OPINION: Draymond Green Could Be Another Rasheed Wallace

Seems like Draymond Green needs an attitude adjustment.  The forward for the Golden State Warriors was arrested early Sunday morning on assault charges in East Lansing, Michigan.  Now that he’s been in the league for a few years, he’s going to act up, how very Rasheed Wallace.

Players like Wallace, Dennis Rodman, and Metta World Peace are in good behavior in their first few years in the league, then they get comfortable and become overly emotional, accumulating technical fouls and can be found in trouble off the court.  Comparing Green, or anyone, to Metta World Peace is a bit of a stretch, but there’s definitely some antagonistic Wallace and Rodman fire in Green.

According to ESPN, police officers said there was an altercation between Green and another man at Conrad’s Grill and no one was injured.  Police were not called to the restaurant because they were already there on patrol.  Green was let go on $200 bond.

Green is scheduled for arraignment July 20 and if he is convicted he could be fined $500 and spend up to 93 days in jail.  It is unclear as to whether this is going to affect him representing Team USA at the Olympics in Rio.

We’ve started to notice a gradual slide in Green’s behavior.

Green flailed and kicked Oklahoma City Thunder Steven Adam’s groin in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals resulting in a flagrant 1.  This foul could have been totally accidental so we can’t really criticize him on this, but it was still ruled a flagrant 1.

Green had to miss Game 5 of the Finals for reaching the quota of technical and flagrant fouls in postseason play.  Green’s technical fouls have been increasing since he entered the league.  This past season he had 13 technical fouls and five of those technicals were in the post-season.

Wallace holds the NBA all-time record for number of technical fouls in his career with 317.  He also holds the single-season record for technical fouls.  During the 2000-2001 season Wallace had 41 technicals over 80 games, roughly one technical every two games.

Green is fiery and emotional which has been good for motivating the Warriors to an NBA record-setting 73-9 season.  He may really want to win, but needs to be smarter about when he chooses to lose his temper.  Missing Game 5 of the Finals didn’t help the Warriors as teammate Andre Iguodala was struggling with back problems and Golden State had no rim protection.

Head coach for the Warriors, Steve Kerr, will have to ensure the heartbeat of his team doesn’t get too out of hand causing the team to flatline.  Green wants nothing more than to help his team win and be successful on the court but his behavior on and off the court is going to need to shape up.

Altercations outside the court takes things to a new level.

Rodman and Wallace were excellent players, and Steve Kerr said a Green-Rodman match-up would be fun to see, not bad for Green being compared to a Hall of Famer.  Throughout Rodman’s career he averaged 7.34 points and 13.12 rebounds per game.  Wallace averaged 14.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game and after four years in the NBA Green is averaging 8.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Wallace and Rodman were assets to their teams, but they were always a liability because they could explode at any moment, and it was guaranteed to happen, it was just a matter of when.  Green needs to keep being an asset to the Warriors organization and leave the attitude because with the acquisition of superstar Kevin Durant Green’s behavior won’t be as tolerated.

Green has proven basketball is easy, but controlling his emotions is not.

Article by Lindsey Horsting