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Throwing Ex-Teammate Kevin Durant To The Wolves, Draymond Green Defends Bradley Beal Amid Massive Scrutiny

Published 04/29/2024, 10:46 PM EDT

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There is no better time to be a basketball fan than right now, as the NBA Playoffs series currently play host to some of the most dominating NBA teams of the tournament. Unfortunately, one team from the series that has now been removed from contention is the Kevin Durant-led Phoenix Suns after they lost four consecutive games against the Minnesota Timberwolves. During the last game, star player Bradley Beal came under fire for scoring just 9 points in 31 minutes. Amidst the scrutiny, the player has now found a voice of support in an unlikely ally: Draymond Green.

A few hours ago, the Golden State Warriors star released another episode of his highly viewed show. He defended Beal’s performance by stating that the latter was too busy trying to guard Anthony Edwards. It could not give him the opportunity to score more. This, according to the podcaster, was a role that he wanted his former teammate Kevin Durant to undertake.

“Kevin Durant needed to go take on that challenge,” said Green. “One of the things that I did say when I gave the reason was Kevin should not focus on offense, Kevin should lock in on Anthony Edwards on the defensive end, lay a role on the offensive end, get what comes to him on the offensive end……. but lock in on the defensive side of the ball”.

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Draymond Green’s statement was a throwback to one of his previous episodes, in which he stated that Kevin Durant should be the one guarding Anthony Edwards instead of some other Suns player. His reasoning was that Durant couldn’t be a reliable player on the offensive end because “once you get to that age, you can only do it in spurts” and that the player “can’t give you that 48 minutes straight every night”. Unfortunately, Durant does not seem to have taken his ex-teammate’s advice and left Beal to fend off the Timberwolves’ highest scorer.

“Brad Bill is so focused on trying to take Anthony Edwards out the game, legs gone, can’t hit a shot, starts spiralling fast, foul trouble” Green continued. “He went down swinging, and I gotta respect that”.

Anthony Edwards had fun sending Kevin Durant “Home”

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Whether Draymond Green was right in claiming that Kevin Durant should have been the one guarding Anthony Edwards, there is no denying the fact that the latter player played phenomenally during the playoffs. By maintaining an average score of 31 points, 8 rebounds and 6.3 assists in the four games, he led the Timberwolves to their consecutive wins and will now lead them in the next stage of the tournament. More than the wins, however, the shooting guard seems to have taken more pride in the fact that he was able to achieve this against someone he has been watching since childhood.

After finishing the recent game with his 40 points, Ant-Man spoke to the crew over at NBA on TNT. He said that going up against Kevin Durant was something different since he held the utmost respect for his offensive prowess. I watch every last one of his games since I’ve been about 5,” said Edwards. “I love that guy man, I’m excited to play with him this summer, talk a little trash let him know I sent him home.”

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Thanks to Edwards and other members of the elite roster, the Timberwolves will now head to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2004. While it remains to be seen who they will be going up against, we can definitely expect some more insight from Draymond Green going forward.

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Written by:

Ashmit Kumar

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Ashmit is an NBA Content Analyst at EssentiallySports. Having started as a writer, he specializes in writing captivating stories that include the elements of in-depth coverage of teams, players and more. Due to his knowledge of the technicalities of the sport, Ashmit writes perspective pieces that provide well-researched analysis.
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Edited by:

Jayant Chhabra