The Warriors Go Small
June 2015 onward. Draymond Green at center and the three-point boom
In the 2015 NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors trailed the Cleveland Cavaliers 2 games to 1. Nick U'Ren, a 28-year-old special assistant, had studied the 2014 Finals, when Gregg Popovich started Boris Diaw instead of center Tiago Splitter. He suggested a similar move: bench center Andrew Bogut and start Andre Iguodala.
Coach Steve Kerr agreed, moving Draymond Green to center. Now all five Warriors could pass, dribble and shoot. Kerr said they did it "for pace and floor spacing". Golden State won Game 4 103 to 82 and went on to win the title. Iguodala, who guarded LeBron James, became the only Finals MVP who had not started every game of the series.
The next season the Warriors went 73 and 9, taking 31.6 threes a game at 41.6%. The rest of the league followed: by 2018 to 2019, NBA teams averaged 32.0 three-point attempts per game, and the Houston Rockets took 45.4.
What changed
Skill and speed beat size. Lineups where every player can shoot, pass and switch on defense became the goal for teams across the league, and the three-point shot became the center of NBA offense.
In the Dictionary: Switch, Spacing