Draymond Green Using Rudy Gobert ‘Mannequin’ During Shootaround Has Basketball Fans Losing It – “Splashin’ Threes off Pure Hate”

Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green has had a long-standing beef with Minnesota Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert.

Draymond Green Using Rudy Gobert ‘Mannequin’ During Shootaround Has Basketball Fans Losing It – “Splashin’ Threes off Pure Hate”

Draymond Green uses Rudy Gobert 'mannequin' as fuel (Image via FirstSportz)

The Golden State Warriors will head into Game 2 without Stephen Curry in the lineup. That would make matters difficult for Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler, and the rest of the team, as they have to compensate for the scoring loss while battling against a stud Minnesota Timberwolves team.

They know the home squad will want to exact revenge. The Warriors know how embarrassed they must be with how they played and might want to establish that they are legitimate contenders to fight for this year’s NBA title.

To counter that, many believe that Draymond Green must lead his team. If he can keep up the shooting streak he displayed in Game 1, it will be more than enough to compensate for the lack of his four-time championship-winning teammate.

At age 35, he has the intelligence to man their defense. But to continue one’s shooting streak, especially when they are a man down, they have to practice shooting the ball more than they usually do. Green knows this and was putting in the time at shoot around earlier.

Since Steph Curry cannot move around much, he stood underneath the basket, catching rebounds and sending them back to Green and other teammates. That shootaround clip shows another person standing between Curry and Green.

On close observation, it seems that the person had a Rudy Gobert Timberwolves jersey draped on his shoulder in a way that Draymond Green can clearly see the French star’s name. Franchises are known to use scout teams to mimic their opponents’ play. But to basketball fans, this one had nothing to do with scout teams.

Fans shocked watching Draymond Green creatively using his hate towards Rudy Gobert

Basketball fans watching this clip quickly understood that this was all about Draymond Green’s hatred towards Rudy Gobert. Last season’s choking incident might be the most obvious reference whenever one wants to search their history.

But true fans know that most of his anger seems to stem from the fact that he believes Gobert is an average defender. Therefore, he should not have won four DPOY awards. Now, since he knows he cannot risk using his arms and legs to battle the Frenchmen, fans believe he is looking to use that hate as fuel. This led fans to react to this clip on social media, examples of which are below.

Draymond Green admittedly might need all the fuel he can use. The Golden State Warriors do not have much time on hand. Steph Curry will need at least a week to return to playing health. That means he might not be able to return before Game 5.

Green has to ensure Warriors win at least one more game before Steph Curry returns

That leaves three games where the tide could tilt for the Golden State Warriors. They know the Minnesota Timberwolves will look to take advantage of this situation and win all three games. But if Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler, and others can win at least one game out of the three, they should be fine.

Draymond Green wants to use his hate towards Rudy Gobert to help the Warriors
Draymond Green wants to use his hate towards Rudy Gobert to help the Warriors (Image via Open Source/X)

If the Wolves match the Warriors’ 1-0 lead tonight, there will be a Game 5. But they cannot place all the burden on Steph Curry when he returns. For that reason, Green and the rest have to ensure that they can sniff out at least one.

Only then can they hope to win this battle of seven games. They would have preferred to round out the series earlier, knowing how it can be if either the Oklahoma City Thunder or Denver Nuggets get more rest than them. But at this stage, all they can do is to hope that Curry’s absence does not lead to an earlier than hoped for exit.

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