Warriors forward Draymond Green has been fined $25K for “directing obscene language toward a fan,” the NBA announced (via Twitter). The incident occurred at the beginning of the fourth quarter during Golden State’s loss to Dallas on Tuesday.
The four-time All-Star is averaging 9.0 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 7.1 APG and 1.0 SPG on .602/.320/.697 shooting through 20 games (30.7 MPG) for the defending champions. His percentage from the field (.602) is a career-high.
Green can become a free agent in 2023 if he declines his $27.6M player option for next season.
Here’s more on the 11-11 Warriors:
- Second-year forward Jonathan Kuminga had a mini-breakout in Tuesday’s loss, playing 26 minutes and recording 14 points (on 6-of-8 shooting), 10 rebounds, two blocks and a team-high plus-21. Head coach Steve Kerr was extremely pleased with his effort, per Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. “Best game I’ve ever seen JK play,” Kerr told reporters in Dallas, “because everything he did contributed towards making an impact on winning. His defense on Luka (Dončić) was fantastic, he was disciplined, he stayed down, he challenged shots. … He stayed patient offensively, he just took the shots that were there, he knocked down a big 3. JK was fantastic; he’s really coming into his own, and that’s very exciting.”
- As Kawakami details, the reason Kuminga has seen minutes in recent games and Moses Moody and James Wiseman (currently in the G League) have not is that he’s learning that less is more when it comes to his role. He’s playing with energy, defending, moving the ball quickly, not trying to force shots, and has been a willing screener and cutter. Kawakami believes Moody will get another shot at rotation minutes at some point, but he needs to show that he can “make quick decisions, move the ball, defend without fouling and keep the mojo going” in order to regain Kerr’s trust.
- It’s up to Wiseman to dominate in his G League stint to convince the Warriors that he should get another opportunity for playing time, writes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. His performances with Santa Cruz have been mixed thus far, according to Poole, who notes that Golden State’s second unit has stabilized with Green leading the charge alongside reserves Jordan Poole, Donte DiVincenzo, Anthony Lamb, Kuminga and occasionally JaMychal Green. How long Wiseman stays in the G League will be a good indicator of “how hot Wiseman’s competitive fire burns,” per Monte Poole.
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