There has been plenty of drama surrounding the state of the Golden State Warriors for the past month or so, mostly involving the front office and the coaching staff.
Will there be some new drama when their injured starting power forward makes his return at some point this season? Tim Kawakami of Mercury News has long been an advocate of the idea of not over-utilizing David Lee, and his recent article suggests that the defensive-minded Draymond Green may need more playing time – even if it means at the expense of Lee. Most that watch the Warriors on a regular basis would probably agree with that notion – yours truly included – but Mark Jackson has never accepted the idea of bringing Lee off the bench or playing him anything less than 35 minutes in most games.
At the same time, Green has been such a phenomenal player (although you’d never know it from looking at his stats alone) for the team, and it has come to recent attention that he actually fits in quite nicely with the starting unit. There have been no holes on the defensive end, and Green’s ability to set bruising screens (yes, they are more effective than Lee’s screens) against the opposition has really helped open things up for the offense. Green can also guard multiple positions, space the floor better than Lee, and is also more of a willing passer (at least partly due to his own ineptitude in getting his own shots) and a really good one at that, so it appears to be within reason to wonder what really happens when Lee returns.
Lee has heard or read about this particular subject, and he’s not having any of it:
-Q: You’ve been one of the leaders of this team for quite some time, but there have been some questions of whether the team might be better with you out or not in the starting lineup. Do you have any reaction to that at all or do you even pay attention?
-LEE: No, I don’t pay attention to what Tim Kawakami writes. I think by this point, you ought to know that it’s rather biased.
I’m not taking shots at him, but I think he just took Harrison’s name out of the article and inserted Draymond’s this year.
I think I’ve been a guy who’s worked my butt off for this team, been a leader on and off the court. His stat they say is plus/minus, and I think I’m ninth in the league in that right now. So if I’m hurting the team, I don’t see it.
Andrew Bogut, the team’s defensive anchor, also chimed in on the power forward situation. What he had to say was quite interesting, from Bay Area Sports Guy:
“Obviously Draymond is much more perimeter-oriented than D-Lee is, and can shoot the three-ball. So there’s a bit more spacing out there, probably. Draymond defensively can guard four positions, so that takes a lot of pressure off our defense to have Draymond switch with guys like Andre and so on. When they run pick-and-rolls, we can just switch them, which helps out our defensive rotations.
“I played with one of the best, in my opinion, Mbah a Moute. I think he’s one of the best defenders in the league. Draymond reminds me a lot of Luc when Luc was younger. He hustles. They say they both can’t shoot the ball well, but they still knock down big shots when you need them. Their rebound rate is phenomenal, and they play good D.”
After the Mbah a Moute comparisons, I asked Bogut what advantages Lee brings.
“He’s a scoring post presence for us. That’s what we’re missing right now. Obviously he’s one of the best guys at slashing to the rim and finishing with 10 feet or closer. We definitely miss that a little bit, and we’ll welcome that back when we can.”
“It’s great. Our defense is really moving and clicking. People say our scoring will struggle with that lineup, last night they didn’t. It’s definitely a lineup I like playing with consistently,” said Bogut, who then remarked on the Warriors’ point total against Utah (130).
“Season high, yeah. Albeit against a team that is somewhat tanking. But yeah, it’s very, very interesting.”
From the defensive-minded Bogut’s perspective, it sure sounds like he’d prefer to play more with Green than Lee, although it is somewhat of an assumption based on how he described the two players. It’s easy to put the two together, though, given that Green makes Bogut’s job so much easier.
At the end of the day, it’s all up to Jackson. How he decides to use the two very-different players should make for very intriguing headlines come playoff time.
JAMAL CRAWFORD TALKS ABOUT THE PAST AND PRESENT:
Jamal Crawford is quite sure of who he is and what his role is these days with the Los Angeles Clippers, but that wasn’t always the case when he first came into the league, and he certainly didn’t dream of playing the role of a sixth man. Ramona Shelburne of ESPN LA detailed the guard’s mindset from his younger days to now:
“That was tough, and I was immature at handling it all,” Crawford said. “‘Here we are, we’re not the best team anyway, and I’m one of the top picks, why aren’t you playing me?'”
Looking back on it 14 years later, Crawford knows exactly why the Bulls weren’t playing him. He had all the talent in the world, but he wasn’t fully formed as a basketball player. Was he a point guard or a shooting guard? Was he a shot-maker or a creator? Was he a superstar or a solid rotation player?
It took years to answer those questions. But now that he has, Jamal Crawford knows exactly what he is and who he should be: a sixth man.
“Growing up, it wasn’t like I wanted to be a sixth man,” Crawford said. “It only happened because I got to this point where I just wanted to win more than anything. When you bring one of your top scorers, your top players off the bench, it really gives your team balance.”
When Crawford was first asked to be a sixth man with the Atlanta Hawks, the idea initially brought him down from a mental standpoint:
It took until his 10th season, when he came off the bench for the Atlanta Hawks, to get a taste of the postseason. And once he got that taste, everything was different.
“Their starting five was pretty much intact,” Crawford said. “They had Marvin [Williams], Josh [Smith], Joe [Johnson], Al [Horford] and Mike Bibby. It was a great situation to win, but I knew I wouldn’t be starting.
“So I go, and I remember the first game I had to come off the bench — and I’d known I was going to have to come off the bench before — but I was like, ‘Man, I feel weak. I feel like a scrub.’
“The first game, I think I took two shots against Indiana. I’m coming in late, it was weird.”
After that game, Hawks coach Mike Woodson pulled him aside and told him he needed to get over whatever he was feeling and find a way to be aggressive.
Crawford knew Woodson was right. He needed to get over himself. So what if he was a superstar in high school? Who cares if you’re a lottery pick 10 years later? He’d been through so much losing and soul-searching in the first decade of his NBA career that it was time to make whatever sacrifices needed to be made.
Now with the Clippers, he has fully embraced his role. In fact, he can see how uncomfortable other teams feel when he’s about to enter the game – something he very much enjoys:
“I like the fact that when I check in the game, the other players start getting nervous,” he said. “The other team gets nervous. I like that.”
Crawford has been struggling to get on the floor as of late due to a nagging calf injury. If the Clippers want to advance far in the playoffs this season, they will need a healthy Crawford to play the role of x-factor. Hopefully, the exciting shooting guard will be back sooner than later.
ANDRE IGUODALA FOR DPOY?
These days when you talk about the best defensive players on the Warriors, the names Bogut and Green often come up – even more so than well-known defensive small forward Andre Iguodala. Is that right, though? According to statistical guru John Schuhmann of NBA.com, maybe not. In fact, Iguodala makes a pretty good case to be this year’s Defensive Player of the Year (be sure to visit the link to see a chart showing Iguodala’s importance):
If a team has better defensive numbers when a player is off the floor, it doesn’t mean that he’s a bad defender. The Thunder are typically defending the opponents’ best players when Ibaka is on the floor and their subs when he’s off.
Who these guys are being replaced with also plays a role. Hibbert’s the best rim protector in the league, but Ian Mahinmi is also a very good defender.
But the on-off court numbers make a strong case for Iguodala. The Warriors have been a much better defensive team with Iguodala on the floor and Bogut off than vice versa. Opponent shooting numbers, when you compare Iguodala to some of the league’s other good defenders at the small forward position, also make a case.
Ron Artest (2003-04) and Gary Payton (1995-96) are the only perimeter players to win Defensive Player of the Year in the last 25 years. And it’s hard to argue against a pick of either Hibbert or Noah as the anchors of the two best defensive teams in the league.
But Iguodala should definitely be in the conversation. He’s the biggest reason why the Warriors have jumped from 13th in defensive efficiency last season to third this year, and why the Denver Nuggets have gone in the opposite direction (from 11th to 21st).
CLIP OF THE DAY:
Here is a very entertaining interview where Pete Holmes makes Dikembe Mutombo laugh. A lot.
James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.
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