Coach Kerr has motley crew of bigs to call on in reserve
Big men have proved productive in limited minutes off the bench
ORLANDO — In a small-ball era increasingly built for guards and wings, the Warriors remain at the forefront of the movement. But this season, that reality comes with a quirk: Nearly half of Golden State’s roster is filled with limited, low-usage big men who don’t fit the pace-and-space mold.
It’s a strange roster imbalance that has created some difficulties. Instead of resting, Shaun Livingston is often forced to play mop-up duty. Patrick McCaw can’t get useful time in the D-League because he’s always one ankle tweak away from major minutes. A roster change or two is likely on the way at some point.
But until then, Steve Kerr is utilizing his motley crew of big men: Zaza Pachulia, David West, Ja-Vale McGee, Kevon Looney, James Michael McAdoo, Anderson Varejao and Damian Jones.
This past Wednesday, West fractured his thumb. He’s out at least two weeks. That created an opening for some minutes at the backup center spot. Kerr’s options to fill the void, while not dynamic, are at least varying in their skill sets, allowing him to adjust game to game.
In the win over the Rockets on Friday night, Kerr went with McAdoo as the first center off the bench. McAdoo is undersized for a big and doesn’t stretch the floor with shooting. He’s limited. In most matchups, he goes unused. But against Houston, his jolt of quickness proved helpful.
Kerr refers to McAdoo as his “speed 5.” Of the seven (non-Draymond Green) center options, he’s the most capable of sliding from big to wing to guard on defensive switches and holding his own, while also being able to fly out to shooters. He played well against the Rockets and flashed one of his few offensive skills: an ability to catch and quickly punctuate a finish.
Three times, McAdoo either curled or cut for a catch, quick jump and dunk before the rotating Rockets defense could get back to him — the kind of springy finish Pachulia, Looney and West can’t complete without a slower gather and contested layup attempt. McAdoo finished with a season-high eight points in 12 minutes.
“He was the player of the game,” Kevin Durant said.
But there’s a strong chance you may not even see McAdoo the next few games against more traditional styles and front lines. Looney seems the most likely to get a steady minutes bump in West’s absence. He’s the most West-like of these backup options, operating in that cerebral second unit to start the second and fourth quarters.
Looney, like West, is a strong, contact-seeking big with a natural ability to carve out space, read angles and snag rebounds despite an inability to get up vertically. He played some point guard in high school, so the ball doesn’t stick when it finds him and his touch around the rim is solid when he can find a window.
Looney had two hip surgeries last year, so he struggles to move laterally. That’s a problem against spread offensive attacks that can get him sliding around in space. But of this hodgepodge group, Looney — along with rookie 7-footer Damian Jones, who at this point seems too raw to gain Kerr’s trust yet — is the youngest with the highest upside.
This Warriors’ guard/ wing-heavy roster is only expected to get more expensive. There’s a need for cheap, young, productive labor from the big man spot. Any developmental minutes for Looney could prove valuable down the road.
But in certain matchups, JaVale McGee remains the intriguing wild card to drop into the action. McGee started the season out of the rotation, but forced his way into it by mid-November as a dunk machine. Kerr appears scared to play McGee against shooting big men — like Cleveland’s Channing Frye — for fear he’ll leave them unoccupied.
But when the Warriors catch a team either unfocused or unprepared for McGee’s lob game, they can pop four highlight alley-oops and eight points in a flash, which then spaces out the floor even wider. McGee had 17 points in 16 minutes against the Knicks and 15 points in nine minutes against the Pistons.
Varejao is the veteran on the end of the bench and, it would seem, the most expendable when the time comes for Bob Myers to balance out the roster. Pachulia is the firmly entrenched starter, leading this massive group of big men. He’s been in the league 14 years. He’s only seen a crowded frontcourt situation like this once in his career.
“Second year, actually,” Pachulia said. “When I was on the Bucks. We had like eight centers.”
But that was a ground-and-pound 32-50 Bucks team in an era stuck in what now seems like slow motion. They’d play two bigs most of the time. Milwaukee averaged 90 possessions per game that season, which was middle of the pack. This season, the NBA’s slowest team, the Sixers, average 98.5 possessions. The Warriors, who are the NBA’s fastest team, zip around at 113.6 possessions per game.
Which is what makes the lumbering back end of their roster a bit ironic. But the strategy behind it isn’t hard to decipher. The Warriors’ six highest paid players are guards, wings and the ever-versatile Draymond Green.
Instead of getting an extra layer of depth behind those guys, they chose to spend seven of their nine remaining roster spots — all on minimum or tiny rookie deals besides Pachulia — compiling a group of big men with clear flaws but minor, differing skills to tag-team about 30 to 35 minutes a night at one position. The results, considering the money available to spend, has been adequate.