Warriors, Spurs meet in Western Conference finals.
This Western Conference Finals is a web of interlaced relationships: friendships, former teammates, mentors and proteges.
And one of those encounters is that of David Lee versus his former team.
From this vantage point, it’s difficult to remember that Lee was once the second most important player on the Warriors. The team is now so stacked with superstars and regular stars and intriguing bench players that Lee, who was traded a few weeks after the Warriors’ championship run in 2015, would be an afterthought on this roster.
He’s a bench player for his current team. In the first game of the season, as San Antonio was manhandling the Warriors at Oracle Arena, I was surprised to see Lee on the Spurs. He’s been hard to keep track of the past two seasons.
A quick thought about this Western Conference matchup: Thank goodness! There was some talk that Houston would be a preferred opponent because it would give the Warriors an easier path. Please. No more ridiculous beard fouls. No more Rockets for the third year in a row.
The world has been waiting for the Warriors to play the Spurs in the playoffs for a while now. Yes, the Spurs are
diminished without Tony Parker. Yes, there’s a little luster lost if Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who was at practice on Saturday, can’t participate against the team with which he won his fourth and fifth championship rings. But it’s still a matchup rich in connections, story lines and historic consequence.
Lee is just a small part of that intrigue. The Warriors have faced their old teammate in different uniforms.
“We’ve seen him in different jerseys since he left here, but now he’s a part of that Spurs identity, and saying that is weird,” Stephen Curry said. “We’ll be ready for what he brings off the bench for them, for sure.”
Coming off the bench, Lee, 34, is averaging a little over 18 minutes. In the regular season he averaged 7.3 points per game; in the postseason it’s 4.6. He’s efficient, shooting 53.7 percent from the field in the playoffs and 59 percent in the regular season. He’s in a system where head coach Gregg Popovich plays to his strengths and utilizes what Lee does best.
“He can play,” said Curry. “He’s a playmaker, he’s great with the ball in his hands. I thought (the Spurs) would be a great fit with his style. He’s always creating ball movement. He’s really good at playing pick-and-roll and figuring out ways to slice the defense with amazing finishes at the rim. That’s what we’ve always seen. His game really fits their style and how they move the ball.”
Curry is still in touch on a regular basis with Lee, who is on his third team since leaving the Warriors. First he was traded to the Celtics in a postchampionship salary dump. He was waived midseason and signed with Dallas. In August he signed with the Spurs.
It’s been a rocky road after several years of stability — five seasons with the New York Knicks, where he raised his scoring average every season, then five with Golden State. In the recent era of the Warriors, first there was Curry. Then there was Lee. They were the two most important pieces of the puzzle that the Warriors ownership began constructing when it took control in 2010. Lee, who signed a six-year, $80 million contract with the Warriors after being traded from the Knicks, was always a favorite of owner Joe Lacob; he was the player who would most often appear at team events and news conferences.
It is still strange to remember that Lee was the Warriors’ first All-Star in 16 years, named in 2013. Curry was caught in the Western Conference guard pile-up before asserting his dominance the next season.
Lee was in Oakland as the Warriors grew from a 23-43 team, to one bounced in the second round by the Spurs (2013) and the first round by the Clippers (2014), to an NBA championship in 2015.
Lee was a building block of that run, though it was his hamstring strain in the 2014-15 preseason, as Kerr was putting together his first team, that changed the team’s fortunes. That injury put Draymond Green in the starting lineup, kept Lee and his iffy defense on the bench, and helped create the team we see today.
Did Lee know what was evolving at the time?
“You look at the potential of situations, and if guys continue to get better and better and stay injury free, there’s the potential for it to be there,” Lee said to San Antonio reporters Saturday. “Just seeing that all come together with the Warriors, that was a really exciting time.”
Lee was on that Warriors team that lost to the Spurs in six games in 2013.
“Manu (Ginobili) hits a Manu shot and years later he’s still doing the same thing, so some things never change,” Lee said. “The Warriors’ success is somewhat new. Obviously the Spurs have been sustaining it for a lot longer. But the two franchises have won a lot of games in recent memory.
“It’s going to be an exciting, fun series.”
And a matchup we’ve been waiting for.