Draymond Green will have to write a $25,000 to the NBA this week for using untoward language towards an official, but whatever he told that ref paled in comparison to what he called his own team on Tuesday night.
Following the Warriors' worst loss of the season, Green went deep into his bag of insults.
Yes, the p-word was invoked.
"I think we're playing soft," Green said after the 94-90 loss. "We're playing stupid. We're just not playing good basketball.
"We're getting punked. It's hard to win a game getting punked. That's where we are right now."
And while his comments — which he, of course, expanded upon — were ostensibly directed at the entire team, I can't help but think they were targeted at one player.
I know that Green wasn't calling Jordan Poole soft after Tuesday's game. That'd be ridiculous, even if Poole isn't providing much resistance on the defensive end.
And you know he's not blasting Kevon Looney, who is anything but soft.
Otto Porter and Jonathan Kuminga weren't soft against Orlando. Porter had 15 rebounds. Grown-man rebounds. Kuminga was playing a ton of small-ball center and had the good and bad you'd expect from a 19-year-old.
Maybe Green was being critical of Klay Thompson, who fooled me and so many more into thinking he was "all the way back." But calling him soft? That seems off-base. Thompson has been in the lineup for two-and-a-half months, but it might take longer yet for him to find his game after a two-and-a-half-year layoff. He needs a bit more slack and he should get it — especially without Steph Curry in the lineup.
Do you really think he was going in on Nemanja Bjelica? That seems a bit much, no?
Hey, maybe Green was talking about himself. Self-evaluation is the most important kind. And I don't think it would be out of line to say that Green didn't play up to his standards on Tuesday.
But this was not an exclusive comment.
And I can't help but think it was directed, in part, if not in its entirety, at No. 22.
Have you ever seen a player shoot his way out of $80 million?
If you watched Andrew Wiggins go 5-for-19 from the floor and shoot only two free throws Tuesday, then you have.
Frankly, I'm not sure what the Warriors expected from Wiggins Tuesday or any other game, but "soft" seems fitting for his performance against the Magic.
The Warriors don't ask much of Wiggins. They really don't. In fact, they bend over backward to help the forward avoid pressure-filled situations.
But on Tuesday, they needed him to look like the All-Star he technically was this season.
It wasn't a big ask against one of the worst teams — if not the worst team — in the NBA.
It proved to be far too much for Wiggins, though.
There were a few moments of overt physical and mental toughness. There were also three post-ups of Cole Anthony — five inches shorter and something close to 20 pounds lighter — where Wiggins went 1-for-3.
Yes, Wiggins eight rebounds in the game. All but two were uncontested. He didn't have an assist in the game and was consistently blown past on the perimeter on defense.
So when Green said "soft" and "punked' after Tuesday's game, my mind went to Wiggins.
This might be a stretch, or worse yet, some anchoring on my end.
It might also be another tactic the Warriors are using to motivate Wiggins to find that prodigious talent he showed off at the beginning of the season once again.
It wouldn't be the first time that the Warriors have tried to motivate Wiggins through the media. In fact, it's been a trend as of late.
And when you have to resort to third parties to get a message across, something has gone awry.
In the meantime, this season is teetering on the brink. The Warriors won't have much — if any — time to find a rhythm with Curry before the playoffs, so they need to establish a solid baseline of play without him.
Two games into this Steph-free stretch, the team is regressing.
Honestly, there are only a few ways to escape this path. Almost all of them involve Wiggins playing better — playing like the All-Star he was so happy to be but hasn't been since Cleveland.
