The Weekside: Andre Iguodala’s long, strange trip to becoming NBA Finals MVP

Andre Iguodala’s journey from failed star to defensive genius to sixth man to Finals MVP.

The mid-2000s launched a new generation of versatile, dynamic small forwards. LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony were drafted first and third overall in the 2003 draft, which also saw the Dallas Mavericks select future All-Star Josh Howard. The prior year had given the NBA Caron Butler, and the following two drafts included Luol Deng and Danny Granger.

They all became leaders on their teams quickly. They all became All-Stars — each doing so within his first five seasons (with the exception of Deng, who didn’t make it until his eighth year). And with, arguably, the exception of Carmelo, they all were praised for their high-level play on both ends of the floor, scoring often and defending their position well.

Then there was Andre Iguodala

He was a bit of a “tweener,” taken two picks after Deng in an era when people still cared whether a wing was a shooting guard or small forward.

Given his physical gifts and all-around game, he looked like would become the next marketable star from this group, behind LeBron and Melo in the pecking order but ahead of the rest of his peers. That didn’t happen. He was never outright disappointing, but Philadelphia’s “AI2” never exactly fulfilled his promise. Though he could score, being an offense’s first option didn’t suit him well. It seems poetic that he peaked with a 19.9 ppg average in 2007-08 — just shy of the 20 ppg plateau that young scorers see as a mountain to conquer.

As Andre stopped trying to fit his round-peg game into a scorer’s square hole and his team faltered, he started to become seen more for what he was not than what he was. Like Granger and Butler and Howard and Deng, he wasn’t ever going to be a franchise player.

But as his potential for stardom disappeared, Iguodala grew into something great.

He redefined himself as a defensive stopper, and although he had been a top-rate player on that side of the court from his first days as a pro, his ability to further hone his craft put him into the conversation for the best wing defender in the league.

People wanted him to be something else, but that is what Andre Iguodala was meant to be. And there couldn’t have been better validation for his chosen path than winning a Finals MVP while defending the world’s best player.

The Hardest Job in Basketball

“Guarding LeBron James has to be the hardest job in basketball,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr after the Warriors won the title.

Andre Iguodala did it as well as any human can.

One key state might suggest otherwise: the 35.8 points per game LeBron averaged in the Finals. But if it wasn’t for Andre’s dynamic work to contain the Cavaliers’ star, the damage could have been even worse.

In the first two games of the series, as the Warriors came one Iman Shumpert buzzer beater from falling down 0-2, LeBron dominated, putting up 44 and 39 points. He was especially destructive in the first quarters of Games 1 and 2, averaging 11 points per on 47.4% shooting. Moreover, he set a tempo in both games that notified the Warriors that he was the real MVP and that he would be deliberately obliterating their defense — all game, every game.

Even as he thrived early on, it was clear that Iguodala was the best defender the Warriors could put on James. Neither Draymond Green nor Harrison Barnes were effective, especially as LeBron backed them down and abused them in the post. Iguodala, by contrast, was a better deterrent down low, fighting for position and having some say in what types of shots LeBron could get with his back to the hoop.

The first two LeBron post ups Andre faced in Game 1 both resulted in contested mid-range misses, for example.

But it wasn’t until after Game 3 that Steve Kerr made the switch to put Iguodala into the starting lineup.

It’s a bit funny that Kerr opting to start a player with Andre’s pedigree can be considered a genius coaching move that changed a series — especially since Kerr is the only coach in Iguodala’s career to bench him.

Before Kerr was hired, Iguoldala had played 806 professional basketball games, including regular season in playoffs. And Iguodala had started 806 professional basketball games. Despite this fact, the rookie coach sat Iguodala down in the preseason and told him he thought it would be best for the team if Barnes started in his place.

Iguodala couldn’t have been happy. No player wants to come off the bench. But he conceded, the Warriors won 67 games in the regular season, and made the NBA Finals. Kerr was clearly correct.

But now Kerr needed to reverse course. For the “hardest job in basketball,” he needed Iguodala back on the floor as soon as the jumpball was thrown up. The Warriors couldn’t let LeBron run wild any more and force the game to be played on Cleveland’s terms. “After the first three games we decided to start Andre because he was by far doing the best job on LeBron,” said Kerr in his Game 6 press conference.

Not only did LeBron only score 5 points in the first quarter of Game 4, but he only attempted 5 shots, down from the 10, 10, and 9 he put up in opening periods of Games 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

To be sure, this wasn’t all about individual defense. In 2015, with the complex schemes and tied-together systems run throughout the league, nothing is. Part of LeBron not shooting as much to start Game 4 was his effort to feed the bigs. Kerr didn’t just insert Iguodala. He went small, and the Cavaliers wanted to take advantage of that.

But Iguodala and others didn’t mind.

They knew they had the small-ball advantage on the other end of the court, and they were interested in not letting LeBron go off early while playing quick offense on the other end. And Andre helped ensure that would happen by playing excellent position defense to not let James get to certain spots on the floor. And when LeBron did attack, Iguodala played perfect fundamental defense, moving along with the dribbler and contesting any shot without fouling.

Here is a great example just a minute into Game 4.

Even when Iguodala couldn’t stop LeBron from overwhelming him, he was able to keep the Warriors game plan in mind.

Andre didn’t pout, for example, after getting embarrassed by James in the below clip. He instead exploited the fact that LeBron ended up out of bounds and took off to the races to easily score what had been rare fast-break poinst for the Warriors up to that point in the Finals.

This wasn’t some rare instance.

LeBron got the better of Iguodala time and time again.

The big difference between Iguodala and many other defenders, however, is the approach.

LeBron James cracked Iguodala again and again with vicious fadeaways, punishing backdowns, and lightning drives. It was an impossible mission, but Iguodala knew he was taking the right approach — working the angles, playing the percentages — even as he continually had the best view in the arena of the greatest player’s highlight reel.

Learning to Value Approach Over Outcome

“The mental challenge is you’re not going to give up no matter what,” said Andre Iguodala after Game 5. “You might feel some fatigue. I felt like there were some moments when he got the best of me on a low block, made some tough shots. But mentally you’ve got to say you’re going to get a stop every opportunity you get, and you’ve got to keep just grinding it out.”

As a player who has been in the league for 11 years, he has learned that trying to improve day after day, year after year, is what separates the mere ballplayers from the professionals. “Win, lose, or draw,” he said he takes pride in the way he approaches the game: never cutting corners, being a basketball junkie who watches 1990s games to divine insight, doing his best to master the small parts of the game that don’t get your face in TV commercials.

“I don’t think a trophy or a ring can really signify who you are as a person,” said Iguodala. “The work you put in kind of says it all.”

He put in the work in learning how to guard James.

Over the years, he has learned LeBron’s tendencies. He can sense when James likes to pull up for a jumper versus when he is more likely to use his explosiveness to get to the rack. He knows which way LeBron prefers to drive from each side of the floor.

“I’ve been preparing for the moment for 11 years now,” said Iguodala. “I’ve seen him every year I’ve been in this league. LeBron doesn’t have any weaknesses, or he doesn’t have a glaring weakness. So you’ve got to pick up on the smaller things to try to make him uncomfortable … It’s the 10,000-hour rule. You’re just trying to master your craft.”

In the same press conference, one reporter asked Iguodala if he noticed the Oakland fans chanting MVP while he was at the foul line. “When I hear MVP, I think they’re talking about Steph,” he said.

Usually Steph Curry is who they are talking about.

But for the six biggest basketball games in 2015, they were talking about somebody else.

They were talking about the player whose failure to become a big-time scorer was once seen as a disappointment. They were talking about the veteran who got taken out of the starting lineup this year by a rookie coach. They were talking about the guy who LeBron lit up nightly for the past two weeks.

They were talking about the best Warriors player in the NBA Finals.

They were talking about Andre Iguodala, long-time master of his craft, first-time Finals MVP.

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