By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green didn’t mince his words when talking about the level of “basketball IQ” among his peers in the NBA.
In the latest edition of Pat Beverley’s “The Pat Bev Pod with Rone,” Green and the Philadelphia 76ers guard discussed the basketball intelligence of NBA players and debated about how much “basketball IQ” there’s in the league.
“Not only there aren’t that many guys who have that ‘next-level’ basketball IQ. There aren’t many guys that have a basketball IQ in the NBA. Less than 60 percent in the NBA. I’m really generous. They don’t have an IQ.”
Beverley thought that Green is too “nice” in his estimation. “I’m for 80 percent.”
Green went on to emphasize the importance of having a basketball IQ and how it’s a quality that distinguishes the ones who possess it.
“Knowing the game of basketball in this league is one of the biggest skills you can have because it separates you immediately,” Green said. “Maybe not as extreme as like Steph Curry’s jump shot separates him, but just having a basketball IQ in this league immediately gives you a leg up because guys don’t understand the game.”
Green and Beverley went on to pick LeBron James as the prime example of a player with top basketball IQ and physical prowess. “The fact that he has that size and is that athletic with that basketball IQ? Because guys who have that size and are that athletic, most of them are dumb as sh–t,” Green said. “Like, very very, very, very dumb…. Because people just rely on those. ‘Oh yeah, you got size and you are that athletic’. And eventually, you run into some guy who has that size and he’s that athletic.”