Draymond Green lets his hate shine through with terrible Knicks playoff takes

The New York Knicks are back in the Eastern Conference Semifinals for the second straight year and have a 2-0 lead over the Pacers.

New York won Game 1 without Julius Randle and Bojan Bogdanovic, who are both out for the season. Before Game 2, the Knicks announced that Mitchell Robinson would be out for six to eight weeks with a "stress injury" to his foot. In Game 2, Jalen Brunson missed the end of the first quarter and the entire second quarter. OG Anunoby injured his hamstring late in the third quarter and didn't return.

Still, the Knicks walked away with the 130-121 win. Rick Carlisle cried about the officiating after he was ejected late in the fourth quarter, but he's the one who left Andrew Nembhard on the floor over T.J. McConnell. Brunson dropped 24 points in the second half on a bum foot. Like it has been all season, the Pacers' defense was an issue.

It doesn't matter what Brunson and New York accomplishes, though. There are always going to be haters out there. As soon as Wednesday's game ended, Charles Barkley said the Knicks are "overrated" and that he'd love to see them get "stomped" by the Celtics in the ECF. Yes, that was his first talking point after New York came back from a double-digit deficit to beat Indiana.

Draymond Green is the latest person to pile hate on the Knicks on his podcast. He's had a lot of time to go on rants, considering the Warriors' last game of the season was a 118-94 loss to the Kings on April 16 in the Play-In Tournament.

Draymond Green laughably calls Knicks' playoff run "a fluke"

It's a fluke that even with several injuries to key players, New York has won six games (and counting) in the postseason. Draymond makes it seem like the Knicks aren't battered with injuries and won 15 games last season. New York's been on the rise, so much so that another second-round exit would be disappointing.

Draymond compared the Knicks to the Hawks' 2021 run to the ECF and the Blazers' 2019 run to the WCF. Atlanta was a first-round exit in 2022 and 2023 and didn't make the playoffs this year. The front office didn't capitalize on the Hawks' success, and the team has fallen back down the standings.

As for Portland, the only accurate comparison is that, like Damian Lillard, Brunson is a ball-dominant point guard. The Blazers failed to build a true contender around Lillard, so he requested a trade last year. Leon Rose is smarter than that.

New York's future is brighter than Portland's in 2019 and Atlanta's in 2021. The Knicks have several team-friendly contracts, including Deuce McBride's and Donte DiVincenzo's. OG Anunoby is expected to decline his player option for 2024-25 to become a free agent, so New York will likely have to pay him (and Isaiah Hartenstein if the team wants to keep him) this summer. Brunson and Julius Randle will be eligible for extensions.

Unlike Golden State, the Knicks aren't strapped financially. They don't have to worry about giving someone a four-year, $100 million extension for him to get suspended twice (subscription required) and let his team down (hello, Draymond). Especially considering New York's unlucky injury history this season, there are plenty of reasons to feel hopeful about the future.

Sorry, Draymond. You were wrong to predict that the Sixers would beat the Knicks in the first round, and your latest prediction will also be proven wrong.