Myth #2: The Warriors Bring 2 Former All Stars Off the Bench
Reputations don’t dissipate overnight. Heck, guys like Gerald Wallace, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Danny Granger still get drafted in fantasy leagues! This is much the case with David Lee -his reputation significantly outpaces his production.
Okay, saying the Warriors bring 2 former All Stars off the bench is technically true; David Lee’s a 2x All Star (2010 & 2013) and Andre Iguodala was an All Star in 2012. But this claim is like the guy who insists there were only 12 pre-Revolutionary War colonies. Technically they’re correct (Delaware was a territory of Pennsylvania!) but that’s not how it really was, much like the Warriors don’t really bring 2 former All Stars off the bench.
As Kerr’s begun shaping his playoff rotation the past 6 games, Lee’s averaged about 7 minutes per game -he’s not coming off that bench much. Yes, Lee’s one of the few Warriors who can post-up and he possesses (the often overrated) veteran experience, but it’s hard to make a case for Lee to play more than 10 minutes per game throughout the rest of the season. The Warriors thrive with Green playing power forward and are borderline unstoppable when Green shifts to center (just ask the Clippers) -neither of those lineups involve David Lee.
Even the advanced stats agree. Lee’s Wins Above Replacement value is 1.61 -AKA lower than noted superstars Nick Collison and Ed Davis.
David Lee isn’t valueless, against Western Conference teams with stretch 4s (mainly Houston and Dallas) he could provide important spurts of low-post scoring. But he’s not a game changing former All Star who impacts the game off the bench. He’s a 5 to 10 minute player providing a breather for Draymond Green. Speaking of that Draymond guy…
In regards to the Simmons quote about Augstin and Curry, when did he say that? Googled around but could not find any reference to it.
It’s from this Monday’s BS Report with Zach Lowe. It’s at least 3/4 into the podcast. Thanks for reading the piece.
Wow I men wow learn’t something new by reading this. The Warriors defence goes from 1st to 14th when Green is off the floor, that is flabbergasting!! That means Green could basically make any team in the league improve drastically by himself!!
That is Hakeem and Rodman levels and could possibly mean that Green is Golden States most important player!! Golden States defence is much better than their offence so it tells you everything you need to know.