Draymond Green says you don’t put draft picks around all stars in reference to Washington but also reflects the Warriors currently: pic.twitter.com/pSFqihbhSN
— Alex. ? (@Dubs4O8) June 3, 2021
Draymond Green said at the end of the season that he will be heavily involved in the Warriors’ offseason retooling of their roster for next year. His appearance on ‘Inside the NBA’ Wednesday night gave us an idea of what he’s been saying in those conversations with Bob Myers and Steve Kerr.
Green tipped his hand on how the Warriors should be approaching the 2021 offseason when he gave his take on how the Washington Wizards should approach theirs.
“If you’re not committing to (Russell Westbrook) long term, Brad (Beal) may have something to say about that,” Green said on TNT. “Because who are you bringing in to replace Russ? Because Russ isn’t an easy guy to replace.”
Kenny Smith responded that the Wizards could use a draft pick or two to replace Westbrook.
“If that is the case and you are bringing back draft picks, that doesn’t help Bradley Beal who is going into Year 10 of his career,” Green said. “I think, number one, they have to decide whether they are committed to Russ long-term. And if they are, as y’all said, then it is time to go get other veterans. But getting draft picks and placing them next to two All-Stars, that don’t work.”
Ah, there it is. The Warriors have at least one, and maybe two, lottery picks in this year’s draft depending on how the lottery shakes out. Whether Green thinks Golden State should try and package those picks for an asset, or make the selections and add veterans in free agency, is up for debate. However, Green’s (assumed) belief that the Warriors need to add veterans this offseason is one we heard from Myers just last week.
“I do know we need veterans, and the one area I can say without kind of equivocating is we have to add some veterans in free agency,” Myers said. “We just have to. We’re well aware of that. We’ll try to do it. We actually tried to do it last year with a few guys, so it wasn’t as if that mindset didn’t exist. It doesn’t matter, nobody cares, but we were in second place with quite a few guys that I think were veteran, could have helped, but they chose to go to a team after Klay’s injury that they thought they could win it more, and that’s fair to them.”