OAKLAND -- Draymond Green talks a lot on and off the basketball court. A lot of it can be incendiary, as he attempts to fire himself up and motivate his teammates to overcome bulletin board material provided to the opponents. None of that was more evident than when he followed up their incredible, Stephen Curry-fueled Game 4 victory in Portland by answering the question of whether or not he felt the Portland Trail Blazers were done in this series with "of course."

Prior to Game 5 in Oakland, Green clarified his direct comments by saying that of course he believes they were done in this series, he didn't believe they were quitters either. He and the Golden State Warriors knew the Blazers would give them a game, no matter where the contest was being played. And because of that, they would have to be focused in their attempted completion of the series. After the game, Green and the Warriors did a lot of talking about the Blazers, but none of it was of the trash talk variety. It was supreme and utter respect for their fallen opponents.

"Just happy to be done with this series," Green said following the 125-121 Game 5 win. "That was a tough series, and that's a team who continued to fight. A lot of talent. Lot of guys stepped up huge for them in this series. So just looking at this series and seeing 4-1, it didn't feel like that. It was a very tough series. I gained a lot of respect for those guys because the way they fought obviously behind Dame's and CJ's lead, and the way everybody else filled in, whether it was Crabbe coming off the bench stepping up huge, and Aminu had a huge series, Mo Harkless stepped up, everybody stepped up."

This isn't the type of stuff they said about the Houston Rockets following their first-round domination. This isn't the type of stuff they even said after the Western Conference finals against the Rockets a year ago, or even after taking down the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals as they secured their first title of their careers. The Warriors don't always come off as respectful of their opponents, whether it's fair or not to say. They celebrate their success on the court. They talk a lot of trash to opponents with or without words. They're only worried about the way they're playing instead of what their opponents can do.

But the 73-win Warriors marching into a Western Conference finals battle against the Oklahoma City Thunder couldn't stop gushing over how much the Blazers challenged them and forced them to be better. Maybe some of that stems from low expectations going into the season. The Blazers were projected to win somewhere in the 20's in their 82-game campaign. Halfway through the season, the young players on the Blazers -- lead by Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and the coaching of Terry Stotts -- exploded onto the scene.

Damian Lillard and the Blazers got a ton of respect for challenging the Warriors. USATSI

On Jan. 9, the Blazers were 15-24. From then on, they had the fourth-best record in the NBA. Only the Warriors, Spurs, and Raptors had better success in the final three months of the season. In that time, they used a 3-point heavy attack, and found a surprising level of team defense that the league couldn't entirely crack. They earned the 5-seed in the West, maybe because of some luck with the conference being surprisingly down, but also because they surged when others waned. Sure, they probably made it to the second-round of the playoffs because the two stars of the Los Angeles Clippers were knocked out of the series in Game 4. But that didn't make their assault on the Warriors in the West semis any less impressive.

It wasn't the only time they had success against the Warriors either. While Portland's 3-point attack isn't on the level of what the Warriors can put out there with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, it was still overwhelming to even some of the best defenses in the NBA. The Warriors had the seventh lowest 3-point rate allowed against them and were second in 3-point percentage against them.

And yet, in their nine games against the Blazers this season, the Warriors were lit up on 44.2 percent of those 3-point attempts.

The Blazers were forced to maintain against the Warriors in this series by trusting Al-Farouq Aminu (who now has a genius contract of almost $22 million over the next three years at a declining annual salary) to be a weapon on offense. He was. They trusted Allen Crabbe (who will be a restricted free agent this summer) to be a big shot-maker in their elimination game. He was and walked away from that series with people wondering just how much money he made for himself this series. The Blazers trusted Mason Plumlee and Ed Davis to be comfortable and productive during one of the most devastating defensive frontcourts of the last decade. Plumlee struggled at times and Davis supplemented perfectly whatever the starting center couldn't do.

All the while, Lillard and McCollum were troubleshooting against a swarming defense and finding enough consistency to push the Warriors exactly where they didn't want to be -- with their backs against the walls even though they were never down in the series. That's the fight the Blazers cultivated in one of the legitimate "nobody believed in us" mentalities that wasn't contrived or forced.

Moving forward, they have the world in the palm of their hot-shooting hands while also having gigantic hurdles to overcome. Proving they weren't overachievers, rather just ahead of schedule on Neil Olshey's brilliant restructuring will be the goal of next season. They have the flexibility to add whatever they want.

Even with all of the qualifying offers and holds going into next season, the Blazers will have just over $30 million but no pick in either the first or second-round unless they deal for one. The problem though is they haven't typically been a destination for free agents over the last 20 years. Granted, they haven't often had the requisite cap space in order to go after big name players. They've been great at re-signing their players (aside from LaMarcus Aldridge last summer), but here's the list of their biggest free agent acquisitions over the last two decades:

- Al-Farouq Aminu signed four-year, $30 million contract in 2015

- Wesley Matthews signed as restricted free agent on five-year, $34 million contract in 2010 (Utah declined)

- Ruben Patterson signed as restricted free agent on six-year, $34 million contract in 2001 (Seattle declined)

- Scottie Pippen sign-and-trade with Houston on five-year, $67.2 million contract in 1999

- Brian Grant signed six-year, $63 million contract in 1997

- Kenny Anderson signed seven-year, $50 million contract in 1996

That's really it. Most of those came almost 20 years ago when the Blazers were wildly accumulating as much top talent as possible without the clear vision of how they all fit together, and those in the past 15 years wouldn't classify as big signings. Patterson was a role player. Matthews was thought of as a nice player but certainly not what he became. Aminu is a valuable role player now on a steal of a contract. Other than that, Portland has struggled to go out and get someone. That will be the challenge for Olshey moving forward -- landing that big fish.

However, that's where this newfound respect can come into play. The best team in the NBA walked away from a 4-1 series win gushing about what Portland is right now and what they're building toward. Green wasn't the only one leaping praise onto this young roster. Steve Kerr talked about how rare it is to compete against a team and admire them at the same time during a series, but that's exactly what he did with Stotts' team. Thompson praised his counterparts. The league's MVP verbally saluted the team he had just dismantled in the last 65 minutes of game action. Warriors players tweeted about the impression the Blazers left on them.

Going into next year, they'll either be seen as a fluke or a threat. How this summer shapes up for them will likely determine which side of the pendulum this franchise swings toward. The future is bright though and the respect of the league makes it even more luminous.