andre iguodala struggling (Photo: LetsGoWarriors.com)
The Golden State Warriors knew they were getting an elite defensive wing when they signed Andre Iguodala. However one of the most attractive assets Iguodala brought to the table was his ability to replace Jarrett Jack as the secondary ballhandler, without having to go small. The idea was, the Warriors would be able to improve defensively without giving up offense.
Iguodala came off a season where he averaged 13 points (on 11 shots) and 5.4 assists in denver, almost identical to Jarrett Jack’s 12.9 points (10.8 shots) and 5.6 assists last season.
One noticeable trend for the Warriors this season has been Iguodala’s declined production offensively since returning from the hamstring injury:
@SheridanBlog@ThompsonScribe Just saying pre-injury, 8.8 shots, 13.5 ppg, 6.3 apg, post-injury 6.6 shots, 7.8 ppg, 3.4 apg
— sam esfandiari (@samesfandiari) February 5, 2014
Iguodala played in 13 games prior to suffering his hamstring injury and has played in 24 games since returning to action on December 17th.
A popular theory for the drop in production upon return was Iguodala was dialing back his play to avoid re-in jurying himself. Hamstring injuries are tricky things and re-aggregating or even tearing it could have taken him out for the remainder of the season.
This was certainly evident by playing less minutes in his early games upon return, but Iguodala didn’t attribute his slump to injury when he talked to LetsGoWarriors today after morning shootaround.
“I don’t think it’s attributed to that at all,” Iguodala said, “Just guys used to me coming back, but the more I rebound, the more touches I get, so I gotta focus on the boards, push the ball on the break, and make things happen.”
Iguodala’s lack of assertiveness has become a factor in the Warriors offense, which has dipped from Top Ten in the NBA in the early season to currently 16th. They were 11th last season.
Iguodala is the only player than Stephen Curry capable of consistently creating offense off the dribble and creating easy opportunities for other players. Without him doing so, the Warriors offense has become stagnant and too dependent on Curry to do everything.
To coach Mark Jackson and Iguodala’s credit, they’ve both acknowledged Iguodala’s need to be more aggressive, for the good of the team:
“You want to take good shots within the offense,” Iguodala said, “We don’t want to break rhythm too much so we’re finding things, finding different plays we can run. Biggest thing with our team is we gotta continue to move the ball, find second or third options when the first option’s not there and continue to try to keep the offense fluid.”
[NOTE: Poor Man’s Commish contributed to this report.]
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