The Golden State Warriors played the Minnesota Timberwolves yesterday and will play the San Antonio Spurs tomorrow and the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday. All three of these teams are talented, and they all have elite power forwards. David Lee had the difficult task of defending Kevin Love yesterday, but he held him to 10-for-25 shooting. He will have his hands full guarding Tim Duncan tomorrow and Zach Randolph on Saturday.
Love, Duncan, and Randolph are often brought up when discussing the best power forwards in the game. However, Lee is rarely named in that discussion. Lee is a two-time All-Star, he led the NBA in double-doubles last season, he has shot better than 50 percent from the floor in all eight of his NBA seasons, and he is one of only three players to average at least 16 points and nine rebounds each of the past five seasons.
Lee has the résumé to be considered an elite power forward, but many NBA analysts believe that he still has a lot to prove, especially defensively. Lee has always been criticized for his defense. Lee claims that, last season, he would save his energy for his efforts on offense, and that ended up hurting him on defense. In the offseason, he worked on his pick-and-roll defense and help defense.
Also, when recovering from his hip flexor injury in the offseason, Lee claims that he focused on strengthening his core, and in the process, he lost 20 pounds. Lee told Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group that his lighter and quicker frame will allow him to play with more energy and focus on the defensive end.
“The key for me,” Lee said, “is making the extra effort plays and bringing the energy. I expect to have a much better year defensively.”
Mark Jackson has noticed his improvement on the defensive end as well. Jackson told Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle after that game that Lee has certainly showed more energy on the defensive end so far this season.
“He’s done that,” Jackson said before Lee held Philadelphia’s Thaddeus Young to six points on 3-of-10 shooting and two rebounds. “He’s improving. The challenge is sustaining it, but he’s playing very physical, paying attention to detail, and he’s always been a high-IQ guy on both sides of the basketball.”
Lee has shown improvement on the defensive end, but having a healthy Andrew Bogut alongside him will certainly improve his defense and the Warriors’ defense as a whole. Lee recently told Rob Mahoney of SI.com that he thinks Bogut will make him better defensively, and they hope to outplay their opponent’s frontcourt every night. Lee told SI.com:
“There’s a lot of good big-guy tandems — the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers — in the West a lot of teams have great bigs. We have our hands full this year but I think that we can be as good as anybody if we’re healthy like we are right now, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Lee is right that there is an abundance of talented frontcourt players in the Western Conference, and he has to go up against them on a nightly basis. How does he compare to the best power forwards in the NBA? Jackson gave the Bay Area News Group his opinion.
“Some of the best players in the world are at that position,” Jackson said. “Every night, he has to battle. And for his career, he’s won a lot of them, a majority of them. … But we don’t determine winning his position by the numbers. I think it’s how you’re competing, how you’re battling, how you’re impacting the basketball game. When he does that, we’re pretty good.”
Continuing the debate of the best power forwards in the NBA, Stephen Curry told Simmons and the Chronicle his opinion too.
“He’s up there,” the point guard said. “He’s a double-double machine, an All-Star and a guy who can play inside and out. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t be regarded among that group of guys who are considered All-Star caliber every year.”
Offensively, Lee is an elite power forward in the NBA. As Coach Jackson said, we’ll have to wait and see if Lee can sustain his improved play on the defensive end though. If he does, he should certainly be considered one of the elite power forwards in the NBA.
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