The truth about Draymond Green comes out

Good morning. We have that and more in Thursday's NBA newsletter.

By Tom Ziller Oct 20, 2016, 8:24am EDT

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

HELLO, BEAUTIFUL: Our NBA preview will drop this morning. Stay tuned.

KEVIN DURANT, EXPLAINED: This Rolling Stone cover story on KD by Paul Solotaroff does a good job getting into deep back story (which has been shockingly hard to come by for this player) and does more than any other story written to date to explain why Durant left. He wanted real friends (not work friends), and the Warriors seemed to offer that. Works for me!

CUPCAKES, EXPLAINED It turns out that Russell Westbrook’s seemingly innocuous July 4 Instagram photo of cupcakes was actually a super cold inside dig at Durant. That fact comes from Lee Jenkins’ masterful Sports Illustrated cover story on Westbrook, which is deepest we’ve ever peered into the point guard.

DRAYMOND, EXPLAINED: Ethan Sherwood Strauss’ opus on Draymond Green is perhaps the most important story of the preview season for what it says about Green, Steve Kerr, Klay Thompson, Luke Walton, and the strings that lace the shockingly fragile Warriors together. The stories in here are shocking.

WHAT MATTERS: Matt Moore cuts to the chase and previews the Warriors and Cavaliers exclusively.

ALL THE MARBLES: The WNBA season comes down to tonight: Lynx vs. Sparks, winner takes all, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN 2. This is really as good as it gets in women’s basketball.

PODCAST WORLD TOUR: The Spurs are up next for the Limited Upside podcast preview series.

PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT: Derrick Rose and his friends were found not liable in the civil rape suit brought against them. After the verdict came down, the judge wished Rose’s Knicks good luck and jurors took photos with Rose. Michael McCann discusses whether Adidas or the NBA will sanction Rose for his rather horrific deposition comments.

NICE: Man videobombs ESPN basketball broadcast, dribbles beer from his mouth.

WELL THEN: Rick Carlisle compared his team’s "abominable" start vs. the Rockets to a Donald Trump debate performance.

COLLEGE PREVIEWS: Wisconsin brought everyone back, will be awesome.

#FREERICKY: Woj reports that the Wolves are hanging onto Ricky Rubio until Kris Dunn is ready to start, which could be a month or two from now. The Kings are chasing hard, and thought about trading for Cameron Payne before he broke his foot.

SHOCKER: The Kings and Ben McLemore aren’t going to reach an extension deal.

Again, our marvelous NBA preview hits soon. Be sure to hit up SBNation.com/NBA to check it out! See you next time.

* * *