Missed the Cut: Andre Iguodala

Written by Isaac O’Neill with additional editing and contributions by Chris Howson-Jan

Resumé:

3 x NBA Champion (2015, 2017, 2018)

NBA Finals MVP (2014)

1 x NBA All-Star (2012)

1 x All Defensive First Team (2014)

1 x Al Defensive Second Team (2011)

Andre Iguodala was never the best player on a championship team — far from it. He was the fourth best player on the ’15 Warriors, and the fifth on the ’17 and ’18 Warriors; this gives him the distinction of being one of three players in NBA history to win Finals MVP without being one of the two best players on the team.

There is a case to be made that JoJo White also fits the bill for the 1976 Celtics, but he was the second leading scorer on the team, and had 7 All-Star appearances and a pair of All-NBA teams to burgeon his case as a top two or three player on a championship team. One other case is Kawhi Leonard, who won the award in 2014; thankfully, we won’t have to deliberate his Top 100 Pyramid candidacy. The only other similar case is Cedric Maxwell for the Celtics in 1981. Maxwell, though not second best, was third in points for the Celtics during the regular season. Kawhi was also third in points for his team, and his star was clearly on the rise during the playoffs. Iguodala was the seventh highest scorer on the Warriors in 2015. Yes, he famously took a back seat to Draymond Green for the good of the team, but my point is, once again, his case is unprecedented.

Iguodala followed Leonard’s path to Finals MVP as the primary defender against LeBron James. LeBron still put up fantastic numbers carrying a team missing Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, but Iggy no doubt contained him better than most would have. There are a lot of numbers that back up Iggy’s impressive defence. One noteworthy stat: LeBron scored 26 points per 36 minutes with Iguodala on the floor, and 35 points (per 36) with him off it.

In my opinion, LeBron should have won Finals MVP, and become only the second player to win the award for the losing team (other than Jerry West, who won it in 1969, the first season it was given). Award voters unofficially made the statement that Finals MVP was a winners award by awarding it to Iguodala in a 7–4 vote. But even if you feel LeBron was undeserving, I would still have given the award to Steph Curry. Curry did not play up to his MVP standards, but in no real way was Iguodala more valuable than him to the Warriors success. Given the injuries to the Cavs, the Warriors could have won without Iguodala; there was no chance of them winning without Curry. It was again similar to the ’81 Celtics, where Larry Bird was not as good as usual, and Maxwell vastly outperformed expectations. But regardless of how you define the term “valuable,” Maxwell and Iggy are not trumping Bird and Curry, respectively.

Let me say now, I expect that Andre Iguodala will get into the NBA Hall of Fame one day. Though I can’t totally say I would agree with that decision, he is a unique case, and he was undoubtedly a major contributor to the Warriors historic five year run. However, he still falls far short of the standards of the Top 100. The only players with comparable All-Star appearances are Bill Walton, Dennis Rodman, and Manu Ginobili, who all have two. All contributed more to their teams in very different ways. Rodman and Manu were not top ten players during their career either. But Manu achieved All-NBA twice, a feat Iguodala never remotely sniffed; he received no votes in his lone All-Star year, and a single 3rd Team vote in 2013.

Drafted by the Sixers in 2004, Iguodala became the go-to player in Philadelphia after Iverson was traded to the Nuggets during the 07–08 season. He led the team in points for the next four seasons, but only at 17.1 PPG. The team averaged 37 wins during that stretch, losing in the first round three times, and missing out on the playoffs entirely in 2010. In 2011–12, Iguodala, along with Elton Brand, took a backseat to a budding core of Lou Williams, Thad Young and Jrue Holiday, although Iguodala did make his first and only All-Star game. The Sixers made the playoffs, getting past a Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls in the first round before falling to the Celtics in a series that is now best remembered for its role in Uncut Gems. Iguodala was then traded to an exciting flash-in-the-pan Denver Nuggets team that was upset by the Warriors in the first round, only to join the Warriors in a sign and trade that offseason.

The rest is history, as Iguodala was a key cog on the Warriors, making various clutch plays throughout his tenure.

In my opinion, Iguodala should have won Sixth Man of the Year in 2015–16 instead of a 35 year old Jamal Crawford who took all offence/no defence to a new level. Crawford played on a good Clippers team, but gained attention with his flashy handle and an extraordinary amount of and-1s, despite only shooting 34% from 3 on the season. Meanwhile, Iggy helped unlock the famed Lineup of Death that made the Warriors so dreaded; adding him as an elite perimeter defender meant the Warriors had more leeway in hiding Curry on defence. He also shot a respectable 35% from 3.

I also think Iguodala is still underrated defensively, and deserves to be considered one of the best perimeter defenders of the past decade; I was surprised to learn he only had two All-Defensive Team appearances (in 2011 and 2014). Being able to guard positions 1–4 remains one of the most valuable traits in the league, as few perimeter defenders have the strength to do it. In the last decade, he ranks seventh overall in Defensive Box Plus Minus for perimeter defenders who’ve played over 500 games. Though he declined heavily on offence over the past couple of years, he remained a lockdown defender in the playoffs.

I think at his peak, Iggy could have probably been the 3rd best player on a normal level championship team. Though he’s not the same shooter, his passing and ball handling add a lot more value than someone like Danny Green, whose ceiling is as a 5th starter. His passing prowess was unlocked before he got to the Warriors, on full display during the notable 2012–13 Denver Nuggets season. Iguodala was a key piece on that team, who ranks as the 20th best passing team of all time (per BackPicks’ Passer Rating). Per BackPicks single season player passer rating, Iguodala’s 12–13 season ranks 53rd overall as well.

However, at the end of the day, he simply wasn’t as talented as the players who made the top 100. We’re willing to rely more on advanced stats and projections with players like Manu Ginobili, because they all point towards a player who could’ve handled more if given the keys to his own proverbial car. But nothing about Iggy’s numbers inspire that level of confidence. When he had the opportunity to be the #1 option, his teams simply weren’t very good, and he had the dream situation for the back half of his career; he was able to play to his strengths perfectly, with none of the pressure or scrutiny of being a top player. He didn’t even log many minutes, given the number of games he played in the past five years.

Him being an overqualified 4th or 5th best player undoubtedly contributed to the Warriors historic dominance. But there are no other guys on the top 100, with multiple rings, that are that far down the food chain on their respective teams. I have trouble conceding that a player is worthy of the Hall of Fame if he was only once considered one of the twelve best players in a weak conference throughout his entire prime. Devin Harris, Jameer Nelson, Caron Butler, Mo Williams, Gerald Wallace, Antawn Jamison; these are names of guys with one or two All-Star appearances who made it over Iguodala throughout his years in Philadelphia. They’re not names that exactly jump off the page with Hall of Fame resumés, beside Iggy’s. It seemed the consensus was that Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson, two other Eastern Conference small forwards, were consistently better players. Pierce and Johnson have 10 and 7 All-Star appearances, respectively, compared to Iggy’s one.

As I’ve said before, Win-Shares arenot the end-all be-all to determine if Player X or Player Y was better, but it can be a decent summation of a player’s career achievements, and give a ballpark idea of how their career stacks up. Basketball Reference has a nice little tool called Similarity Scores, which neatly shows us what players compare in career quality and shape, via Win-Shares by year, to one another. There are impressive comparisons for Iguodala, including Dennis Johnson, Lenny Wilkens, and Tony Parker; players such as Rod Strickland, Jason Terry, and Andre Miller also appear. It’s extremely tough to say where Iggy deserves to land among them.

The hope for this series is to give some insight into players whose omissions from the Top 100 Pyramid might leave some people wondering. Iguodala’s Finals MVP will continue to be hotly debated. He is one of the first players that come to mind who embodies the pace and space/3&D era we now reside in. And to be a crunch-time player on a historically greatteam that won three rings is not a role any three and D guy could have filled as impressively as Iggy. It is encouraged that you form your own opinion on Iguodala’s Hall of Fame and Top 100 candidacy — but let it be known clearly that he was never given serious consideration for the latter.