Draymond Green hates and loves Wemby making his case for MVP

SAN FRANCISCO — Draymond Green has never shied away from campaigning for his own award case, so the Warriors’ outspoken power forward “absolutely loved” when he saw Victor Wembanyama make his own MVP argument recently.

But then again, Green said, “I hated it.”

The mixed emotions came in response to a question Wednesday night about the headlines generated by Spurs’ phenom last week when he bluntly assessed his case to be the NBA MVP.

Wembanyama laid out a three-pronged argument, including San Antonio’s success against the Thunder and offensive impact beyond scoring. But the part that Green said got him “hot” was Wembanyama’s first point: That defense is half of the game.

The fact that it had to be said was “an indictment on the game of basketball,” according to Green, the 2016-17 Defensive Player of the Year and a nine-time All-Defense selection.

“Until Wemby said defense is 50% of the game, it was like, ‘Oh, man, no one realized that?’ No one realized that 50% of the game that we play is on that end of the floor?” Green said, raising his voice as he began an answer that lasted almost five minutes. “So he comes out and makes this profound-ass statement and it’s like, ‘Oh, of course it is.’ Everybody’s like, ‘Oh he has a great point.’ Hello?? You think? So I hated it because he had to do that for that to then be said.”

Green said he “tip(ped) my cap” to Wembanyama for not shying away from the argument. Even though the 21-year-old center leads the NBA with 3.1 blocks per game and guards all five positions with his listed 7-foot-4 frame, Green said award voters often overlook defense.

“I’m happy he’s smart enough to know they won’t figure it out,” Green said. “ … I don’t know how people don’t see this 7-6 whatever you’d like to describe him as chasing a guard around the 3-point line and somehow get back to the rim to block. I don’t know how that’s hard to see.

“Some cases on defense you say the stats aren’t there. Wemby blocks shots. So even if you can only see the stats, this guy blocks everything. There’s no excuse for this one. So maybe the conversation has to be had again, why do people not appreciate defense?”

According to the latest lines on DraftKings and FanDuel, Wembanyama has the third-best MVP odds, trailing the betting favorite and reigning winner Shai Gilgous-Alexander, as well as Luka Doncic. Basketball-Reference, which looks at past voting patterns, gives Wembanyama a 1.8% chance of winning the award, also trailing Nikola Jokic.

Whereas Wembanyama is averaging 24.2 points per game, the lowest scoring average among the other three is Jokic at 27.8. SGA carries the lightest load of the other three but still plays 33.4 minutes per game, compared to Wembanyama at 29.2.

In a rule new to the NBA this season, any player must appear in at least 65 games to qualify. That means Wembanyama can’t miss any more than two of the Spurs’ final nine contests.

“Suddenly you turn on the TV and everybody’s like, ‘Actually, maybe Wemby is the MVP.’ And I can agree with that. Maybe he is,” Green said. “Everybody wants to crush Luka Doncic when Luka doesn’t live up to the standard of defense. But we’ve got this guy defending entire teams and no one took it into account until he said, ‘Well, No. 1, defense is 50% of the game.’ 

“I want to give him so much credit for such a profound statement, but honestly, was it really that profound?”

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