Draymond Green Has Never Been Happier as Rudy Gobert Crumbles Like a Cookie

The Minnesota Timberwolves forced a game 7 in style against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Despite going on a three-game losing streak, the Wolves managed to make some key changes, involving Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns to stop the MVP Nikola Jokic. This small yet efficient change helped the Wolves beat the Nuggets by 45 points. However, Draymond Green is not happy with Gobert taking a seat back after winning his 4th DPOY this year. 

Wolves head coach Chris Finch made a notable adjustment in the defense by letting Karl-Anthony Towns guard Jokic, while Gobert guarded Aaron Gordon. KAT did a fantastic job and restricted Jokic to just 22 points and 9 rebounds. Although this helped the Wolves get back in the series, Green finds it funny that the DPOY is not guarding the best player of the Nuggets. 

He shared in his podcast, “We sitting here breaking down KAT, having to stop Joker, who’s a center. And the defensive player of the year is on your team and he is the center. Very interesting how the cookie crumbles. Wow, unbelievable.”

Green also went on to compare Marcus Smart’s DPOY season to that of Gobert’s. In 2022, Smart who won DPOY guarded the best player of the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry, in the NBA Finals. Green said, “It’s like if Marcus Smart won the DPOY back then, which he did, and then they’re like, ‘But Jaylen [Brown],  you gotta go guard Steph‘, but Marcus Smart is a point guard.” 

Does Draymond Green’s comparison make Rudy Gobert unworthy of his 4th DPOY? 

The first question that arises after Green’s comparison is, ‘Should the DPOY always guard the best player of the team?’. In most cases that would be the expected match-up. However, in the Wolves vs Nuggets series, Gobert playing Aaron Gordon has worked in favor of the Wolves. With Gobert guarding Gordon, it gives him leverage to double-team the Joker, which was the case yesterday. 

Moreover, the 4x DPOY restricted Gordon to just 12 points and 8 rebounds in game 6. In game 5, Gordon had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and in game 4, 27 points and 7 rebounds. Marcus Smart took the trouble of guarding Curry in the 2022 Finals but failed to stop him. The Warriors guard averaged 31.2 points and 6 rebounds against the Celtics in the Finals. Maybe, if Brown had been assigned to guard Curry, there would have been a change in the scenario. The Wolves will once again have KAT guard Jokic in game 7. The ultimate goal is to stop the Nuggets, which the Wolves did in game 6.