NBA exec says Steph Curry has been ‘loyal to a fault’ to Draymond Green

The Golden State Warriors have won four NBA championships in the Stephen Curry-Draymond Green era. They won an NBA-record 73 games during the 2015-16 season and have played in six NBA Finals.

There’s no denying that Green is one of the greatest defenders in NBA history. After all, he’s made nine All-Defensive Teams and won the 2016-17 Defensive Player of the Year Award.

The four-time champion has been a lethal Swiss Army knife for the Warriors, recording 33 triple-doubles in his career.

The Warriors’ dynasty ended after Green punched Jordan Poole before the 2022-23 season. Golden State lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the 2023 playoffs and traded Poole to the Washington Wizards in the summer of 2023.

Curry, Green and the Warriors haven’t gotten back to the conference finals since winning the 2022 championship against the Boston Celtics, and one NBA executive told Ahn Fire Digital that he believes Curry has been “loyal to a fault” to Green.

“Draymond single-handedly ended the dynasty,” the NBA exec said. “It’s one of the craziest things I’ve seen in my time in the league. Yelling at KD (Kevin Durant) made him leave. They could have won a few more rings once KD came back from his Achilles tear. I think KD may have stayed if the Draymond thing didn’t happen.

“Then Draymond punches Jordan, which forced the Warriors to trade Jordan when they didn’t want to because they couldn’t trade Draymond without Steph’s blessing. Steph loves Draymond. He will never turn his back on him. He’s been loyal to a fault to him, and it’s going to prevent him from winning more rings than LeBron [James].

“You wanna know why Draymond told the Warriors not to trade for Lauri [Markkanen]? Because he knows he would have been part of the deal. The guy is smart, I’ll give him that. He knows he can say and do whatever he wants to because he has the ultimate job security. They will never move him unless Steph says yes and we all know that will never happen.”

The Warriors are 19-18 on the season. They are in eighth place in the Western Conference standings.

Golden State is expected to trade Jonathan Kuminga once his trade restriction ends, sources told Ahn Fire Digital. Dallas Mavericks star Anthony Davis is a player the Warriors would love to acquire, sources said, but they would have to part ways with Green or Jimmy Butler to make that happen and the franchise has no interest in doing that, sources said.