{"id":677909,"date":"2026-06-01T13:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/677909\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T13:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:30:08","slug":"draymond-green-doubles-down-on-knicks-take-says-theyre-still-missing-a-true-1a-superstar-to-win-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/677909\/","title":{"rendered":"Draymond Green doubles down on Knicks take, says they’re still missing a true 1A superstar to win it all"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> and New York Knicks<\/a> three days away, Golden State Warriors<\/a> forward Draymond Green<\/a> has given his prediction, doubling down on his take that the Knicks can\u2019t win it all.<\/p>\n

Like Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon<\/a>, Green said in January that the Knicks don’t have a tier-one superstar to lead them to the promised land, despite Jalen Brunson<\/a> having a spectacular playoff run on his way to the Larry Bird trophy as Eastern Conference finals MVP.<\/p>\n

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“I double down on this,” Green said<\/a> in the most recent episode of his podcast. \u201cJust like Becky Hammon said, ‘Prove me wrong.’ Absolutely double down. Getting out of the East has never been a sure-fire thing to winning a championship. What y’all talking about? You get outta the East, cuz you’re supposed to get outta the East. It’s the fu\u2014ng East! Of course, you’re supposed to get out of the East.”<\/p>\n

The East is considered the weaker conference<\/p>\n

Entering the NBA Finals, the Knicks have been on an absolute heater. Since being down 1-2 to the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>, they have won 11 straight playoff games in dominant fashion. However, despite sweeping the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> in the second round and the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> in the Eastern Conference finals, Green belittled their run.<\/p>\n

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“That just don’t mean you win a title just because you get out of the East. With a beat-up Boston. Happy for Mike Brown by the way. But you should get out of the East,” he added.<\/p>\n

The East has long been considered the weaker conference in the NBA. And this season, the injuries to Jayson Tatum<\/a> and Tyrese Haliburton<\/a> created the perception that the path to the Finals is much easier than the West. Meanwhile, the top two teams in the regular season were the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> and Spurs, whose Western Conference finals matchup ended after seven games.<\/p>\n

But perhaps more than that, the bigger cloud hanging over the Knicks head is Hammon’s statement from 2023 that Brunson is too small to carry New York to the promised land.<\/p>\n

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Related: Richard Jefferson explains why Jalen Brunson wouldn’t be the greatest Knick ever if they win a title<\/a><\/p>\n

The Knicks don’t have a 1-A guy<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Brunson was instrumental in New York’s sweep of Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals, averaging 25.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 1.0 steals per game. Through 14 playoff appearances this postseason, he has posted averages of 26.9 points and 6.6 assists.<\/p>\n

Despite Brunson’s impressive production, Hammon reiterated last week that she stands by her belief that he is not a true “1-A” player capable of carrying a team to a championship. She acknowledged, however, that she would gladly admit she was wrong if Brunson proves otherwise.<\/p>\n

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Green’s criticism was less about Brunson himself and more about the Knicks’ roster construction, arguing that New York lacks a transcendent superstar<\/a> in the mold of Kevin Durant<\/a>, Stephen Curry<\/a>, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, or LeBron James<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I think that\u2019s what the Knicks are missing,” he said. \u201cYou look at their roster, really good team. But I just think until you got that bona fide 1-A, that like, if I go here tomorrow, I\u2019m 1-A. If I go over there the next day, I\u2019m 1-A. If I go over there in two weeks, I am 1-A. Until they have that, I just think it\u2019s going to be very tough to win a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brunson isn’t in the same category as Durant, Curry, Gilgeous-Alexander, and James \u2014 at least not yet. But right now, he’s playing like one of the best players in the league, and the Knicks are playing like true title contenders. Can they prove Hammon and Green wrong? We will soon find out.<\/p>\n

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Related: 2026 NBA Finals ticket prices reach historic highs for Knicks-Spurs showdown<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Jun 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks three days away, Golden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[6417,52746,8174,13339,62393,2243,2854,36783,5488,5556,3013,355,361,6402,2113,2116,6407,99,2244,20629],"class_list":["post-677909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-becky-hammon","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-draymond-green","tag-eastern-conference-finals","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-green","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-kevin-durant","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-sports","tag-stephen-curry","tag-tyrese-haliburton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}