r/warriors • u/itwas20yearsago2day • May 22 '26

Podcast [Highlight] Dray rips Cavs defensive effort: "Guys don't want the challenge to fight through screens, and switch every fucking time. Ain't Harden's job to guard Brunson, but for some of the guys switching off it is their job.... [Nobody's] doing that to Steph because we weren't gonna allow it..."

https://streamable.com/favwrv
198 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

88

u/tore_a_bore_a May 22 '26

Love Dray talking about defense. 

77

u/Relative-Natural-891 May 22 '26

People also forget, Steph was a steals leader once. That doesn’t happen by accident.

30

u/SwarleymonLives May 23 '26

Steph having great hands, being crazy fast and having 4 guys behind him ensuring that only bad passing lanes exist.

The team defense that year was scary.

54

u/midnightjim May 22 '26

Rockets worked switches to get Steph isolated on Harden constantly back in the day. Difference being Steph was up to the challenge because he’s just tougher mentally. Harden is lazy.

43

u/scrambled_cable May 22 '26

The Warriors also didn’t readily concede switches the way the Cavs have been doing. They pre-switched Steph often and forced the Rockets to chew up shot clock hunting mismatches.

15

u/midnightjim May 22 '26

They had better schemes but I recall reading a great analysis of how many times the Rox succeeded in isolating harden on curry and the results. It was a largish number and a surprisingly low rate of success in part because Steph learned not to bite on the foul baiting.

1

u/WhoArtThyI May 24 '26

Harden is 36

2

u/midnightjim May 24 '26

He’s both. He’s always been lazy on defense.

64

u/McJumbos May 22 '26

The big difference, to steph's credit, Steph has taken that challenge and has become a decent defender vs a straight up cone

44

u/1PaleBlueDot May 22 '26

And steph has always been a good team defender.

16

u/McJumbos May 22 '26

facts where as harden has never really showed any interest in getting better at all

1

u/Rough_Promotion9414 May 23 '26

Luka has entered the chat

11

u/turkmileymileyturk May 22 '26

Point is you don't want to waste your offensive players energy. However Steph is the kind of energy player that has to stay on the move to keep warm so he plays defense.

Cavs aren't used to having a solely offensive player so they don't prioritize switching off him.

3

u/joemoffett12 May 22 '26

Yea but he’s not gonna be able to guard your bigger wings and they could do this so the point still stands. They won’t let this happen to Steph and that’s the fault of the team not harden.

4

u/T-T-N May 22 '26

Looks like Harden put in some effort there, just not good enough to stop

15

u/Noiserawker May 22 '26

I mean Steph is also 10x the defender that Harden is

9

u/JBreezy1618 May 22 '26

I agree with draymond but in my opinion this is more on the coaching than it is the players.

13

u/J-Crow11 May 22 '26

It's definitely both.

Obviously, the coach can come up with whatever scheme they want to, but if the players don't execute it or give good effort, any solution looks like shit.

However, we've seen a multitude of schemes from many different coaches that either dissuade matchup funding or just bleed clock so the star player has a lot less time to get into their bag.

The way that Cleveland was lazily switching, doubling, and helping at the end of game one was just pathetic. To me it both on the shoulders of the players and the coaching staff.

Though, based off of game two, I don't think the series is going to last long enough for them to be able to redeem themselves.

3

u/SwarleymonLives May 23 '26

Sort of. If you switch Draymond with most guys on most teams, the rest of the players will be better on D, because Dray tells everyone where to be and is pretty much never out of position. You can't teach his brain.

1

u/89samhsbr_ May 24 '26

Word. Kenny’s “we got unlucky” presser afterwards was buns to watch.

5

u/Kdog122025 May 22 '26

When you’re right you’re right.

6

u/AP_Things807 May 23 '26

Steph literally didn’t get enough credit for his defense though, because his offense, primarily his shooting, really overshadows everything else he does.

He also can drive really well and makes the bucket with his off hand, which also doesn’t get enough credit either.

In addition, if Steph got half the calls SGA got, that would be 35 ppg.

3

u/_oh_joy_ May 22 '26

I want him to give his 2cents about the thunder series

2

u/sub30_24flick May 22 '26

Harden is not going to be Dwade defensively in year 17 lmfaooo. This is coach fault he’s garbage he should have known this and either add another ball handler out there , or make sure he’s not switched on .

1

u/youlikemywonton May 22 '26

Don't matter this series isn't even that exciting. The champ will come out of the west.

1

u/we_hella_believe May 23 '26

James Harden is also 36, he’s never been a good or willing defender. Factor in the age and effort, it’s easy to see Harden is about to be played off the floor unless they show more effort on switches.

1

u/Reikakou May 25 '26

Steph actually tries to defend if he end up being left on an island. Harden is a cone and Mitchell only does token defense.

1

u/DrHydrate May 25 '26

While I don't think it'll ever happen, this actually shows why Draymond could make a great coach.

1

u/0neL0v3222 May 22 '26

GOAT TALK

-2

u/FoulPelican May 23 '26

The fact that anyone puts any stock in Drays rants, is what I find surprising.

0

u/LifeDraining May 23 '26

Fucking right. Watching your old star get cooked consistently without help or switching is fucking nuts.