⏩ Courting Iguodala: Houston made the strongest effort of any team to lure the Warriors’ swingman in free agency last summer.
Andre Iguodala will pass the ball to Warriors teammates Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson in the Western Conference finals, and he will try to help slow Houston’s James Harden and Chris Paul.
This all seems so natural, so logical, but it easily could have been the other way around.
The Rockets aggressively courted Iguodala in free agency last summer. They showered him with attention and affection, figuring one way to topple mighty Golden State was to acquire one of its key players.
“I salute their attempt to try to steal him away,” Curry said Friday, “... but I had a lot of confidence he would be back with us.”
Iguodala ultimately did return to the Warriors, for $48 million over three years (fully guaranteed). But he secured that contract only after protracted negotiations, including meetings with the Lakers, Spurs, Kings and Rockets.
Houston made the biggest push and came close to signing Iguodala, according to an ESPN.com story in September. The Rockets didn’t have adequate salary-cap space (they could offer only $32 million over four years), but they convinced Iguodala he would be a great fit — and general manager Daryl Morey impressed him with several lucrative sign-and-trade possibilities, according to the story.
It reached the point that Iguodala subsequently met with Warriors general manager Bob Myers and head coach Steve Kerr, planning to personally say goodbye. Myers instead persuaded owner Joe Lacob to increase the team’s offer, and before long, Iguodala was back in the fold.
He played coy Friday when asked how close he came to bolting to the Rockets.
“I don’t remember (any) of that from last summer,” Iguodala said. “At the end of the day, it’s all business. I don’t know, man. I can’t get too deep . ... I’m just really excited to play basketball in America, and to be free and all that.”
Iguodala then was asked an innocuous follow-up question about how the Rockets did reshape their roster. They signed P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute in free agency, after earlier pulling off a sign-and-trade for Paul, and added Gerald Green in December.
But those details were not part of Iguodala’s answer. Instead, tellingly, he praised the Houston organization and raved at length about head coach Mike D’Antoni.
Iguodala played on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, for which D’Antoni was an assistant to head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“I saw his offensive mind — he drew up some incredible out-of-bounds plays,” Iguodala said. “A lot of his point guards have had success under him. Players are very comfortable with him. I think he maxes out the potential of his players, especially offensively.”
That proved true this season, as the Rockets — spacing the court and letting fly from three-point land — rode Harden and Paul to the NBA’s best record (65-17). Now they’re in the conference finals for only the second time in 21 years.
Morey and D’Antoni envisioned this impending meeting with the Warriors, only with Iguodala on their side. They knew they couldn’t nab one of Golden State’s four All-Stars — Curry, Thompson, Kevin Durant or Draymond Green — so they chased the next-best option.
Nice try, anyway.
“A lot of teams want Andre for what he brings: his intensity, his smarts, his quick hands, his athleticism,” Durant said. “Everybody wants that if they’re trying to build a championship team. I’m glad he stuck around.”