When the 2015 NBA finals began, no one could envision Andre Iguodala sleeping with the MVP Trophy as Golden State on the charter flight to the Coast after the Warriors defeated Cleveland, 105-97, in overtime in Game 6 to win their first championship in 40 years.
The 6-6, 215-pound veteran wing forward, who has All Star and Olympic credentials, signed as a free agent with Golden State in 2013 because he wanted to play for an improving Western Conference team that had young stars like Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. He ever waited three days for the Warriors to clear $24 million off their salary cap.
Ironically, after Steve Kerr replaced Mark Jackson as the Warriors’ coach at the end of last season, Iguodala lost his starting position in training camp.
Kerr’s first move at camp was to move third-year pro Harrison Barnes into the starting lineup in an attempt to boost his confidence, moving Iguodala to the background. For Inguodala, it had to be a shock to the system or at last a bruised ego. He could have publicly whined and become a locker room distraction. Instead he easily accepted his role as a reserve, setting the tone for his team’s success. Forward David Lee also went from All Star to reserve without saying a word. Center Andrew Bogut never complained when he got his fewest shots per game as a pro. The players on the deep bench had no complaints when they went from key contributors to not playing depending on the match ups.
But it all started when Kerr decided to make a shake up the lineup.
“There’s no excuse for anybody else,” Bogut said. “When you have David Lee getting DNPs and have Andre Iguodala backing up a third-year player in Harrison Barnes and all these kinds of things and not complaining you don’t have a right to complain. It’s been infectious for our team chemistry.”
Including the playoffs, Iguodala had played 806 NBA games before this season and never come in as a reserve. In fact, no player in that span had played more games without being a reserve across the entire league.
After an adjustment in training camp, Iguodala took to his new role.
“Usually you can let the game come to you starting,” he said. “You don’t have to force any shots. I know I’m going to get my shots here. I know my rhythm will come to me. I know I’m always going to be loose. But coming off the bench, you’re a little stiff. You want to make an impact when you’re in the game, so you have to pick and choose when to force up a shot, when to let the offense come to you, when to be aggressive. That is probably the hardest part.”
Iguodala’s humility eventually paid huge dividends for both the Warriors and himself. The unselfish star, who regained his starting spot in Game 4 when Kerr decided to bench Bogut and go small, received the biggest reward for understanding his role and making the most of his chance to shine under the bright lights in the finals.
Iguodala became Andre the Giant at just the right time. He was the Warriors most effective player in the Finals and changed the dynamics of the series, with his defense when he moved to the starting lineup in Game 4. Inguodala has always considered himself as a defender first and a player that who could do whatever was needed for his team to win. When Inguodala was growing up in Springfield, Ill., his favorite player was Bulls stopper Scottie Pippen. Like Pippen, Iguodala could score, but defense was his specialty. The complex schemes and detailed scouting reports appealed to his cerebral nature. This is the same guy who occupied his free time during the Finals by reading The Nat Turner Insurrection Trials—written by a legal scholar about slave trials in the 1800s.
Iguodala averaged 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.4 steals in the championship series, all while defending the game’s best player, LeBron James. James had a monstrous series, averaging 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists while playing 45.8 minutes per game and carrying a team that was missing two other All Stars– Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. He had a near-triple-double with 32 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists in the final game, but it wasn’t enough.
“I mean, I obviously knew it was going to be a tough task, and I continued to tell you guys we were undermanned. I don’t know any other team — and I’ve been watching basketball for a long time; I’m a historian of the game — that’s gotten to The Finals without two All-Stars. I cannot even remember thinking of it. I don’t know if it’s ever happened,” James said.
James became a volume shooter in the series, shooting 13-for-33 in the closer out of necessity. He dominated the ball with his dribble, an uncomfortable fit and uncomfortable style for a player who likes to play the right way. James finished shooting under 30 percent from the field and was held to a minus net-rating when on the floor.
When Iguodala was in the game, LeBron James shot 38.1 percent from the field, scoring 26 points per 36 minutes with 2.9 turnovers. With Iguodala on the bench, James shot 44 percent, averaging 35 points per 36 minutes with 2.2 turnovers. With Iguodala as the primary defender, opponents shot 37.2 percent overall, and he gave up free throws the same percentage of time (10.8 percent) that he forced a turnover, via Synergy Sports.
This makes two consecutive Finals in which LeBron James’ primary defender has won MVP. Forward Kawhi Leonard of the Spurs won in 2014.
When Iguodala arrived at Golden State, coaches were initially startled by his unorthodox defensive technique. Instead of crowding his man, Iguodala often allows space, enabling him to deflect passes, strip steals and close out hard on the midrange jumpers. After two weeks of training camp the staff understood and appreciated his approach. According to one NBA assistant, Inguodala is probably the most instinctual defender in the last 10 years.
Iguodala is 11 months older, two inches shorter and 35 pounds lighter than James, the most punishing player in the world. He entered the NBA out of Arizona a year after James, drafted ninth by the 76ers in 2004, and immediately began composing a mental manual on how to stop him. Inguodala developed a similar guide for every small forward, but James provided the ultimate challenge and they competed regularly in the Eastern Conference. With each matchup, Inguodala added another page, until he knew James’s tendencies as well as his own. “That book is crazy big now,” Iguodala, 31, told Sports Illustrated. “What he does in the post, what he does when he goes left, what he does when he comes at me like this,” wiggling his shoulders in an attempt to impersonate LeBron.
It is the updated version of “The Jordan Rules.”
According to SI, James either dribbles the ball up the left side or catches it there. He either faces Iguodala or backs him down. He studies the shot clock, bleeding it to a single red digit, and finally he either rises or bull-rushes. If he fires, Iguodala contests, and if he charges, Iguodala braces. James dips his head when he drives, a signal that he has abandoned the pass and is headed to the hoop. That’s the cue for a second Warrior to slide over and help. If the help comes too early, James will hit a big man diving to the rim. If it comes too late, James will make a layup. And if it repeatedly comes from the same person, or the same place, James will diagnose and dissect the coverage.
Only three players in the last 30 years have completed a Finals game with at least 36 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. That’s the line James was averaging through the first five games of the 2015 Finals. Three times he reached 40 points, twice he had triple doubles and once he did both. Inguodlaa never over reacted. He knew success is relative. At week’s end James was on pace for the best Finals performance in the history of the league, yet his primary defender was the flavor of the month.
When the 11 writers assigned to vote for MVP released their ballots, Iguodala received seven votes. James had 4. Curry, the league’s regular season MVP, had none. The announcement set off a chorus of loud boos from the fans in the Cleveland Coliseum and set off a controversy nationally. James, who averaged 24.6 points over the course of the six game series, is the best player in the world. Curry, who averaged 17.9 points, is the best pure shooter. But the media tends to vote for the player with the best story and even though Inguodala only averaged 13.6 points for the series, his story was heart warming.
With the exception of Jerry West of the Lakers in 1969, the MVP has always gone to the best player on the winning team.
Iguodala, who scored 25 points and added 5 rebounds and 5 assists in the deciding Game 6, became the first player in NBA history to score at least 25 points in a series clinching victory without recording any 25 point games in the preceding regular season or earlier in that year’s playoffs. Ironcially, Curry also scored 25 points plus added six rebounds, eight assists and three steals in clincher.
“[The Finals MVP] could have gone to Steph, it could have gone to LeBron,” Kerr said. “It’s really fitting that the award went to Andre because he sacrificed his starting role from the first game of the season. He had never come off the bench once in his entire career, and he sacrificed to make Harrison better, to make our bench better. … It set the tone for everything we were able to accomplish. It feels like full circle to me that Andre received the award.”
Inguodala set the tone for this series, coming off the bench in Game 1. He went 6-8 from the field, 2-3 on threes, for 15 points and two game-stopping dunks but most importantly made James work for his points. James scored 44 points on 38 shots. He also resembled a guy having a real hard time getting around the help defense, who could really have used the half- or quarter-step that four straight trips to the Finals and a gold medal run have robbed him of, and further, In some large part, that was because of Andre. Inguodala held LeBron to 11 points on 4-13 shooting, with only two three pointers and a missed tough fall away jumper for the last shot of regulation.
James was 12-22 against all other defenders, and abused Barnes and Thompson.
“Andre is able to act before something happens rather than just react,” Warriors’ assistant coach Ron Adams said. “I think he understands who he’s playing against well. He’s very cerebral in that way. Smart player defensively plus he has a nice long defensive body. You put that combination together and he’s been a very effective player over the course of time.”
