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Plenty of teams have shooters and are ramping up the 3PAs— but Draymond is a massive reason the Warriors have been as historically dominant as they have been. When he came into the league, he was viewed as a tweener, a player without position, and that was, at the time, a BAD thing. IIRC, the Warriors tried playing him as a 3 before David Lee got hurt, and it wasn’t as successful.
Playing small ball with a skilled player with strength and defensive versatility is what every team that wants to play like the Warriors requires. It’s why big men are passé and wings/lengthy guards are everything. “Tweener” guys who could play in the post but could also defend the perimeter and make valuable passes or shots outside? Those guys are INSANELY important now. Everything is switching, everything is skill, everything is versatility and movement.
Obviously Draymond isn’t the Draymond he is today without the historically great shooters on that team, but one can easily argue they don’t win that title without what Draymond brought to small ball, they don’t attract Durant, they don’t attain a dynasty. Sure, every team wants the next Steph, but there are a lot of guards who shoot really well really quickly, who can be Diet Coke versions of Steph or Kyrie— there are very few Draymonds in the league. That’s what makes Super Saiyan small ball work: Draymond.
Or, to put it another way, 3PAs were going up anyway before Steph exploded. They just tried to do that with traditional big men down low. Now we realize that’s not the best path. And we realize that because of Draymond. My movies: http://russellhainline.com My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/ My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide
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