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Anderson proves his worth to Warriors, who initially despised facing him

SAN FRANCISCO – Draymond Green doesn’t forget. His memory is one of the many resources he can reach in and grab from his tool box. 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 y’all before,” Green said Wednesday night. “He got a steal either last year or a couple years ago where I was throwing a pass and he reached his long-ass arm out and took the ball and I’m like, ‘Yo, how did he get the ball?' ”

Plenty of players have asked themselves that same question over Anderson’s 11-year NBA career. In the Warriors’ win Tuesday night to start a back-to-back against the New Orleans Pelicans, Green received a reminder how, but only this time he could 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” slid and stopped a freight train square in its tracks.

“I’m like, ‘Yup, I’m happy I don’t have to face that anymore,’ ” Green said.

Anderson isn’t the fastest or the most athletic. He can throw it down but isn’t going to dunk in the fashion of Vince Carter, Dominique Wilkins or any of the great high-fliers. What he is 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’s representing.

The veteran point-forward who can play nearly all five positions, especially defensively, now is on his fifth team after previous stops in San Antonio, Memphis and Minnesota. The influence he had on the shorthanded Warriors taking both ends of their back-to-back with the Pelicans, first a 124-106 win followed by a 104-89 win, was exactly what they envisioned when they acquired Anderson in the offseason.

And exactly why they were sick of going against Anderson on his prior teams.

“What he does is hard to quantify sometimes, 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 chessboard really well and impacts the game at a high level.”

"What he does is hard to quantify sometimes."

Steve Kerr discusses Kyle Anderson's under-the-radar impact on the Warriors pic.twitter.com/XbBqbNcefu

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) October 31, 2024

Down by 20 points early against the Pelicans on Tuesday night, Anderson was one of the main reasons the Warriors roared back and outscored New Orleans by 35 points in the final three quarters. Anderson played 20 minutes off the bench and was a plus-9, while missing all nine of his shot attempts. He made one of his two free throws, finishing with only one point.

But Anderson also grabbed two rebounds, dished four assists and had five of the Warriors’ 15 steals.

The Warriors’ best lineup by plus-minus Tuesday night was a group of Anderson and Green as big men essentially serving as point guards flanked by shooters in 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 Warriors tenure, Anderson on Wednesday night was directing traffic offensively and disrupting the Pelicans defensively. Without an injured Steph Curry and De’Anthony Melton, Anderson on many occasions Wednesday was the Warriors’ point guard, their second-best lineup had him with the ball in his hands setting his teammates up for success.

Slo-Mo with the speedy bounce pass to Buddy pic.twitter.com/7SgPiTBO41

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) October 31, 2024

On top of that, Anderson was a perfect 4 of 4 from the field. Through his first four games as a Warrior he scored a total of 10 points on 4-of-18 shooting. Then, he matched 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. “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 to have him on our side is absolutely incredible because he’s one of those guys you can trust in any situation.”

Playing for Western Conference foes, the Warriors faced Anderson 45 times over the last decade – 30 in the regular season and 15 in the playoffs. The Warriors beat Anderson and the Spurs two straight 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 sleep knowing the ultra-adaptable Anderson is with the Warriors now.

“I’ve always hated to play against him,” Kerr said, echoing Green’s sentiments from later in the night. “He was always one of those guys who just seemed like when he came in against us, things went south. It’s great to have him on our side.”

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