The Basket Ball Guide – Your Best NBA News Source

Draymond Green: Raptors ‘Wouldn’t Have Stood a Chance’ vs Healthy Kevin Durant

Toronto “wouldn’t have stood a chance” in last summer’s NBA Finals had Kevin Durant been healthy, according to Warriors forward Draymond Green.

Golden State was “unstoppable” with Durant—who suffered a ruptured Achilles against the Raptors in Game 5 of the championship round—says Green, adding that he’s confident they will get back to the mountaintop.

Draymond: “Getting this team back to greatness. A lot of people saying we can’t win without KD — like we didn’t win without KD already. Is it gonna be as easy? Fu*k no. Kevin’s great. But with them two guys I’ve been rolling with … it can get done. And we gonna get it done.” pic.twitter.com/WS8emcc1py
— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) April 23, 2020

Draymond believes KD could’ve pushed for him to get traded if he wanted to remain with the Dubs, and that things truly soured for the two-time NBA Finals MVP when he wasn’t universally recognized as the world’s best player after outdueling LeBron James for the 2017 title.

Per Bleacher Report and NBC Sports Bay Area:

“Once we got Kevin, we were f**king unstoppable,” Green said on the “All the Smoke” podcast. “Even losing last year, Kevin don’t get hurt—you seen the game he came back in Game 5, I looked up, it was like six minutes to go, we had like 40 points in the first quarter—and so they wouldn’t have stood a chance if Kevin didn’t get hurt.”

He then discussed the narrative that KD left the Warriors in free agency because of him:

“This is f**king Kevin Durant we’re talking about. Yeah, I’ve done great things here. But let me tell you this — if Kevin really wanted to be here, all he would have done is went to [GM] Bob [Myers] and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll stay. But Draymond gotta go.’ And guess what — Bob Myers would have called me and said, ‘Draymond, I love you — and I won’t trade you to a bad team — but where do you want to go?’

“So to try to point the finger and say, ‘Oh man, I left because of him.’ Get the f**k outta here. I still love K. His feelings about me may not be the same. But I’ll ride with him for the rest of my life. I got that type of love for that brother. But you ain’t leave because of me. You’re fking Kevin Durant. If you wanted to be here, I would have been out. I would have been long gone.

“And guess who would have understood that? (he points at himself). I understand the business of basketball … he ain’t f**king leave because of me. That’s just the real.”