Draymond Green, who has plenty of time to podcast during the playoffs with the Warriors season long over, isn’t a Knicks believer.
“In the Eastern Conference, you can get to the conference finals, a la the Atlanta Hawks, by playing like very ‘mid’ teams, so that’s what you all are doing right now,” the Warriors forward said on “The Draymond Green Show” when discussing the Knicks.
“And I think what this is setting y’all up for is what happened to the Atlanta Hawks three years ago when they made the conference finals, and they never got back.
“…Another team that did this just to give you perspective was the Portland Trail Blazers years ago when they had Al-Farouq Aminu and Allen Crabbe, all those guys went to the conference finals and we swept them pretty much without Stephen Curry.
“Then Portland ran off and paid all of those guys because they thought they had a team that had a chance and it was a fluke and that is what the Knicks are setting y’all up for. It’ll probably be another 15 years of misery and we’ll all sit around at laugh at Knicks fans with their delusion because that’s just what happens.”
The Warriors are coming off a disappointing season. They went 46-36, finishing as the 10th seed in the Western Conference and were crushed 118-94 by the Kings in the play-in game on April 16.
Green was in the middle of the team’s downfall, having been suspended during the regular season for consistent cheap shots against opposing players.
The Knicks don’t have a lot in common with the Trail Blazers in 2019, aside from having a ball-dominant score-first point guard (Jalen Brunson/Damian Lillard).
However, there’s far more to like about the Knicks’ long-term outlook.
For starters, most of the Knicks, aside from wing defender OG Anunuboy, are under contract for at least one more season, with Brunson on an extremely team-friendly contract for two more years.
Brunson’s contract gives the Knicks cap flexibility in the future and they possess significant draft capital to unload in a trade if they see fit.
Portland traded their 2020 NBA Draft first-round draft pick and did not have a 2021 first-round pick either.
The Knicks got past the 76ers in a dramatic six-game series in the first round and are now up 2-0 on the Pacers in the second round.
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They have gotten this far without Julius Randle, the team’s No. 2 scoring option, and are now without center Mitchell Robinson and sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic for the remainder of the postseason.
Friday’s Game 3 in Indiana will be their first postseason game without Anunuboy, who suffered a hamstring strain at the end of the Knicks’ 130-121 Game 2 win.
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