The David Lee Debacle That Isn’t will look rather silly in a few months.
For the duration of the early part of the 2014-15 season, many outside the Golden State Warriors’ camp have wondered if the team’s highest-paid player would submit to coming off of the bench. Lee, sidelined for all but one of the season’s first 25 games with a hamstring injury, seemed to be the odd man out as former reserve Draymond Green shot his way into everyone’s hearts from the stretch four position. The Warriors boast the league’s best defense and the team nearly has a top five offense despite a slippery start, and they don’t want to mess with chemistry.
Finally healthy, does Lee understand why rookie coach Steve Kerr would want to bring the former All-Star in off of the bench? From Diamond Leung at Bay Area News Group:
"Absolutely," Lee said Monday. "Whether I start tomorrow, or I get a DNP or anything in between, I trust Coach (Steve Kerr) that he's doing this to help our team win games, and that's his only agenda.
"If this is a temporary thing, a permanent thing, that doesn't matter to me at all. I'm so excited that I'm on this winning team."
We shouldn’t have expected anything less from Lee, and for various reasons.
To start, the “winning team” aspect of things is well taken. The Warriors made the playoffs with Lee starting the last two seasons and they at least seemed like a championship contender last year, but this year is entirely different. The Warriors have raced out to a quite credible 23-3 season thus far and they’re on pace for 73 wins. That mark likely won’t hold up even if Andrew Bogut returns with alacrity from his most recent knee procedure, but this is still a killer squad that has designs on turning into something different than the typical 1-through-8 Western powerhouses.
Secondly, Lee’s rookie season was spent under Larry Brown – the sort of guy that would complain about Stephon Marbury to no end prior to running out to push for a trade for a diminished version of Stephon Marbury in Steve Francis so as to hope to convince his bosses that general manager Isiah Thomas was insane. Thomas was insane, but even Thomas (as a future Knick coach) never decided on starting lineups based on where that player went to college or where he grew up.
Lastly? Lee is going to get his.
David’s presence wasn’t really needed as the Warriors dumped the Sacramento Kings on Monday by 20 points, nor will he be needed much in Tuesday’s contest against the reeling Los Angeles Lakers. He missed six of nine shots but still contributed six points and seven rebounds in 16 minutes of action, not bad for someone who is likely far out of shape in recovery from an injury that tends to linger.
Lee and fellow benchmate Andre Iguodala are going to be counted on as the team’s bench saviors, an incredible luxury to have at a cost of a combined $17.3 million in salary this season. The Warriors’ offense noticeably drops off with MVP candidate Stephen Curry on the bench, and there was some worry as to the pick and roll partnering between Dre and Lee – teams aren’t exactly rushing out to cover Iguodala as he attempts to set up his sweet-shooting big forward.
If Monday’s contest was any indication, though, there will be plenty of overlap with Lee, Iguodala, and Curry on the floor. Stephen played just 26 minutes in the blowout win, and yet he saw significant time on the floor with Lee in the big forward’s first contest of the season.
This could work. This could truly in a way that wouldn’t force the Warriors to shop Lee in anticipation of Draymond Green’s upcoming free agent turn, and a possible luxury tax hit next season. It’s not our money to throw around, but that shouldn’t preclude NBA observers from insisting that the Golden State Warriors owners pay the tax with Lee, Iguodala, Curry, Andrew Bogut and Green’s large contracts all on the roster next season, in a campaign that could turn out to be a title defense. The hit would likely last for just one season, prior to the NBA’s salary cap bump in 2016.
In the meantime, the Warriors have built up so much win/loss capital – 23-3 entering a game with the Lakers followed up by what could be a contest against the Kevin Durant-less Oklahoma City Thunder – that they can afford to take their time with both Lee and Andrew Bogut. It’s true that the West is intensely competitive and that every little slip to the rotation hurts – but the teams directly in back of the W’s in the Western standings (Portland and Memphis) both feature similarly stricken frontcourts, and a January slide of a relative nature won’t matter much if things are going swimmingly come June.
David Lee knows this can work, which is why he’s handling his “demotion” appropriately. He knows that he can be part of something special, while still being paid handsomely to do his work on the offensive end.
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