Luguentz Dort claps back at Draymond Green’s ‘alarming’ Thunder comments

Last week, Draymond Green made some eyebrow-raising remarks about this OKC Thunder team, especially when it comes to their post-game interviews.

On a Dec. 31 episode of his podcast, The Draymond Green Show, the Golden State Warriors star had a few choice words for Oklahoma City’s all-encompassing nature during on-court media sessions after winning games this year, saying it’s ” kind of alarming ” Seeing all these Thunder players swarming on top of each other for, in his eyes, the “bromance” doesn’t help their intimidation factor.

Although Green is an established winner in the association, having been part of four separate NBA Championship runs and playing in a total of six NBA Finals, these comments were seen by the franchise’s faithful as more of a reach by a rival player who , frankly, seems to be running out of negative things to say about the undefeated Thunder more than anything else

On Monday, during a media session after practicesome of OKC’s own talent went public and echoed this kind of sentiment, most notably beloved 3-and-D wing Luguentz Dort, who clapped back at the four-time All-Star’s statements by proudly and prominently saying “we’re not going to change speak for no one.”

“I’m focused on what we’re doing here. I don’t really pay attention to that type of thing… It’s a commentary like any other commentary on TV. We’re just going to keep working on what we’re doing. That’s how we are ,” Dort said.

Green appeared to put a lot of weight on the idea that he believes the Thunder can negatively impact their “fear” status across the league with their postgame actions, which for the forward is something “you have to instill in the teams to win.”

However, Dort would suggest that what has the biggest impact on their intimidation factor as a collective is what they do during a competition, not what happens afterwards.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with how we act after the game. At the end of the day, we’re going to play the way we play and if a team fears us or not, we’re going to keep doing what we do, and do everything we can do to stack up wins, however we do it, we’re going to focus on how we’re going to win games.” Dort said.

So far, it seems abundantly clear that this beyond the buzzer-beating Thunder showcase has not negatively impacted their successes on the hardwood. Through two weeks of action, Oklahoma City is one of only two teams still with an undefeated record (6-0) and ranks first in defensive rating (95.1), second in net rating (17.4) and second in plus- minus (17.7) ) as a team.

While it’s worth noting that the season is still so young and the playoffs are clearly a different beast both mentally and physically, they should continue this high-end level of two-way play while adding a few of their core players to the rotation who are currently yet to log a single minute as they recover from injuries, it’s hard to see much fault in this title hopeful’s game.

If their on-court profanity is the most “alarming” thing about this Thunder team, they’re in a great position heading into 2024-25.