When the Dennis Schroder and Luka Doncic rivalry took a dramatic turn, you know the guy who is familiar with fists and suspensions was going to weigh in. And Draymond Green had thoughts indeed. The only difference is that we usually get to see a Dray fight on the court with cameras and witnesses. Doncic and Schroder’s scuffle went down behind the scenes. It now has Green, and fans put on their detective hats to get to the bottom of it.

While most are speculating who the instigator is, Green is theorizing why the NBA would hand out a harsh punishment to the Kings’ star. Schroder is suspended for three games in addition to a $291,807 fine. To Green, the disciplinary action suggests that the “attempted” strike reported by the league may not tell the full story.

“They said that Dennis attempted to swing on Luka, and I saw Dennis say ‘attempting’ [on social media] with the eyes, as if he hit Luka,” Green observed during the latest episode of The Draymond Green Show. “It makes you ask the question: well, if he’s getting suspended for three games… I know everyone’s question is probably, ‘Did you really attempt a punch or did you connect on a punch?'”

Green’s skepticism stems from the league’s history with such altercations on and off the court. With that background, he’s implying a three-game suspension is disproportionate to an ‘attempted’ strike. 

The Warriors forward has his own history with the NBA’s disciplinary decisions. He’s acutely familiar with the league office’s stance on contact and intent. So maybe he has a point.

Draymond Green sees what the NBA world is speculating

Draymond Green has served back-to-back suspensions for punching Rudy Gobert and Jusuf Nurkic in 2023, but faced different consequences that didn’t include a suspension for hitting Jordan Poole during a team practice.

He has racked up nine technical fouls this season, the second-highest in the league this year. If he goes up to 16, he could get suspended, a possibility Steve Kerr is vocally against because both have been burned by that rule.

In 2016, Green was suspended for a crucial Game 5 loss to the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals after a non-contact “swipe” at LeBron James. He was retroactively given a flagrant foul over the ones he had accumulated in the playoffs that season. It was the grand total of a season’s worth of drama. So he knows that the league judges these consequences on a case-by-case basis.

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Then he sees Dennis Schroder’s response to the suspension. The NBA claims he was “attempting to strike another player.” But the German guard responded to Shams Charania’s report on the NBA statement with, “Attempting 👀🤣.” Everyone interpreted the emoji eyes for something more than what was said.

Even Green had to comment on it. “What I will say to Dennis is, I got suspended from a game in the NBA Finals and I didn’t connect on anything. So, you know, I don’t know. I think this story is still developing. I think it’s still developing because why would Dennis say ‘attempting’ with the eyes? We’ve heard not much about it; we’ve only heard the report that Deandre Ayton broke it up and that was that.”

As per most reports, Deandre Ayton broke up the fight and took Schroder aside. Even Doncic’s former teammate, Markieff Morris, confirmed it. 

It’s about what happened before Ayton intervened. Did Schroder’s fist already make contact with Doncic’s face by then? Everyone thinks the emojis are an admission of that. Green stops just short of confirming it outright, but he clearly feels so.

Although there’s some delicious irony in the guy with consecutive ejections this season saying, “DS, quit fighting.”

Meanwhile, the NBA community’s focus remains on analyzing the league’s usage of an “attempted” strike.