Steve Kerr experimented with some very interesting lineups and rotations early in the season for the Golden State Warriors when David Lee and Andrew Bogut were both out of the lineup due to injuries. It involved going very, very small where Draymond Green became the center of the team.
Going with an all-switch team where just about everyone on the floor is 6’7″ only works if one of those guys can protect the rim (assuming the other four on the floor are all above-average defenders), and Green has somehow been able to do this masterfully (despite being undersized) with a combination of length, strength, quickness and toughness.
Seeing Kerr utilize some combination of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes and Green was reminiscent of a similar lineup used by the old Chicago Bulls team that Kerr was on in the 90’s featuring Ron Harper (or Randy Brown), Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc and Dennis Rodman. Rodman often played the role of a center in those lineups and because he was somehow physically capable of guarding just about anyone regardless of size, the method usually worked.
The same method has also worked for the Warriors because Green has been capable of playing the same role as Rodman once did. Obviously, Green is not the insane rebounder that Rodman was, but the forward has a similarly unique ability to grab rebounds with the best of them when one is absolutely needed. If I had to choose one player on the Warriors not named Andrew Bogut to get a rebound, it would be Green (yes, over David Lee, who is not a great rebounder in traffic).
This is not to take away credit from the other four players in this unorthodox style of defense. There is a level of intensity that no other team in the league can match when the Warriors go small, and it is absolutely exhilarating to watch. Kerr went away from this intriguing lineup when Bogut and Lee returned, but has been going back to it in recent games with a sense of purpose.
Back to Green, though: because of how incredible the soon-to-be rich forward has been on defense, Kerr was willing to make a comparison between Green and his former teammate Rodman, from Tim Kawakami of Mercury News:
Kerr on going to small ball to close the second halves of the last three games, including this one:
We don’t necessarily want to, but we feel like we’re really good at it. And Draymond allows us to do that, along with Andre and Harrison.
“But Draymond’s sort of the key guy because he can play the 5. Looked at some numbers today, when Draymond is at the 5, our defensive rating is just off the charts, like 87.5 per 100 possessions. To give you some context, we’re No. 1 in the league overall, we’re at I think a defensive rating of 98 points allowed per 100 possessions… When Draymond’s at the 5, that number is 87.5. It’s crazy.
“Small ball is the way everyone’s going and it’s good for us; we’re good at it.”
[…]
Kerr on whether he remembers another team went small to get better defensively: “When I played in Chicago, that was an excellent defensive team and we put Rodman at the 5 sometimes. And I’d usually be off the floor (smiles).
“And we’d have, like, Harper, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and maybe Toni Kukoc or another wing guy. And that team was phenomenal defensively.
“I think Draymond has a lot of Dennis Rodman in him. He defies positions, he guards anybody, he’s quick enough to stay in front of point guards; he’s big and strong and tough at the rim and rebounds like crazy.
“Again, this is the way the league is changing–I mean, Brooklyn has entirely changed their style since the beginning of the year when we played them. They’re playing one big and four smalls and they’re switching everything on the perimeter.
“So to survive in this league you have to have the versatility with your wings and also your bigs, and we have a lot of those guys. Our roster is really good for that kind of stuff. And Draymond obviously, as I said, kind of sets the tone.”
To some people, particularly the older heads who treat players of the 90’s as if they were mythical figures (I am also guilty of this mindset every once in a while), it’s almost unfathomable to compare anyone to Rodman. Watch the man in action in the clip below, though, and you’ll see that his overall style of play defensively wasn’t all that different from what Green has been able to offer:
Watch from about the five-minute mark in the second video, and you’ll see Rodman trying to box out Shaquille friggin’ O’Neal and an all-switch team trapping and making life a living hell for the guards trying to bring up the ball. It’s simply terrifying to watch that group operate, but again, that lineup doesn’t really work if Rodman isn’t able to hold his own against O’Neal.
While the Warriors defenders aren’t as freakishly quick nor trap as hard as some of the Bulls players were capable of doing, the overall concept is very similar. Having the ability to play an intense group of players who can switch, trap, pressure and get stops at the rim just about every time down on defense has been a necessary recipe for the best defensive team in the league (and they have been the best for much of the season). The way Kerr is utilizing his small lineups and how comfortable he is about them, it appears we are likely to see plenty of it come playoff time, too. For the folks who don’t get to regularly watch the Warriors play? Boy, is that going to be a treat for them.
Jim Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @Sheridanblog.