 12 rebounds. He then came in at garbage time to assist in an ultimately fruitless rally against the Cavaliers, but you wouldn’t know it just looking at the stat sheet. Trayce was 1-2 on his lone free throw attempt for the night, finishing with One point, but he was +4 on the plus and minus, which was nice.
He got even less run against the Timberwolves on Monday, but had a nice fake out move on Rudy Gobert to get an easy bucket.in one minute, he was +6 in the game, so I did expect him to see more playing time on Wednesday, but nothing could have prepared me for the conflict at the start.
He played 12 minutes, got two points, two rebounds, and three assists but it was the other rookie, Brandon Podziemski who shined. It was the breakout game for the Santa Clara Star, who showed a resolute toughness in being elevated to the pivotal back up point guard role for the night. The Warriors ultimately lost 104-101, but the fact that it was that close when all three all stars were out really speaks to the potential of the Warriors bench. Now enjoy a selection of good defense before I wrap up.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Warriors, who are playing tonight and Saturday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder are young and long, and will look to try and make the Warriors pay for the lack of size on the roster. I hope that means its TJD’s turn to have a rookie break out game.
A little housekeeping, Thanksgiving style
As I get more in the swing of things with these weekly recaps, I am getting closer to the ideal form for this blog. I don’t wish to focus too much on game breakdowns, and will only be doing them going forward if something significant in relation to this blog happens. I really appreciate all the views and feedback I have received from doing this. I only anticipated writing this for fun so as not to annoy my NBA group chat with too many TJD-centric posts, so the feedback has been a pleasant surprise. (didn’t work btw, I am still texting in all caps any time TJD does anything).
I want to thank everyone for reading this, even you. Especially you. I also want to shout out the best and only source for my clips- Joe Viray. Joe is a writer who inspired me to start this blog, and he posts game clips with frightening speed. If you enjoy what I write, check him out because he is way better at writing about basketball than I am. You can find his work and links by clicking here.
Did that win you over? Subscribe now so I can get a little dopamine rush as I look at the numbers a a way of thanking me for thanking you. Its the reason for the season, after all.
And, as always, a tweet to leave you on:
