When the altercation between Draymond Green and Rudy Gobert happened, the Minnesota Timberwolves player said that the power forward always performed poorly when Stephen Curry wasn’t around. These words take especial importance because that’s the same argument Jordan Poole used to insult Draymond Green. Remember that journalist Pablo Torre reported that Poole allegedly said Green was Stephen Curry’s expensive backpack. It was clearly meant as an insult as much as Rudy Gobert’s statement was, which was the following: “Every time Steph doesn’t play, he doesn’t want to play without his guy Steph, so he does anything he can to get ejected.”
Let’s take a look at the numbers to see if Rudy Gobert’s statement is true at all. Since 2019, Draymond Green has been ejected a total 11 times while playing for the Golden State Warriors.
In seven of those occassions, Stephen Curry wasn’t able to play the game. But the most interesting piece of this stat is that the very first time he was ejected since then, was due to an altercation against Rusy Gobert when he played for the Utah Jazz. The Frenchman knows what he is talking about because he has been there when Green loses his mind. But there has to be a more specific explanation to why this happens, right?
It is already establishe that Draymond Green likes conflict, he’s been involved in several of them throughout the years. In fact, there is even a video some random Twitter user put together of Draymond Green’s most memorable violent acts during games. But when Stephen Curry plays his game, Green can focus on less confrontational defending because Curry is taking away the pressure. In a sense, Steph makes Green a better player because of how well he plays offense when he is on the court. Gobert is half right because Green has always been this type of player but he doesn’t need to be when Curry is around to save the day.