Draymond Green considers facing the Kings would be the Warriors’ best scenario in NBA playoffs

With less than two weeks left in the regular season, the Warriors are still battling to guarantee a top-six spot in the Western Conference and earn automatic qualification to the playoffs. It is an understatement to say that Golden State’s title defense hasn’t been what they initially expected from this campaign. 

Draymond Green, on the other hand, is already thinking about the next stage of the tournament. The four-time NBA champion explained on the last episode of his podcast why he believes that their best option would be to encounter Sacramento in the first round.

Draymond has a perfect non-basketball reason for a Warriors-Kings playoff serieshttps://t.co/ba1X6bv0NG

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 28, 2023

“I’m not upset at if the standings shook out how they did today and we met Sacramento in the first round,” the veteran said. “Not because I think Sacramento is a weak team, because the travel is so much easier.

“The reason why I said Sac is simply just because of the travel. That’s a lot on your body. If we can bus ride an hour and 10 minutes up the way, I just think that’s much better for us. At the end of the day, I don’t really care who we play in the playoffs, I think we can win.”

Let’s take a look and analyze Golden State’s playoff run last season, as they earned their fourth NBA ring in eight years. Last campaign, they played the Nuggets in the first round and dealt with Denver’s altitude. After that, they faced the Grizzlies all the way to Memphis, and finally met with the Mavericks for the Western Conference Finals.

Their last clash of their title championship was all the way across the United States to take on the Finals series in Boston. As Green expressed, all those miles take a toll on athletes, especially after a long season. So point given to the 33-year-old, as Sacramento is only 90 miles away from the Bay Area.

Inexperience should be another advantage for the Warriors if they are to face the Kings

Nevertheless, we aren’t as naive as to think that travel is the only reason why the power foward wouldn’t mind finishing sixth in the conference to play the Kings. As the Sacramento squad is finally ending their sixteen-year post-season drought, sometimes inexperience can be detrimental to your performance in these final stages.

Check out the Warriors’ most dominant displays during last year’s playoff run:

Also, we are talking about none other than the monarchs of playoff experience in the NBA, as Golden State have been the strongest franchise in the league in the past decade. Competing for your title-defense is no joke when it comes to professional sports, as maturity always plays a part in such emotional stages.

However, we are still making assumptions as all the playoff matchups in the West are yet to be determined. Even though the Kings are likely to finish third in the conference, Golden State are standing seventh, tied with a 39-37 record with the Minnesota Timberwolves who are sixth.

Probably the best news in the San Francisco camp is that they possess the easiest road ahead before the end of the season, as they will clash against the New Orleans Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs and the Portland Trail Blazers in the following days.