Draymond Green says Cavs playing great basketball after Richard Jefferson’s remarks

Richard Jefferson of the Cleveland Cavaliers recently responded to Draymond Green’s comments about the level of competition the Cavs have faced. Green, who plays for the rival Golden State Warriors, responded by saying he thinks the Cavs are playing great basketball.

Richard Jefferson’s comments to Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green echo the sentiments of NBA fans worldwide and certainly fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Green, who said that he finds the Cleveland Cavaliers’ postseason run boring because the Cavs’ opponents aren’t competing hard enough, has found his comments met with laughter. Not like “laughing with you” laughter. “Laughing at you” laughter.

Jefferson rightly pointed out the Golden State Warriors have benefited quite a bit from facing teams when they weren’t at full strength. In the 2014-2015 season, when the Warriors won the NBA title, they had the benefit of playing the Memphis Grizzlies sans Mike Conley in Game 6, an elimination game for the Grizzlies.

That season they also infamously faced LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Unfortunately, Love didn’t play in any of the six games of that series and Irving missed the final five. Without two of the Cavs’ Big Three, the Warriors still managed to lose two games against the Cavs and they only won by 8 points in Game 6, an elimination game for the Cavs.

The difference that Mike Conley, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love could have made in those two series is exponential. In fact, the Warriors could very well have lost before or in the NBA Finals had they had to play the Grizzlies and Cavs when they were at full strength.

In fact, the Warriors did lost in the NBA Finals when the Cavs were at full strength.

This season, it’s more notable that George Hill was out for the Jazz than that Jusuf Nurkic was out for the Blazers but both injuries were big.

Hill’s length, three-point shooting and savvy could have made the difference in a series where the Jazz kept a couple of the games close with Raul Neto and Dante Exum running the shot for them. Nurkic, whose passing, rebounding and post play could have gave the Warriors fits inside, may not have gotten the Blazers a win in a series against the Warriors but he would have made it harder for the Warriors to win. Especially with Kevin Durant missing two games in the series.

So while the Cleveland Cavaliers are playing competition that looks inferior to James (perhaps because they’re not a 73-9 team that added a former MVP in free agency because it’s been too hard to beat Cleveland the last two seasons), at least the Cavs have played healthy teams this postseason.

Earlier this week, the Warriors’ resident Kinesiology specialist told ESPN’s Chris Haynes that he thinks the Boston Celtics Kelly Olynyk is a dirty player and he “doesn’t respect players like that”. Based on his affinity for kicking and punching in any time but a fight, Green’s comments showed a player blind to his own reputation.

Those comments caused more of that “laughing at you” type of laughter.

For the record, Green told ESPN’s Chris Haynes that “Cleveland is playing great basketball” and that he didn’t say he was disappointed in the other team’s play.

However, Green did say this to ESPN’s Chris Haynes:

"“I like to watch good basketball. When you watch Cleveland play, you’re only watching one side of the good basketball. That’s kind of weak.”"

For a guy that doesn’t know he’s a dirty player himself, it’s not surprising that he thinks his words have been twisted.

Related Story: Draymond Green is wrong, the Cavs just make it look easy

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