Draymond Green on Yaxel Lendeborg’s technical vs. Luka: ‘I thought that was pathetic,’ and he takes the blame for the Warriors’ third quarter

Draymond Green likes to say he came into the NBA talking. So when Yaxel Lendeborg picked up a technical foul for jawing with Luka Doncic in his first NBA game, Green took the rookie’s side, loudly. “For Yaxel to get a tech for saying something on one play that Luka doesn’t say something,” Green said on the latest episode of his podcast, released Friday, “I thought that was pathetic.”

“I am all for a hierarchy in the league,” the Golden State Warriors forward said, adding that veterans earn their standing over years. “But when a guy is mixing it up with a guy and a rookie’s not backing down, you don’t punish the rookie with a technical foul because he’s not backing down from the superstar. There’s enough rookies that back down from superstars.”

Lendeborg, the No. 11 pick, played a team-high 29 minutes and scored 12 points in Wednesday’s 127-105 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, and he said afterward that he had “lost all respect” for Doncic over his complaining to officials. Doncic finished with 28 points but went 1-of-6 when Lendeborg was his primary defender. Green said he would not get into what either player said. “Luka has some choice words for Yax. Yaxel has some choice words for Luka,” he said. “I’m not here to discuss the contents of their conversation.”

The video above is the full episode of The Draymond Green Show, posted on the show’s YouTube channel.

‘I respect the hell out of Yaxel’

Green said what he liked most was that the rookie wanted the assignment. “I respect the hell out of Yaxel for willing to stand toe to toe. I’m going to stand there with you. I’m not going to run away from the matchup. I’m not trying to get switched off of you,” he said, describing the rookie’s mindset. “I’m trying to guard you. I’m picking you up. Oh, you scored. All right. Do it again.”

He also rejected the idea that a first-year player should stay quiet. “Why wouldn’t I talk? And that’s been my mindset from day one coming into this league,” Green said. “I came in talking.” Respect has to be earned in the matchup, he said, not handed over because of what an opponent did to somebody else: “If you want respect from me, earn it from me.”

“So yes, maybe he shouldn’t have said it,” Green added. “I love that he did.” He predicted the rookie’s approach would pay off. “I’ll guarantee you one thing, he keep going toe to toe, regardless of how Luka feels, he gonna have to respect him,” he said. “You may not like him. You may hate his guts, but underneath all that is gonna be a respect as a competitor.” Of Lendeborg’s long-term outlook, he said simply: “I want stock in that guy because that stock’s going to go up.”

‘That falls on me’

Green was harder on himself than on anyone in a Warriors uniform. He said the team knew going in what it needed to fix, with a new offense and a new defense installed over three weeks, and that the real problem was effort after the Lakers’ late second-quarter run. “I think the biggest takeaway from last night is, like, third quarter, it just felt like we weren’t competing anymore,” he said. “And you can never be a team that doesn’t compete no matter what goes on. And I can raise my hand as one of the leaders of the team and say that falls on me.”

“I think ultimately our body language sucked third quarter,” he said. “After the run at the end of the second quarter, it’s like after that, the belief was just kind of lost.” He pointed to how few Warriors have long NBA résumés behind himself, Stephen Curry and Al Horford, and said it is his job to keep a young group from folding when an opponent gets hot. On the court, he said, the fix starts with containing the ball: “Our point of attack defense has to be better. And that’s one through 15,” because “there’s no help for a straight line drive.”

Green also addressed Kristaps Porzingis, who has missed all of camp and the preseason and whom the Warriors have begun exploring trading. He said the news on game day was less a distraction than a reminder. “We’ve gone a whole preseason, training camp and preseason without him. So you’ve kind of just gotten accustomed to the guys who are there,” he said. “I still wish him well. I hope he’s healthy.” Then, he said, “the team got to do what the team got to do, and that’s go play and try to win basketball games.”

LaMelo’s step-back: ‘I don’t think it’s a travel’

In a segment on opening-week overreactions, Green disagreed with the officials’ own review of LaMelo Ball‘s step-back three in Minnesota’s win over Miami. The league’s referee account said Ball traveled. Green said the play hinges on when Ball brings his second hand to the ball. “Once he brings the second hand, he one-two and he’s up,” he said. “In theory, yes. But in the NBA, we really need the other angle to see when that left hand actually gets to the ball.”

“Guys do that running through the lane all the time, where they take an extra step or two, and travels don’t get called,” Green said. “Off the dribble, that ain’t getting called. So I don’t know, man. I think that’s an interesting one. But I don’t think it’s a travel.”

He also defended Ball’s new teammate. Calling Anthony Edwards an MVP after his 45-point opener was an overreaction, Green said, “except I think he can. I do think he’s good enough to do it. And with a point guard like LaMelo where he’s not in charge of playmaking for others anymore, he could just go be a scorer.”

LeBron, Chet and ‘my guy’ Ty Jerome

On Philadelphia’s 106-100 win over the Knicks on ring night, Green said the result did not make the 76ers better than the champions, but he was struck by how LeBron James looked with so much talent around him. “LeBron James will make the same smart play 10 times. Like, he never gets bored with smart plays,” Green said. “If you never stop it, he’ll do the same thing 25 times in a row. That’s the type of discipline that he has.”

He pushed back on the idea that Oklahoma City rookie Aday Mara would take minutes from Chet Holmgren, or that Holmgren is soft. “That guy was a key contributor on the championship team,” Green said. “You’d have a better take saying he was weak than soft.” Holmgren is a power forward and Mara is a center, he said, so “as far as Aday Mara goes, Chet’s minutes are safe.”

He closed with Ty Jerome, his former Warriors teammate, after Jerome’s 45 points in the Memphis Grizzlies‘ opener. Green called it “elite” but said the Most Improved talk could wait: “Let’s not overreact crazy, try to put more and more pressure on my guy after one game, but boy, it was a hell of a game.”

He will see Jerome up close soon. The Warriors host the Grizzlies at Chase Center on Friday at 10 p.m. ET, which is 5 a.m. Saturday in Cairo, in their home opener.