With The Warriors Season Currently Hanging On By A Thread, Magically Draymond Green's Suspension Is Officially Over After Just 12 Games

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Well, if you were wondering just how long Draymond Green was going to be suspended for, we now have our answer. The 12 games he missed were a little more than 2x what his initial suspension was for, and if you're going to compare that to say Ja Morant's situation and 2nd suspension, it's fairly similar. 

As a team, the Warriors somewhat survived life without Draymond, not in the sense that they're good or are no longer fighting for their Play In lives, at the end of the day they're still 17-18. But they did go 7-5 over that 12 game stretch (7-6 if you count the PHX game he got tossed in). The issue there was all of their losses came against good teams (LAC/DEN/MIA/DAL/DEN), and that's not really a surprise given how important Draymond is to how the Warriors play on both ends of the floor. While players like Trayce Jackson-Davis stepping up is encouraging, let's not get silly. Draymond is still the straw that stirs the Warriors' drink.

My question is, what happens now once another incident pops up? Because make no mistake about it, we do not live in a world where Draymond isn't going to play like Draymond and ultimately find himself in another sticky situation, mostly due to his own dirty play. The league tried to send the message and gave him a 5 game suspension the first time and it took less than a month for something else to happen. Now this time they doubled the suspension and Green went to counseling, which the league is now saying worked well enough that he be reinstated. Shouldn't we then assume that he's done pulling stuff like this? I guess we're about to find out

If something else happens, the only card the NBA has left is to just kick him out for the season. What other options are there? We're nearly halfway through the season at this point. The hope is probably that this is finally the message that Draymond needed to get in order to understand that the time has finally come to cut the shit. Not only has he lost all benefit of the doubt when it comes to stuff like this, but anything that even comes close to being borderline is going to force the league's hand. 

Looking ahead, there are a few dates that wouldn't surprise me at all if we were to get some sort of chaos. You have January 15th (as well as 2 more) against the Grizzlies, January 25th against the Kings, February 10th against the Suns, March 3rd against the Celts, and March 24th against the Wolves if you care about future dates with teams he's had some previous drama with.

For his and the Warriors' sake, the hope is that there is no more drama the rest of the year when it comes to Draymond's dirty plays. If I were an opposing team though, I would do everything in my power to get under his skin. Make him show that he's actually made changes, because chances are he's going to be the same old Draymond once the competition starts. If I'm an opposing team out West that wants to get the Warriors officially out of the playoff picture, that's the first thing I might try and do. 

P.S.

What are the odds this decision has to do with what happened by the Nuggets and the fact that their season is in the balance? That feels more believable than the idea that Draymond has "changed"