As the roller coaster year for the Warriors continues, more drama seems to be falling upon the team with the recent squabble between San Jose Mercury News beat writer, Tim Kawakami and Warriors power forward, David Lee. We just want to catch you all up on what started this and how it’s been blown up on twitter.
April 7, 2014 – Tim writes a piece basically saying Draymond Green is going to be a better fit than David Lee.
Draymond Green is healthy, starting at power forward recently in David Lee’s absence, and Green is playing very, very well–setting great screens, moving the ball, playing exceptional on-ball and help defense.
Stirring up drama by asking Andrew Bogut about the new lineup and getting this response:
By the way, last night I asked Bogut about the Bogut/Iguodala/Draymond front line, which has been rarely used this season until last night, when that was the starting group.
“Oh yeah, that’s our killer line-up,” Bogut said with a big smile.
Criticizing David Lee’s overall play:
And that grouping doesn’t include Lee, who is not a great defensive player or even a good one, especially on the rotations in the paint or out to the three-point line. Plus, Lee isn’t as great offensively as many of his fans seem to think.
April 9, 2014 – So as you can probably guess, David Lee was the happiest with the response and after practice, had these responses. In an interview Lee did with Bay Area Sports, some responses of note on:
“No, I don’t pay attention to what Tim Kawakami writes. By this point, you ought to know that it’s rather biased. I’m not taking shots at him, but I think he just took Harrison’s name out of the article and inserted Draymond’s this year.
followed up with questions to Andrew Bogut about his killer lineup comment:
“It’s great. Our defense is really moving and clicking. People say our scoring will struggle with that lineup, last night they didn’t. It’s definitely a lineup I like playing with consistently,” said Bogut, who then remarked on the Warriors’ point total against Utah (130).
April 9, 2014 – Kawakami responds on Twitter and with a Response Piece of his own
David Lee still has passionate fans who fire back at me when I point out that the GSWs seem to do fine without him. Familiar & comforting.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) April 9, 2014
From the start of last year's playoffs to now, the Warriors are 14-5 when DLee does not play. Sorry DLee fans, that's not a biased stat.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) April 9, 2014
Good lord people, read what Bogut said about Draymond Green, read what he said about DLee. And tell me I'm making this all up.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) April 9, 2014
Uh, Lee brought MY name up, someone wrote about it. I'm not hiding. My fault? RT @ckundich you are just looking for attention.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) April 9, 2014
April 11, 2014 – Kawakami is still tweeting
One more time: 1) I never said DLee was a worse than Draymond; I said Green fit better w/Bogut; 2) If I say that, it's NOT ripping DLee…
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) April 11, 2014
Since the issue has been brought up in anti-me rants: The Warriors almost always pull DLee off the floor in end-game defensive possessions.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) April 11, 2014
The drama continues and we’ll update it as we wait for Lee’s response.
Who’s side are you on? Kawakami’s or Lee’s?