Detroit Pistons point guard Brandon Jennings thinks Warriors forward Draymond Green is better than Clippers forward Blake Griffin.
If you debate basketball enough, at some point you’ll be told your opinions don’t matter because you’re not a player, that you don’t understand the game as well as those who’ve invested their lives to it and when they speak on their peers, the opinions matter more because it’s what they do.
Typically, NBA players don’t do a lot of debating in the ways we do, at least out in public. It’s when they retire and step off the court and behind the broadcasting booth, because they’re paid to do so. But some NBA players don’t mind, and aren’t hesitant to usher in debate via Twitter.
Take Brandon Jennings for example. Between the many on-and-off Twitter accounts, Jennings isn’t shy of saying how he feels, especially if Kobe Bryant is involved — most BJ-Kobe opinions are bad. This time the opinion isn’t about the Lakers legend, but about a neighbor down the hall in Clippers’ Blake Griffin. Throwing his hat into the power forward debate, one that’s far more interesting any debate of the same subject matter when Anthony Davis showed us he arrived, the Pistons point guard doesn’t believe Griffin isn’t a better player than Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green:
The Warriors-Clippers rivalry will make Jennings’ commentary overblown but in the year of 2016, date January 8, this is a legitimate discussion, and one we would’ve never guessed to be having with Griffin being a former number one overall pick and Green being a former second rounder.
What Draymond Green is best at, Griffin can’t do and vice versa. Griffin’s been in the league for almost seven years so it’s safe to say he’ll never be more than slightly above-average on defense; Green’s been in the league for almost five years, and even with his current trajectories, it’s probably safe to say he’ll never be the scorer Griffin is when you factor in volume — though quietly, I’m learning to strip away any doubts of what Dray can/t do in the league.
From my viewpoint, the debate is a matter of value, and generally, offensively strong guys are valued over defensively strong guys unless the offensively strong guy is capable of both. So in a league where defense has been historically under spoken for, it’s no surprise the majority of persons who’ve an opinion in this fight lean toward Griffin; responses to Jackson’s tweets hint toward that.
@thinkiminthe90s are you serious? Please tell me you just joking around
— DALE (@AlmightyDale) January 8, 2016
@thinkiminthe90s no way
— Chubbs Grandberry (@org_gb) January 8, 2016
If anything, this discussion should be a realization of how underrated Green is among “common fans”. Being the second best player on a team with Stephen Curry helps and so does being in Steve Kerr‘s system, but you don’t get this good at so many things and not be one of the best players in the NBA. And maybe this is his ceiling and he never gets better, but if he sustains this level of play over the next four of five seasons what you have is one of the best power forwards/centers in the league.
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But enough of that, let us know in the poll below who you believe to be the better forward between the two (I can probably guess how this’ll turn out) and if you feel deeply about the conversation, spill it all in the comments section; we recommend it.