The Dallas Mavericks’ chance to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves must be very important to Draymond Green.
Following Sunday’s Game 3, the Golden State Warriors star—who is a member of the TNT studio crew for the Western Conference Finals—went viral due to an on-air encounter he shared with Mavs big man Daniel Gafford. The TNT crew was interviewing Gafford after he scored a and-one slam and blocked a late jumper to seal Dallas’ victory over Minnesota.
Green took some time to give advice to Gafford during the segment.
“I don’t have a question, I just want to give you something,” said Green. “Any time you catch the ball in that pocket and you’re not comfortable going forward, you got DHO [dribble handoff] that way to that guard on that side [or] you got uphill back to the guy that just passed [it to] you. Then that puts you in a roll situation, [and] you [can] get a dunk.
“So if you feel uncomfortable, just know you can go to that,” Green added. “And I think you’ve been doing a great job. It’s beautiful seeing you play with the basketball.”
Gafford normally plays as a traditional pick-and-roll lob threat for the Mavs guards. But when defenses trap the ball-handler after Gafford sets the pick, he often finds himself in the situation of having to receive the pass around the free-throw line and make a play. Gafford will sometimes then dribble towards the basket and risk either traveling or otherwise losing the ball.
Meanwhile, Green is very well-versed in what to do out of those situations as he has spent over a decade now making plays out of the short roll when the defense doubles Warriors teammate Steph Curry off the screen. If Gafford is not comfortable reading the situation and finding the open man like Green often does, he has guards on either end of the floor that he can hand off the ball to, creating another makeshift pick-and-roll where Gafford can end up at the rim for a dunk.
That is the essence of what Green was telling Gafford there. Of course, Green’s advice gave rise to another issue — an active NBA player openly providing tips to only one team in an ongoing playoff series.
Green is not even trying to give off the illusion of impartiality since he has already taken shots at both Timberwolves fans and even some Timberwolves players during the series. So while that was a nice pointer from a pure basketball standpoint, it may have ultimately been an inappropriate one for Green to give as a member of the media.
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