NBA Finals Preview: LeBron James and Draymond Green are two sides of the same coin

For the most part, we live in a post-matchup era. One small forward doesn’t necessarily guard their counterpart on the other team. Defensive schemes are an ecosystem, a web of interconnected relationships that make the idea of “man-to-man” matchups seem almost ridiculous. As such, when LeBron James and Draymond Green meet on the court in the NBA Finals, it will be for a collection of moments, disparate possessions and pieces of possessions. There will be an occasional direct pairing, but mostly a mix of cross-matches and switches, a clash of in-game circumstances.

For whatever disjointedness exists in their physical matchup, their metaphysical matchup is direct and consistent.

The turning point in last year’s NBA Finals for the Cavs was Draymond getting handsy (footsy?) with LeBron. The ensuing Game 5 suspension opened the door for Cleveland to seize a toehold of momentum. That momentum snowballed all the way to a historic, legacy-defining comeback for LeBron. That the Warriors loss could be traced, to some degree, back to Green losing his composure was another piece of his own legacy.

LeBron and Green are of a similar build, and each is capable of unfurling brutish strength or feathery agility, as the situation demands. Each is defined by their incredible skill level, as much as their physical presence. They are big men who can play big, small and everything in between. LeBron does more scoring, Draymond does more defending, but each is a linchpin to their team in a similar way.

LeBron James is inarguably the most important player for the Cavaliers. The offense runs through him and his skill and gravity bend the universe around him. He is the binding element for Kyrie Irving’s isolation brilliance, Kevin Love’s matchup-exploiting versatility and this incredible collection of complementary shooters. To the degree that Cleveland’s defense can rise to a challenge, it is LeBron who rides out in front, leading the surge.

Draymond Green is arguably the most important player for the Warriors. It can be hard to see through the electrical storm of efficient scoring that is Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, but the Warriors are special because they can score like no team we’ve ever seen and because they can completely swallow an offense at the other end. Green holds a far greater share of defensive responsibility than any single Warrior does at the offensive end. Like LeBron, he is the binding agent, the mortar his super team is built on.

Besides functional importance, LeBron and Draymond are each the emotional standard-bearers for their teams. LeBron works Cleveland’s aggressiveness and intensity like a bellows, fanning the flames when an inferno is called for, letting the fire burn down when fuel is low, but always protecting that precious spark. As the Warriors have embraced salt as their fundamental spice, and shade-hurling as their emotional baseline, they seem to be channeling Draymond.

The narratives and advertising campaigns for this series will probably be built around LeBron and Curry or LeBron and Durant. They have history and rivalries — personal and universal, actual and contrived — but they are also easy to set at odds. It is old guard vs. new guard. Master vs. student. Inside vs. outside. Light and dark. Feral and refined. Jacob and Edward.

Imagining this series as a battle between LeBron and Draymond is little more discomforting. Two sides of the same coin, there is not enough separation for us to draw clean lines and choose aesthetic sides. You can root for the laundry but there’s not much else to help you make a choice. Do you like players of maximum intensity? Players who treat winning as the only thing? Players who elevate their teammates, share the ball, do the little things to win possessions, one at a time, until they add up to victory? Do you like players who carry versatility in their bones, players so skilled that they transcend height and weight and positions until they are just simply, basketball?

I suppose you could point to composure as a boundary between the two, and for a moment here and there, this is true. But go back and watch that Game 4 scuffle from last year, the one where Draymond let his temper — and the series — get away from him. LeBron is playing physical before Draymond goes to the floor. LeBron steps over Draymond while he’s on the floor, not necessarily an invitation for groin-swinging but certainly an inflammatory act.

LeBron guards his composure like the vault at Gringotts but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have fire, a seething temper that’s vulnerable to all the same irritants as yours, or mine, or Draymond’s. He’s walking the same fine line as all of us. Emotional heat connects LeBron and Draymond as much as anything else.

Next: The Warriors might be the most volatile team ever

Warriors vs. Cavaliers is a prism — we’ve spent so long staring at this matchup that we’ve seen every facet, seen every bit of ourselves, and basketball and the world reflected back at us. The whole thing is one giant, malleable, self-serving metaphor. But Draymond vs. LeBron is not a metaphor. It is two incredibly talented and incredibly similar basketball players doing everything they can to win a playoff series.

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