Anderson shows courage to Warriors, who ‘hated’ playing against him originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Draymond Green does not forget. Your memory is one of the many resources you can reach in and pull out of your toolbox. One such example highlights the ways his new Warriors teammate Kyle Anderson can affect games without producing highlights that spread across social media.
“He’s one of those guys I hated playing against, I told you before,” Green said Wednesday night. “He got a steal last year or a couple years ago when I was throwing a pass and he reached out with his long arm and grabbed the ball and I said, ‘Hey, how did he get the ball?’ “
Many players have asked themselves the same question during Anderson’s 11-year NBA career. In the Warriors’ victory Tuesday night to start a back-to-back against the New Orleans Pelicans, Green got a reminder of how to do it, but only this time was he able to savor the moment knowing he’s now wearing the same colors as Anderson.
Pelicans star and super athlete Zion Williamson tried to take Anderson off the dribble. the man known as “Slo Mo” It slid and stopped a freight train in its tracks.
“I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m happy I don’t have to deal with that anymore,’” Green said.
Anderson is not the fastest or the most athletic. He can shoot it, but he’s not going to shoot it in the style of Vince Carter, Dominique Wilkins or any of the big fliers. What he’s going to do is use his 6-foot-9, 230-pound frame with a 7-foot-3 wingspan to his advantage in every way possible.
Combine that with having one of the most cerebral minds in all of basketball and you have a winning player no matter what franchise he represents.
The veteran forward who can play nearly all five positions, especially defensively, is now on his fourth team after previous stops in San Antonio, Memphis and Minnesota. The influence he had on the short-handed Warriors who won both ends of their back-to-back matchup with the Pelicans, first a 124-106 victory followed by a 104-89 victoryIt was exactly what they imagined when acquired Anderson in the offseason.
And exactly why they were sick of facing Anderson on their previous teams.
“What he does sometimes is hard to quantify, because he’s an excellent defender, he makes the game make sense with his brain,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Wednesday night. “He sees the board very well and impacts the game at a high level.”
Trailing the Pelicans by 20 points on Tuesday night, Anderson was a big reason the Warriors rallied and outscored New Orleans by 35 points over the final three quarters. Anderson played 20 minutes off the bench and was a plus-9, although he missed all nine of his shot attempts. He made one of his two free throws and finished with just one point.
But Anderson also grabbed two rebounds, dished out four assists and made five of the Warriors’ 15 steals.
The Warriors’ best lineup Tuesday night was a group of Anderson and Green as big men who essentially acted as point guards flanked by shooters like Buddy Hield and Lindy Waters II, along with a downhill cutter in Jonathan Kuminga. They were a plus-10, outscoring the Pelicans 24-14 in 30 possessions.
Just five games into his tenure with the Warriors, Anderson on Wednesday night was directing traffic offensively and disrupting the Pelicans defensively. Without Steph Curry and De’Anthony Melton injured, Anderson on many occasions Wednesday was the Warriors’ point guard, their second-best lineup having him with the ball in his hands setting his teammates up for success.
On top of that, Anderson was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field. In his first four games as a Warrior he scored a total of 10 points on 4-of-18 shooting. Then, he equaled that point total in one game, without missing a shot, and in 14 fewer attempts.
“He was really our point guard most of the night,” Green said. “By getting BP (Brandin Podziemski) off the ball, he was our point guard most of the night. He just has a level of versatility that most guys don’t possess in this league, and having him on our side is absolutely incredible because he’s one of those guys that you can trust in any situation.”
Playing Western Conference foes, the Warriors faced Anderson 45 times over the past decade: 30 in the regular season and 15 in the playoffs. The Warriors beat Anderson and the Spurs two consecutive seasons in the playoffs, 2017 and 2018, as well as when he was with the Grizzlies in 2022.
Like Green, Kerr can put his nightmares to rest knowing that the ultra-adaptable Anderson is now with the Warriors.
“I always hated playing against him,” Kerr said, echoing Green’s sentiments later that night. “He was always one of those guys that seemed like when he faced us, things went wrong. “It’s great to have him on our side.”
