"Who's gonna stop Joel?”: Draymond Green casts shadow on Knicks' playoff run with bold verdict

Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors were knocked out of the play-in-tournament on Tuesday by the Sacramento Kings. But that was not the last of Green that we saw this season. The latest episode of “The Draymond Green Show” talked about Golden State’s exit, Klay Thompson’s impending free agency and the upcoming playoffs.

Green picked the Joel Embiid-led No. 7-seed Philadelphia 76ers to upset the No. 2-seed New York Knicks in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Warriors forward said:

“I got the Philadelphia 76ers beating the New York Knicks, because who’s gonna stop Joel? And like Joel took over every play down the stretch versus the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat and which we know probably would beat the Knicks, too. But that’s neither here nor there.

"(The) Philadelphia 76ers will now take on the New York Knicks and I got Philly for sure. Nobody is stopping Joel.”

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The 76ers reached the playoffs after beating the Heat 105-104 in the seventh-seed decider play-in game on Wednesday. Joel Embiid led Philly with 23 points and 15 points.

While Draymond Green has a point in saying that Embiid will be tough to stop, discounting the Knicks’ defense that easily might not be a wise pick. New York had the 10th-best defensive rating in the regular season at 113.4 points.

Even if Embiid does put MVP-caliber numbers, the Knicks have their offensive weapons as well. Jalen Brunson had a breakout year, averaging 28.7 points, 6.7 assists and 3.6 rebounds. He also made his first All-Star team and led the Knicks to a 50-32 record, winning their final five games of the season.

The onus is now on New York to prove Green wrong and get the first-round win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

Draymond Green was echoing what 76ers’ Paul Reed said

While Draymond Green’s comments should come as a shock for the Knicks faithful, he was just echoing what 76ers backup center Paul Reed had said in an episode of "Run It Back." Reed said, via CBS Sports:

"We ain't ducking no smoke, but yeah, we wanted the Knicks matchup, of course. That's the easier team I guess, but you know it's going to be fun, we match up pretty well. They got a great guard, we got a great guard, we also got Joel, MVP, so like you said earlier, he's one of the most unstoppable guys in the league right now.

“They're gonna have to send triple teams, and he's gonna get everybody else involved."

Green attributed to Reed’s comments as well:

“As Paul Reed said, 'We ain’t ducking nobody. But we wanted the New York Knicks. We think that’s the easier team to beat.'”

It’s clear that one Philadelphia 76ers player at least agrees with Green. Does Joel Embiid feel the same? Well, we will find out soon when the first game of the first-round series kicks off at 6 p.m. EDT on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.