Draymond Green, among the league leaders in technical fouls for habitually berating officials during the previous seven seasons, is suddenly complimenting NBA referees.
During a postgame interview this week, the Warriors’ vociferous power forward said: “Can I just say how satisfying it has been to watch the game of basketball without all of those bulls— calls? … Guys were cheating the game and grabbing guys and getting the foul.”
Green was referencing the NBA’s instructive to referees to avoid calling fouls this season for unnatural motions or non-basketball moves, like an offensive player leaning into a defender, stopping with a defender trailing him or jumping into contact.
Mike McCutchen, the league’s vice president of referee development and training, said this week on a conference call that he’s pleased with the early effects of the new mandate, but officials are still committed to what the league refers to as “freedom of movement.”
“I think this game was turning into: Who can draw the most fouls?” said Green, who was whistled for 128 technical fouls in the previous seven seasons, leading the league in 2018-19 and 2015-16. “Nobody wants to watch that, and you definitely don’t want to play in a game like that. You can feel a difference out there, for sure.
“It’s just more pure basketball. That’s great for our game.”
Stoppages for free-throw attempts are down in the early stages of the officiating focus.
Utah led the league with 24.1 foul shots per game entering Saturday, a season after Washington averaged 26.2. The Clippers led the NBA with 28.5 in 2018-19.
The Warriors were tied for 28th out of the NBA’s 30 teams last season, getting called for 21.2 fouls per game. This season they are sixth at 17.8.
James Harden paced the league in free-throw attempts for six straight seasons, getting sent to the line at least 10 times per game from 2015 to ’20. In a 2019 game against San Antonio, Harden’s herky-jerky style led to going 24-of-24 from the stripe — the best in NBA history without missing a foul shot.
“You’ve started to see a lot of guys master it, but they learned from James, for sure,” Green said. “He was the master before anyone else ever picked it up.”
With the fresh rules, Harden ranked 24th in the league with only 4.7 free-throw attempts per game heading into Saturday. He averaged 7.3 attempts last season. No one in the league was averaging nine foul shots per game, while Stephen Curry is getting to the line more often this season than his career pace.
Generally a perimeter player, and someone who was just learning how to trick referees during the past couple of seasons, Curry is shooting 4.8 free throws per game this season.
He averaged 4.2 foul shots per game in the first 12 seasons of his career, though his free-throw attempts this season are down from the previous two (6.3 last season, 5.2 in 2019-20).
“It’s obviously way better to watch,” Curry said. “There are less of those egregious plays, where you know there is only one option to go out of your way to draw a foul.”
Curry said he used to like those plays, especially when he figured out how to take advantage of the rules by kicking his legs and flailing.
He got nearly tackled from behind during the Warriors’ first preseason game at Portland, but a foul was not called. Mostly during timeouts for the next quarter, Curry had almost a 20-minute conversation with referees, who explained that he was the one who created the contact.
“It’s great for the game,” Curry said. “I know a lot of fans are loving it. The defensive-minded players are loving it.”
Green said he stopped watching even the most important games in the NBA for a brief time because of all of the “flopping and guys cheating the game to get free throws.”
Reinvigorated with a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics under an international-style game that allows for more physical play, Green believes the NBA is starting to understand what makes those games great.
“Guys are talented enough. If you can’t put a hand on a guy or you’re going to get hooked and get a foul call, it’s just impossible,” Green said. “Guys are fast, strong, athletic, crafty. You have to be able to touch someone a little bit. As a defender, it feels great to know that you’re kind of getting back to a level playing field.”
Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron
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Yes, Draymond Green is actually applauding refs, praising 'pure basketball' - San Francisco Chronicle
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