Andre Iguodala is a very deserving recipient of the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award.
He was the Golden State Warriors’ only viable defender of LeBron James while averaging 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game on 52.1 percent shooting overall and 40 percent from beyond the arc. Steve Kerr’s series-changing decision to play small-ball full-stop was marked by Iguodala’s sudden insertion as a starter in Game 4, too.
The 31-year-old has long been overlooked for his subtle, yet significant two-way impact. If not for a crowning achievement like this one, the coming history would look back on his unspectacular career numbers and fail to illustrate just how great a player Iguodala really was — not anymore, though, which makes his win that much more poetic.
But that doesn’t mean it’s justified. Stephen Curry was the Warriors’ real most valuable player against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Defense is where Iguodala’s influence loomed largest. He was fantastic against the world’s best player throughout this series, keeping James from the efficiency that’s become a hallmark of his play over recent years despite such otherworldly counting statistics. The voting numbers for MVP, however, casts at least some doubt on just how limited The King really was in the Finals.
Iguodala received seven tallies from the 11-member panel, and James was awarded the remaining four. Yet somehow the former’s yeoman’s defensive work on the latter is what most accounts for his win. The logic doesn’t quite compute here, right? Especially considering Iguodala’s relative offensive outburst came due to the sweeping effect of more consistently heralded teammates.
Other than Kerr, it’s Iguodala who garnered the most plaudits for Golden State’s key mid-series adjustment. It’s not hard to see why, either.
Putting the Warriors’ best matchup on James from the opening tip proved unsurprisingly essential, and utilizing small ball forced the Cavaliers to guard a natural wing with Timofey Mozgov – a development that coaxed David Blatt into the controversial decision to bench the hulking 7-footer for most of Game 4. And perhaps most importantly, Iguodala made jumpers and dominated in transition: His two highest-scoring outings of the year came in Games 4 and 6.
But Iguodala was merely the biggest beneficiary of Curry’s all-encompassing threat and Draymond Green’s all-court versatility. Why was he afforded so much space to operate in the halfcourt? Due to Cleveland’s ultra-aggressive ball-screen coverage on Curry. And why were the Cavaliers forced to guard him with an overmatched big man? Because Green is a stout enough rebounder, rim-protector, and individual defender to not be frequently outmuscled by Mozgov and Tristan Thompson.
81.5 percent of Iguodala’s scores versus Cleveland were assisted. The nearest defender on all but nine of his 37 made field goals was Mozgov, Thompson or 34-year-old James Jones. Those stats, obviously, have the fingerprints of Curry and Green all over them.
This is not to knock Iguodala. Compared to expectations, his individual performance was the Warriors’ best. He was awesome in the Finals, and certainly extremely valuable. It’s just that the genesis of so much of that value stems from other players, including one who went for 26.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 6.3 assists a night with a 60.7 true shooting percentage and 30.7 usage rate.
Curry nearly stole Game 3 from the Cavaliers at The Q, providing his team a much-needed spark that proved incendiary for the Finals’ duration. He dominated down the stretch in Game 5 with the kind of surreal shot-making that’s become amazingly common. And he had 25 points, six rebounds, eight assists and three steals in his team’s title-clinching victory.
“Strength In Numbers” has been Golden State’s battle cry all year long. It’s extremely fitting that the Bill Russell recipient was one of the players who made the champs basketball’s deepest and most talented group. Conventional wisdom said that reality would prove a deciding factor against the undermanned Cavaliers, and that’s how exactly how 2014-15’s last series played out – with Iguodala as the shining example.
But Curry, the season’s MVP, was the Warriors’ real one at its end, too.
(Via NBA)
