A theory regarding Draymond's behavior over the last 18 months...

[Old_Blue]

I want to stress that what I am writing is only a THEORY. That said, I am going to discuss some FACTS regarding Draymond. Facts that I believe may be a contributing factor to the absolute meltdown that we have all witnessed dating back approximately 18 months to the Sacramento series and the Sabonis incident. That incident was followed quickly by disturbing off season incidents, including being video taped taunting college athletes at an Akron football game and sucker punching Jordan Poole in practice. Things seemed to calm down for a little while and then came Draymond trying to choke out Gobert, tackling Terance Mann and round housing Nurkic in a 20 game span early this season.

The theory begins with the question - What else has been going on in Draymond's life during this same 18 month time period? One of the things we know from Draymond himself is how he invests the money he has made as a player in the NBA. For instance, he has been very public about his early investment in Smile Direct Club, a tele-health company that sold teeth-straightening devices through the mail. In 2019, Smile Direct Club went public. At the time, Draymond discussed making a 40x return on his early investment in the company:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellore/2019/09/12/draymond-green-set-for-another-big-pay-day-as-smile-direct-club-goes-public/?sh=1b39f5978ab1

At the time, he quite literally put his face on the brand:

Watch on YouTube

Up like a rocket. Down like a rocket. In September of this year, Smile Direct Club filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with nearly $900 million of debt. Approximately one week ago, rather than attempt to reorganize, the company announced that it was shuttering and liquidating its assets. Given his early success with the company, it is reasonable to ask whether Draymond continued to invest in the company after 2019. There is an old saying on Wall Street...Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered. Draymond had already been fed. Was he a hog and did he get slaughtered on this investment?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/business/smiledirectclub-shutting-down-liquidation.html

What else do we know about Draymond's investments? We know that he is very ambitious, with a stated goal of being a billionaire. We also know that he has a circle of venture capitalists whom he has invested with and whom he considers among his closest financial advisors and friends. In October of 2022, when asked by TechCrunch’s Brian Heater whether he himself was looking to start an investment fund, Draymond stated that he was not because he was already involved with a group of prominent VCs, including Chamath Palihapitiya, Bill Gurley, Jason Calacanis and Bill Lee. Draymond said the following:

“I have some of the best friends in the world, especially when you’re speaking of funds, and so I don’t personally feel the need to go create my own when I have experts like that in my life that can help guide me. So, I am invested in some of their funds. I have invested in some deals outside of the funds, as well,” Green said. “I take pride in learning and I never want it to come off as if I know more than them … It’s not something that I see for me, trying to start my own firm, but I do enjoy and appreciate being an LP in their funds.”

https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/20/draymond-green-isnt-starting-a-fund-but-is-working-with-top-vcs/

The name Chamath Palihapitiya may not be one you are familiar with. Over the last year, Palihapitiya has caused a good deal of financial ruin for those he advised. In August of this year, Slate published an interesting article in this regard. Excerpts include the following:

"In any just world, Chamath Palihapitiya would be ashamed of himself. The well-known venture capitalist and podcaster lent his reputation to a slew of companies going public via his special-purpose acquisition companies. He was the ruinous 'SPAC King.' Now, almost a year after calling it quits on two SPACs, he’s still in denial that he was the Pied Piper who enticed retail investors into betting on speculative, money-losing companies."

"He (Palihapitiya) has said he made roughly $750 million by throwing his reputation behind the stocks, taking them public via SPACs that he helmed, then selling shares on the public markets. He hyped the stocks, he sold his shares, and he made a profit while the retail investors who trusted him lost money."

"The companies that Palihapitiya was promoting were not top-tier Silicon Valley startups. Startups like Opendoor and Clover Health were risky, money-losing companies."

“The SPAC thing - that is going to be a crazy bubble. It will look like the 1999 internet bubble where basically all of those companies went to zero. There will be some good ones. Most of them will be true disasters.”

https://slate.com/business/2023/08/chamath-palihapitiya-spac-twitter-taunt-investors.html

Smile Direct Club and Chamath Palihapitiya. It's not a stretch to imagine Draymond also being drawn to and investing in cryptocurrencies and NFTs, the vast majority of which - other than Bitcoin - have cratered over the last 18 months. As I stated at the outset, it is just a theory regarding what might be fueling Draymond's behavior over the last year and half. Maybe, just maybe, Jordan Poole's comment to Draymond before getting punched...“You're an expensive backpack for 30”...were words that hit too close to home for Draymond. How can you be an expensive backpack when that bag is getting smaller by the day?

[DonaldSanders]

A very interesting, plausible theory but really we have no way of knowing if he has significant losses or not.

Something like this would make a lot of sense, but if he lost less than 10% of his net worth I don't think it would be life altering. If it was a significant portion, yeah I can see that causing someone who is already a pressure cooker to boil over in unusual ways.

[Onus]

A very interesting, plausible theory but really we have no way of knowing if he has significant losses or not.

Something like this would make a lot of sense, but if he lost less than 10% of his net worth I don't think it would be life altering. If it was a significant portion, yeah I can see that causing someone who is already a pressure cooker to boil over in unusual ways.

If he's trying to be a billionaire he would most likely have a lot more invested than 10% of his net worth.

[HiRez]

Don't forget though that Draymond has ALWAYS been a volatile hothead, since way before his investment adventures. It's true that something like losing millions of dollars, even for a deca-millionaire, could add to stress and nudge an already edgy personality to even worse places though. Having said that, I'm pretty sure there are plenty of other NBA millionaires who lost big on investments but did not manifest their stress by repeatedly assaulting players.

[floppymoose]

My theory is that its the stress of age on a premier athlete. Its getting harder and harder for him out there, and with his personality, this is the result.

[Old_Blue]

My theory is that its the stress of age on a premier athlete. Its getting harder and harder for him out there, and with his personality, this is the result.

Yeah. That must be it. This would also explain John McEnroe pulling out a hammer and bludgeoning a man to death on Centre Court at Wimbledon in 1992. Oh wait. That never actually happened.

In trying to think of comparisons, the first name that comes to mind is Dennis Rodman. That said, Draymond isn't as bad as Dennis Rodman was. And, yes, Rodman was very, very bad. But, it certainly feels like Draymond is trending in that same direction.

https://www.newson6.com/story/5e3685f72f69d76f6209b838/incidents-involving-dennis-rodman-during-his-nba-career

[floppymoose]

McEnroe was petulant, not violent. He and Dray are different.

[Money_]

Also, players now know they can bait him. Nurkic grabbed his waist, and was doing all the little dirty things slow bigs do all night, and Draymond over reacted.
He would have been great in the 80s. But the NBA is soft now. I do think Draymond has been singled out a lot for his boisterousness over the years. But I will say they gave him plenty of warnings. Especially with this last 5 game suspension. Everyone knew, one more incident, and they will step in. He has to understand how selfish that is, he's screwing over his teammates, coaches, this season, the organization's rep, his contract. 100m contract and he's unavailable to play.... I love Draymond, and hope he's okay, but he's got to tone it down a few notches. As a fan, I'm not even thinking playoffs or playins at this point. Just lose the circus and play good basketball please!

[Warriorfan]

If Green was losing heavenly in the market his basketball income and brand becomes more important. Green does not seem to be protecting that.

[ILOVEIT]

McEnroe was petulant, not violent. He and Dray are different.

Punch someone in tennis...you are out for a least a year.

[Jester_]

My theory is that he's a jackass

[DevinVassell]

My theory is that he's a jackass

Beat me to the punch.

[wco81]

Don't forget though that Draymond has ALWAYS been a volatile hothead, since way before his investment adventures. It's true that something like losing millions of dollars, even for a deca-millionaire, could add to stress and nudge an already edgy personality to even worse places though. Having said that, I'm pretty sure there are plenty of other NBA millionaires who lost big on investments but did not manifest their stress by repeatedly assaulting players.

He’s grossed about $200 million through his rookie, first and second contracts.

With his latest one, it will be about $300 million.

Yeah if he was chasing a billion and invested heavily in speculative investments, well that’s dumb.

But Kareem lost money and so did Duncan.


In any event getting suspended often is also cutting into his income. He may poison his brand and hurt his podcasting, which has dried up for most except a few top personalities.

[Upperclass]

This result has been obvious for years.. people just have 5min memories and arent able to discern the obvious. None of his behaviors are new and IMO he is acting out to get out.. He got his contract.. he sees the Lakers about to go on a title run and wants to play with his idol. He isnt returning to play with the Warriors.. they'll cite "fresh start" elsewhere

I think Draymond gets dealt and I think there will be more incidences that cause the rift. Draymond directly cost the Warriors the 2016 title and then likely contributed to KD leaving.. has gone on record degrading Stephs past performances and could've cost the dubs another title with his podcasting, as it seemed to be a very noticeable distraction. His performance hasn't been consistent or impactful for a few years other than half a season in 2022 and then he got hurt again. If you replace what he gave the warriors in the playoffs, including when he was benched and almost benched in the Finals.. with other players of similar skillset(Jerami Grant Nic Batum?), its likely they wouldn't have missed a beat. I do think the Warriors are realizing his bark is more frequent than his bite these days..

I think hes being traded.. along with Poole and Wiseman after the season, maybe Kuminga as well.

Where would he fit?.. not many places..
Phoenix.. try to get Ayton after Dec - Dray/Wise
LA - 3 way with another team for Russ, maybe IND for Turner as Simmons mentioned
ORL - Wendell carter/ Gary Harris

Pistons are mentioned often, but they dont have much matchable salary or vet assets

viewtopic.php?p=101432830#p101432830

Look players want things for their own careers and where those things aren't compatible with a coaches system you usually need the coach to win or the player to leave. That's how it goes. No crying over that.

But people talking about Poole or JK or JMG "poisoning" a locker room where Draymond tried to cave a guy's head in and the vets voted not to let the coach/GM punish him and Klay was single handedly tanking games out of shape, rubber legged and selfishly chucking for 40 games is LAUGHABLE. This locker room was poisoned. It was poisoned by the vets and impotent coaching/management that enabled them. And now we got Kerr whining that guys didn't cheer loud enough for Anthony Lamb from the bench.

The fallout you see at the end of the rotation is the team responding to the quality of the leadership they have been given. Kerr has his head up his ass and shirking his own accountability. Disease of more.

viewtopic.php?p=106697591#p106697591

[Impuniti]

My theory is that he's a jackass

It's hilarious the level of embarrassing delusion and coping mechanism fans will jump to to try to explain something that is relatively simple (Occam's razor). As someone here partially already stated, you have someone that is losing his ability to compete at the highest level and acting out.. mix that in with an unhinged idiot personality as well as an organization that has done an incredibly awful job at "raising" Dray since he got drafted. And none of his actions should be surprising anybody. This is what happens when you let a loose cannon go throughout his entire career with zero accountability.

[sjballer03]

I remember talking about this a year ago and people were like "but he helped us win championships". As if that gives him the right to act like an idiot. I was flabbergasted when certain posters actually tried to justify him punching Poole. Draymond seemed to have everyone succumbing to Stockholm Syndrome and thankfully Adam Silver broke the spell.

[Nvnervous45]

I think draymond is a control freak. He has a hard time letting things go. So when people grab, push, and take verbal jabs at him, he has to reestablish dominance by any means possible. He actually has a quite fragile ego, but the problem is people are going to do things on purpose to test you and if you act impulsively in these situations you become your own worst enemy.
He needs to learn to establish control over his own impulsive emotions especially because you can't control father time and for draymond at nearly 34, the clock is ticking.
Ironically enough if you try to control every situation it tends to have the opposite effect on your psyche, and you act out of control in order to establish order. He's better off learning how to control his own emotions and deal with his own impulse to control(dominate) every situation.
Again, the thing that makes him a great nba player (his will to power as nietzche termed it) is also his greatest weakness.

[whatisacenter]

I remember talking about this a year ago and people were like "but he helped us win championships". As if that gives him the right to act like an idiot. I was flabbergasted when certain posters actually tried to justify him punching Poole. Draymond seemed to have everyone succumbing to Stockholm Syndrome and thankfully Adam Silver broke the spell.

This.

Right after the Warriors lost to LA in a series where Draymond and Looney couldn't be played together effectively Kerr went to the mic to say that GS were not a contender without Dray and pretty much forced the FO hand in re-signing him.