Anderson shows value to Warriors, who ‘hated’ playing against him originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Draymond Green won’t forget. His memory is one of the many resources he can reach and take from his toolbox. One example of this highlights the ways his new Warriors teammate, Kyle Anderson, can impact games without producing highlights that spread across social media.
“He’s one of those guys I hated playing against, I told you all that before,” Green said Wednesday night. “He got a steal last year or a couple years ago, when I threw a pass and he reached out with his long arm and grabbed the ball and I was like, ‘Yo, how did he get the ball?’ ”
Many players have asked themselves that same question during Anderson’s 11-year NBA career. In the Warriors’ win Tuesday night to start a back-to-back against the New Orleans Pelicans, Green got a reminder how, but this time he was able to enjoy the moment knowing he’s now wearing the same colors as Anderson.
Pelicans star and super athlete Zion Williamson tried to take Anderson off the dribble. The man known as “Slo Mo” slipped and stopped a freight train square on its tracks.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m glad I don’t have to face that anymore,’” Green said.
Anderson isn’t the fastest or the most athletic. He can throw it down, but he won’t dunk like Vince Carter, Dominique Wilkins or any of the big high flyers. What he’ll do is use his 6-foot-4, 230-pound frame with a 7-foot-3 wingspan to his advantage in every way possible.
Combine that with having one of the most cerebral minds in all of basketball, and you have a winning player no matter what franchise he represents.
The experienced point forward who can play almost all five positions, especially defensively, is now on his fifth team after previous stops in San Antonio, Memphis and Minnesota. The impact he had on the short-lived Warriors winning both sides of their back-to-back with the Pelicans, first a 124-106 win followed by a 104-89 win, was exactly what they envisioned when they signed Anderson takeovers in the offseason.
And exactly why they were tired of going against Anderson on his previous teams.
“What he does is sometimes difficult to quantify because he is an excellent defender. He makes the game meaningful with his brain,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Wednesday night. “He sees the chessboard very well and has a great influence on the game.”
Down 20 points early against the Pelicans on Tuesday night, Anderson was one of the main reasons the Warriors roared back and outscored New Orleans by 35 points over the final three quarters. Anderson played 20 minutes off the bench and was a plus-9 while missing all nine of his shot attempts. He made one of his two free throws and finished with just one point.
But Anderson also grabbed two rebounds, had four assists and had five of the Warriors’ 15 steals.
The Warriors’ best lineup against plus-minus Tuesday night was a group of Anderson and Green as big men essentially serving as point guards, flanked by shooters in Buddy Hield and Lindy Waters II, along with a downhill cutter in Jonathan Kuminga. They were plus-10 and outscored the Pelicans 24-14 in 30 possessions.
Just five games into his Warriors tenure, Anderson directed traffic offensively and disrupted the Pelicans defensively on Wednesday night. Without an injured Steph Curry and De’Anthony Melton, Anderson was the Warriors’ point guard on many occasions Wednesday, their second-best lineup having him with the ball in his hands, setting his teammates up for success.
Additionally, Anderson was a perfect 4-of-4 from the field. Through his first four games as a Warrior, he scored a total of 10 points on 4-of-18 shooting. He then matched that point total in one game, without missing a shot, and in fourteen fewer attempts.
“He was our point guard most of the night,” Green said. “Getting BP [Brandin Podziemski] off the ball he was our point guard most of the night. He just has a level of versatility that most guys in this league don’t possess, and to have him on our side is absolutely incredible because he’s one of those guys that you can trust in any situation.”
Playing for Western Conference foes, the Warriors have faced Anderson 45 times over the past decade: 30 times in the regular season and 15 times in the playoffs. The Warriors defeated Anderson and the Spurs in the playoffs two consecutive seasons, 2017 and 2018, and when he was with the Grizzlies in 2022.
Like Green, Kerr can put his nightmares to sleep knowing the ultra-adaptable Anderson is now with the Warriors.
“I always hated playing against him,” Kerr said, echoing Green’s sentiments later in the evening. “He was always one of those guys where it seemed like everything went wrong when he came against us. It’s great to have him on our side.”
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