In order to succeed in the 2015 NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors needed to do something drastic and fast. They needed to make a change, somewhere, because for the entire 48 minutes (and even 2 overtimes) of the first 3 games, something wasn’t working. Especially on offense.
They had some issues with Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes not being able to knock down any shots. Stephen Curry struggled and Klay Thompson even had a couple games that weren’t exactly the most efficient.
They needed to make a change to get wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team the Warriors came into the NBA Finals highly favored to defeat, led them 2-1 after 3 games.
There needed to be a change and fast if Golden State wanted the series to swing back in their favor. So of course leave it up to the coach to make the proper adjustment needed. Right?
Following from Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins.
Nick U’Ren’s official title is special assistant to the head coach and manager of advanced scouting, but at 28 he is not technically a coach or a scout. He compiles the playlist that the Warriors blare during practices, alternating Aerosmith and Drake. He edits the videos that they show during film sessions, splicing Klay Thompson highlights with Draymond Green spoofs. He rebounds for Stephen Curry, adding up his made three-pointers from every spot. When Steve Kerr has a radio interview, U’Ren is the one who reminds him, and when Kerr stages a bowling tournament, U’Ren is the one who divides the teams.
On Wednesday night, in his hotel room at The Ritz-Carlton in downtown Cleveland, U’Ren queued up video of the 2014 NBA Finals. The series seemed irrelevant, given that it pitted the Spurs and the Heat, not the Warriors or the Cavaliers. But LeBron James played for Miami, and in Game 3, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich made the unorthodox decision to sub Boris Diaw for Tiago Splitter in the starting lineup. Popovich went small and a deadlocked series turned into a San Antonio rout.
The Warriors’ roster is significantly different than the Spurs’, but after reviewing the year-old footage, U’Ren called assistant coach Luke Walton and proposed a comparable move: pulling center Andrew Bogut, who started 65 games this season, for small forward Andre Iguodala, who started none. The suggestion was drastic. Bogut is an elite rim protector, who was just voted second-team all-defense, and without him Cleveland’s considerable size advantage would only grow. The Cavs might grab every available rebound. But Iguodala was Golden State’s best defender against James. Even more important, he’d give the Warriors another play-maker and floor-spacer, just like Diaw gave the Spurs. Iguodala’s presence, combined with Bogut’s absence, could help Golden State accelerate the pace that Cleveland had ground to a halt.
Walton was sold. At 3 a.m., he texted Kerr with the idea, so the head coach would see it when he woke up. On Thursday morning, the staff met at the Ritz and debated the ramifications.
“It was his decision,” Walton said. “It’s always his decision. But this is why he’s the greatest boss in the world. We can all make suggestions, even a video guy, and he’ll seriously consider them.” On Thursday, a de facto video guy might have saved the season.
The always fantastic Lee Jenkins at Sports Illusrated with some great work to find out the finite details of U’Ren’s role with the Warriors and how the process went down. This will be one of the stories a few years down the road that will come up when someone takes a look back to Nick U’Ren’s career throughout the NBA.
This move was definetely a gutsy one for the Warriors to make. Everyone, media included, only heard about it right before the game started due to the fact that Steve Kerr admittedly lied about not announcing the lineup change to the media during his pregame availability.
Iguodala’s defense on LeBron James has been great, he’s been the only one to have consistent success against James and he was the primary matchup for ‘The King’ in game 4. That was a strong point for Iggy’s move into the lineup but it was more able to free up the Warriors offense, which desperately needed a shot in the arm. The Cavs have been playing great defense against the Warriors but it almost seemed like an anomaly, like these are the Warriors we’ve been used to all season.
It turned out it wasn’t the same team. In fact the move to put Bogut on the bench and only use him for 3 minutes in the game worked out handsomely. The team won by 21 points, Iguodala scored a season-high 22 points and the Warriors were able to space the floor, free up the middle and not allow any paint congestion to happen. They just let the offense roam free which played a big role in the game 4 Warriors win.
Will this be a lineup the Warriors use going forward? Well I like to relate to the old saying, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.
