What do the Warriors do without Bogut?
The Golden State Warriors will be without Andrew Bogut for the rest of the NBA Finals. How do they adjust?
Andrew Bogut will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.
In the third quarter of Game 5 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bogut went up to contest a shot by J.R. Smith. He blocked the shot, but Smith landed on Bogut’s left leg as the Warriors’ big man came back down to the floor.
The play continued, but he was in visible pain. He needed help getting up and hopped on one leg to the locker room. His MRI revealed that he suffered multiple bone bruises in his left leg and would miss 6-8 weeks without needing surgery. It’s an unfortunate injury that will keep him off the court as the Warriors will look to secure their second consecutive NBA championship.
The Warriors are now without their starting center. What do they do?
Steve Kerr‘s options are limited, whether he wants to admit it or not. These are the NBA Finals, not a November game against a lottery team. He needs to start treating it as such. There’s no time to experiment with lineups and rotations. That means no Anderson Varejao or James Michael-McAdoo when LeBron James is trying to destroy human lives.
He basically has two options: start Festus Ezeli or start Andre Iguodala.
Starting Ezeli allows the Warriors to keep a traditional center on the floor while maintaining the strength of the bench. Ezeli is quicker and much more athletic than the older Bogut. He can provide an offensive spark by rolling to the rim after screens and catching lobs. The problem with that is that he has to catch them and Ezeli sometimes looks like he doesn’t want to hold onto the basketball. He’s not the passer Bogut is either, limiting Golden State on the offensive end in the long run.
The Cavaliers’ two best offensive players like to utilize high screens and get into the midrange area where they can pull up or attack the basket. Once Kyrie Irving turns the corner, he’s extremely shifty and can turn a big man around effortlessly. When LeBron James does it, he can overpower a man not much larger than he is with the quickness of a guard. Regardless of who’s driving, the Warriors’ big men don’t have a chance.
So, really, Kerr has one option: go Death Lineup.
No lineup in basketball has been better than the five-man unit of Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson/Iguodala/Harrison Barnes/Draymond Green. With their length and quickness, this unit exemplifies small ball in its finest form. It’s a world-eating offensive lineup that might even be better on the other side of the ball.
Iguodala is your best bet against James. In Game 5, we saw James use screens to get a switch where he would beat Marreese Speights or whoever else was on him. Starting Green at the center spot allows another great defender to switch onto James.
It’s unfortunate that Bogut will be out for the rest of the Finals. Every team wants to be at full strength at this point in the year and it sucks that another freak injury is going to sideline the center. But perhaps it’s for the better that he’ll be out.
The Warriors have been worse with Bogut on the floor. Despite being a good rim protector and passer, Cleveland is a bad matchup for him. The Cavaliers are fine with going small and Bogut gets left behind. Kerr should also go small. A lot. Last year, in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, Green played 36 minutes at center.
The Warriors won the NBA Finals in Cleveland on June 16th last year and Andrew Bogut didn’t play a single minute. They’ll look to do it again.