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Nov 11, 2023; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) dive for the ball during the third quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images

Former Cavalier defends teammate from negative Draymond Green comments

Originally posted on Cleveland Cavaliers on SI
By Cade Cracas | Last updated Sep 21, 2025 6:52 AM ET

From 2015 through 2018, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors met in four straight NBA championships.

While those meetings that came nearly 10 years ago seemed to have fizzled out any rivalries or bad blood, one of the Warriors' cornerstones, Draymond Green, thrust himself back into the negative light in Cleveland. The 35-year-old appeared on streamer Kai Cenat's Twitch stream recently.

When the topic of the G.O.A.T. was brought up, Green made his case for current member of the Los Angeles Lakers and former Cavalier, LeBron James.

Since Green has become more involved in the social media and internet scene as his playing days wind down, he has been a major defender of James. He has not only fought for James in debates on the greatest player of all time, but in simple conversation where James is facing unfair criticism.

To make his case on why James was one of the top players in NBA history, he degraded the play of guard Matthew Dellavedova, who played with the Cavaliers for five seasons. The 2015-16 campaign saw the Cavaliers make it to the NBA finals, with the team winning a championship after being down 3-1.

"Delly [Dellavedova] stinks," Green said on the stream. "He [James] won two games in the NBA Finals with Delly. I got a lot of respect for Delly; he stinks. I respect him. Completely stink."

Dellavedova has not played in the NBA since the 2022-23 season, but still seems to be on the mind of the aging forward.

“To win with guys like that? It’s so hard to do that in this league, bro. MJ [Michael Jordan] wasn’t winning with Matthew Dellavedova," Green said.

Richard Jefferson, a teammate of Dellavedova and current member of the NBA media scene, came out and spoke against the comments from Green on the Road Trippin Podcast.

Jefferson spoke on the character and determination of Dellavedova, who was a defensive staple for the team as they rallied to win the 2016 NBA Finals. He claimed that the undrafted guard played with more heart and guts than any player he had ever seen in the league.

Against the Warriors, Dellavedova helped lock down star guard Stephen Curry and helped lead the defensive charge for the Cavaliers. He was thrust into such a role during the 2015 NBA Finals after guard Kyrie Irving went down with an injury. In Game 2 of that series, he held Curry to 0-of-8 from the field and forced him to committ four turnovers en route to a win.

While it wasn't enough to find a title that season, the Cavaliers would obviously get their hardware the following year.

Dellavedova initially joined the organization after going undrafted in the 2013 NBA Draft. After performing well in the 2013 NBA Summer League, he would go on to sign a two-year, $1.3 million contract. He would go on to sign one more extension with the team after the 2014-15 season before being sent to the Milwaukee Bucks after the Cavaliers' title win in the 2016 offseason.

From being an underdog from Australia, he was able to make an immense impact on a team clawing for its first NBA championship.

This article first appeared on Cleveland Cavaliers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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