Draymond Green facing suspension after 16th technical

Draymond Green threw a ball near Russell Westbrook’s head last night, and it’s going to cost the Golden State Warriors forward one game.

It appeared that Westbrook shoved Green in the back going for rebounding position, and a frustrated Green bounced the ball off his head. Lightly, but you know, off his head.

That’s 16 technical fouls on the season, which means an automatic one-game suspension. Barring a reversal by the league, that means Draymond will miss Friday’s road game against the Atlanta Hawks, and with two more technicals, he’ll miss another game.

It’s bad timing, since the shorthanded Warriors need all the bodies they can with Anthony Lamb’s eligibility maxed out, Andre Iguodala going under the knife, Gary Payton II still “ramping up”, and Andrew Wiggins in the wind. Beyond that, it’s a road game, and the Warriors have trouble playing defense even with Green on the floor if they’re away from hype man Franco Finn.

Green seemed confident that the NBA would bail him out on this one.

It’s not that this particular technical foul will be rescinded. Green thinks that a technical from earlier in the season will be rescinded, and then he’ll be allowed to play Friday. According to Green, “I got one tech this year because a ref yelled at me and I said, ‘If I yell at you, I’m gonna get a fine.’ I got a tech for it. So, I think something will change.”

There’s precedent, since the NBA rescinded Luka Doncic’s 16th technical last year, saving him a suspension. At the time, Green celebrated the ruling.

However, he’s not going to win an appeal on the play from last night. It was frustrated and dumb, and put a lie to his claim last week that “I get technical fouls when I want to get a technical foul.”

Green has been playing long enough to know that bouncing the ball off an opponent’s head, however gently, is always going to draw a technical foul. Unless it’s Jason Richardson in the Rising Stars Game. Then it’s just hilarious.