One of the main narratives of the Golden State Warriors all season has been the entire teams willingness to take a step back or a role change for the betterment of the team. It started before the first game of the season when rookie head coach Steve Kerr went to veteran All-Stars Andre Iguodala and David Lee and told them the one thing no player wants to hear. You’re benched.
I’m sure Steve didn’t deliver it that harshly, in fact he said during his media availability after game 4 that the conversations with the players came over a stretch of different practices. At the end of the day, Lee and Iguodala took the role in stride, sat the bench and the team success followed. The youth movement in the starting lineup work for Golden State all season and the veterans in Lee, Iguodala, Leandro Barbosa and Shaun Livingston coming off the bench proved to be pivotal in their success.
The Warriors were then faced with a dilemma, down 2-1 in the second round against a gritty and tough Memphis Grizzlies team, they had to make another change. They moved Andrew Bogut away from the basket and allowed him to defend Tony Allen on the perimeter, an idea sparked by assistant coach Ron Adams. Allen isn’t an offensive threat in the slightest so that allowed Bogut to leave Allen when necessary to invade the paint and defend anything at the rim. Bogut was essentially a 7 foot Australian safety and this move was huge for the Dubs achieving a series victory.
They also made a change in the Western Conference Finals, moving Klay Thompson off James Harden which allowed Klay to have more energy in order to create on the offensive end. They instead rotated their defense towards Harden, allowing Klay to not have to defend him for a majority of the game. That move also proved to be pivotal in the Warriors success going into the NBA Finals.
As the Warriors faced another 2-1 deficit in the playoffs against a Cleveland Cavaliers team that has adopted a gritty persona, they elected to make another change. They took out a 65 game regular season starter and changed the look of the starting lineup completely, based off a suggestion from a staff member. They moved the 7-foot Andrew Bogut out of the starting lineup in favor of Andre Iguodala, who didn’t start one game all season. Draymond Green ended up being the starting center at 6’7″ against a 7’2″ Timofey Mozgov for the Cavaliers.
It ended up working. The Warriors lost the inside rebounding battle but they got a crucial win to tie the series up a 2 games a piece. Bogut only played 3 minutes in the big Warriors win. It appears he knows the writing might be on the wall for his playing time in the NBA Finals but he is accepting of it, as long as they win.
Following from Rusty Simmons of SFGate.com.
“Look, we’re not in a position to sit here and pout over things. We’re all professionals,” said Bogut, who mentioned Iguodala’s preseason acceptance of coming off the bench for the first time and David Lee’s professionalism in dealing with losing his rotation spot. “I’m not bitter about it, at all. We got the win, and hopefully, we’ll get a ring doing it.”
Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News, who also happened to be the reporter that Steve Kerr initially lied to about the lineup changed before game 4, filled us in on Bogut’s comments to the media after today’s practice. The consummate professional took his new role in stride, as long as the team achieves success.
Bogut being able to take this as well as he appears to be just shows how much Steve Kerr has these guys sold in on the idea of it being a team concept. Bogut has viewed everyone else do different things with their game all season to make the team better and now it’s his turn. Unfortunately for him being the competitor he is, it has to be on the big stage of the NBA Finals. I’m sure Kerr won’t completely keep him out of games because his size is undeniable and he’s a terrific rim protector and his selection as a member of the NBA’s All-Defensive second team shows that. It’s just not Bougt’s time to shine right now.
One thing is for certain, Timofey Mozgov doesn’t like defending it one bit. Following from Diamond Leung of Bay Area News Group.
