Led by a beardless Steph Curry whose body more resembled the college sensation that he was at Davidson than what he now has become at 36 years old, the Warriors’ dynasty began a decade ago, escaping the team-on-the-rise label and growing into something the game has never seen.
Steve Kerr’s arrival as head coach ahead of the 2014-15 season also coincided with him getting the perfect wrench to add to his tool box, offsetting Curry’s unique skill set for another uncommon approach to the point guard position. Shaun Livingston stands five inches taller than Curry, and his shot selection isn’t in the same stratosphere.
How much so? Curry in February of this past season made 79 threes in 14 games, which was six more than Livingston even attempted in his 14-year NBA career. Kerr and the Warriors didn’t need another Curry clone. The opposite is what unleashed an unstoppable force and brought forth the birth of Strength in Numbers.
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Five years removed from retirement, Livingston sees Warriors offseason addition Kyle Anderson as someone who can have a similar impact for being far different than Curry and Kerr’s uptempo offense.
"You put him around with other guys like Draymond [Green] who can think the game. Steph and [Brandin Podziemski] and some of those guys that can space the floor as well, that's where the similarities can come in from a player like myself playing with Steph and Klay [Thompson] and being able to fit in,” Livingston said to NBC Sports Bay Area on the latest episode of the Dubs Talk podcast. “It's kind of about pieces to the puzzle, where they may have certain strengths that he doesn't but then he may have certain strengths that they don't.
“It's just about finding that right balance and that right chemistry."
This past season in Minnesota was a low point for Anderson behind the 3-point line, an area of the court that rarely has been a plus for the veteran entering his 11th season and first in San Francisco. Anderson shot a lowly 22.9 percent from deep, one season after shooting a career-best 41 percent. His balancing point is likely somewhere in between, around his career average of 33.8 percent.
Golden State Warriors
For everything Anderson isn’t, he makes up for it with what he is: An extremely smart player who can be a mismatch on the block and handling the ball to initiate offense as well at 6-foot-9, two inches taller than Livingston and nearly 40 pounds heavier.
As Livingston did, Anderson also knows how to get the best out of his stars.
In Livingston’s first season with the Warriors, he and Curry produced a 112.7 offensive rating and 19.5 net rating in only 289 minutes together. Kerr then played the two twice as much together the next season and watched them have a 117.8 offensive rating and 23.3 net rating. Though he only started a total of 15 games in five years as a Warrior and his usual role was being an off-speed pitch after a flurry of Curry fastballs, the two were a match made for each other.
Take Anderson and Anthony Edwards as an example. Despite starting 10 games as a steady hand off the bench, only Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert had better net ratings with the Timberwolves superstar than Anderson in the team’s breakout year. Towns and Gobert each had an 8.9 net rating with Edwards last season, and Anderson was right behind at 8.8.
“If you can think the game and you understand spacing, time and score – all the nuances in the game of basketball – there's a spot for you on that roster, playing for a coach like Steve Kerr,” Livingston says. “He enjoys those types of players and it just makes his job easier. There may be an adjustment, but from a fit standpoint I think he's one of the smartest players in the league to be honest with you.”
Where Livingston believes Anderson will be worth the most to the Warriors is where they were absent last season. The Warriors lost a combined 307 games of playoff experience between Thompson (158) and Chris Paul (149) over the offseason, adding 66 in Anderson. Taking slow and steady wins to race to the extreme, Anderson can calm the game down when it speeds up for everybody else.
“In the playoffs the goal is to make the other team play with their left hand, their weak hand,” Livingston said. “It's a chess match and you need guys that are cerebral, guys that can think the game, and that's Slo Mo.”
He isn’t a star, nor is he the big-name running mate the Warriors have been searching for to play alongside Curry. Yet a decade later, Anderson having a Livingston-like impact on the Warriors will be highly important for them getting back to where they think they belong among the NBA’s hierarchy.