Kawakami: The NBA is sick and tired of Draymond Green, which should get the Warriors thinking about an exit

Is the NBA trying to give the Warriors a way to get rid of Draymond Green sooner rather than much later and many millions of dollars down the road? And if this is at all true, should the Warriors start to think about it?

My answers: Probably yes on both questions.

There are only so many times the NBA can throw a lightning bolt at Draymond using the words “repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts” before everybody gets the larger point. Or more specifically, before owner Joe Lacob, general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. and all other Warriors stakeholders pick up on the very, extremely, extravagantly emphasized theme.

Repeated references to a repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts. One last April, when Draymond stomped on Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis’ chest during the playoffs and got a one-game suspension. Another reference a few weeks ago, when Draymond grabbed Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert in a necklock and dragged him several feet. Which got him a five-game suspension.

And on Wednesday, Draymond was hit with an indefinite suspension for striking Phoenix’s Jusuf Nurkić in Tuesday’s loss, which included the third time in seven months that NBA executive vice president Joe Dumars, one of Green’s childhood idols, used a version of those words in a stern press release.

There is a trend here. It’s recurring more rapidly and louder every day, and it is not likely headed toward an upbeat conclusion for anybody involved. The NBA is giving out increasingly severe signals. Draymond either isn’t listening to them or doesn’t have the temperament to pay them heed on the court. And the cycle is speeding up.

It’s more than obvious that the NBA is sick of dealing with Draymond. The league has been sick of this for a while. And this suspension feels like a less-than-subtle message to the Warriors: Maybe you weren’t sick of him when he piled up enough flagrant foul points in the 2016 playoffs to get suspended for Game 5 of the NBA Finals and possibly cost you the championship, maybe you weren’t sick of him after he berated Kevin Durant in November 2018, maybe you weren’t sick of him when he punched Jordan Poole in last season’s training camp, and maybe you weren’t sick of him even after the Gobert wrestling move and resulting suspension.

But will the Warriors get sick of dealing with the NBA being this utterly sick and tired of Draymond? And suspending him? And waiting to suspend him again and again and again?

The Warriors have played 23 games so far this season. Draymond has played in 15 of them, been ejected from three of those, and has been suspended for five games and counting. If this suspension lasts 10 games, Draymond will have been suspended or ejected from 18 of the Warriors’ first 33 games. And he’s only two more flagrant-foul points away from another automatic one-game suspension with more coming with every two more flagrant points.

The Warriors signed Draymond to a four-year, $100 million extension last summer, which I very much understood, even after the Poole punching. There are many reasons to believe in Draymond. He usually apologizes for every transgression, and he has been a pillar on the basketball court for this team. He’s been very close to the ideal teammate for Stephen Curry and, as I always say, what’s good for Curry is good for the Warriors in almost every way.

But however long this suspension lasts, the league seems to be setting up a potential season-long suspension the next time he crosses the line. And after that, would it even matter how long the suspension after that goes? For anybody else, you could say that the threat of dousing a future Hall-of-Fame career at 33 would be more than enough to end this kind of behavior. But for Draymond? I don’t think anybody, not even Draymond, can say that the threat of career implosion would halt any of this. It hasn’t before.

I like Draymond. I’ve always had good conversations with him. He’s an incredibly entertaining speaker and has been a great player. Today, I’ve been asked what the Warriors or the league can do to change him. And I’ve said the same thing I’m saying now: He’s not changing. He didn’t when he was in his 20s and he flicked LeBron James’ groin in Game 4 of the 2016 NBA finals, though the league had expressly warned him about any similar conduct after he kicked the Thunder’s Steven Adams in the groin in the previous round. He’s not going to change now. Even with the league holding a sword over his head. The stubbornness has made him great. It’s also leading him on a path out of this league if things don’t change. Again: The league is saying he must change and also that the league knows he probably won’t.

It would shock me if Draymond is able to avoid more incidents in the future. Or even in the first few weeks once he’s back from this suspension. After the next incident, it’s guaranteed that the NBA response would be swift and thunderous.

Would the Warriors even care at that point? If he’s suspended for the rest of this season, his contract essentially comes off the books and luxury-tax roll. Then the Warriors could look to get out of the contract, trade him for pennies on the dollar, or just release him and take the financial hit. Just because it isn’t worth dealing with him or the league’s frustration with him much longer. The Warriors will flat-out be a lesser basketball team without Draymond. But they already will be without him for huge chunks of this season with no way of knowing when he might depart again.

I want to say right here that I’m not campaigning for the Warriors to end their relationship with Draymond right now. I’m saying that at some near point, the league is going to make it almost impossible to keep going with it, and that’s mostly Draymond’s fault. And the Warriors’ fault for excusing him so often.

I thought the suspension for the Sabonis incident was too harsh, because every playoff game is so valuable, but I understood what the league was trying to communicate to Draymond. I totally understood the suspension for the Gobert incident, which was wildly reckless and dangerous behavior by Draymond in the wake of all the league’s signals. And I didn’t see the kind of intent in the Nurkić incident that would, to me, qualify it as a penultimate straw.

But again, the league’s warnings have been crystal clear, and Draymond’s actions, however you view his intent on Tuesday, are just as unmistakable. You can play aggressive basketball without striking opponents in the face or chest or groin. Other players manage to avoid all of this every game.

The Warriors have also at times over the life of the dynasty thought about life without Draymond. They drafted James Wiseman in 2020 and Jonathan Kuminga in 2021 partly to visualize a future athletic frontline that did not include Draymond. The Warriors, in the back of their minds, knew that they would need other options, eventually. But Draymond was too good and too important to move aside. He was good enough last season to outlast Poole.

He’s not going to outlast the NBA, though. He’s not going to outlast a commissioner who surely is fuming about the headlines Draymond continues to produce for this league. Draymond’s not going to outlast his own actions or the NBA’s warnings. But now I think the NBA is communicating to the Warriors more than Draymond, because at this point Draymond seems unreachable. The NBA is looking right at Lacob, Dunleavy, head coach Steve Kerr and even Curry and letting them know that if the Warriors continue to count on Draymond Green, they will continue to be let down. They have to decide when enough is enough. And the league is waiting for an answer. Not from Draymond, but from the Warriors.

(Photo: Rick Scuteri / Associated Press)