Nov. 3, 2004. The Boston Garden.
The Sixers beat the Celtics 98-95, as Andre Iguodala debuted alongside Allen Iverson against Gary Payton. Yeah, GP2’s dad. Andre started and scored eight points in 20 minutes, getting his first bucket about 30 seconds after his first turnover.
As 20-year-old Andre Iguodala went home that night and reflected on his first game in the Association, two-year-olds Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Ryan Rollins were probably kicking in their cribs.
A lot’s changed since then.
Iguodala’s bunnies have faded. His investment portfolio has become bigger. The toddlers have grown up and become Warriors draft picks the past two seasons. Golden State has gone from a league laughingstock to an iconic dynasty.
So, when Donte DiVincenzo surveyed the landscape as a free agent this past summer and the Warriors showed interest, he couldn’t refuse.
“There’s a lot of Hall of Fame players that never won a ring,” DiVincenzo said Monday. “For me, just being a part of that championship team, I have fuel to my fire just to add to this team. They already have the blueprint.”
Blueprint.
That buzzword has been thrown around by the Warriors in recent weeks, with third-year center James Wiseman saying it originated from the OG Andre himself. Iguodala sees the big picture and his knowledge trickles down to his teammates.
Sure, the Warriors would love to win another title this year, but the unprecedented investment from ownership has kicked that contending window wide open. With the recent extensions for Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins, the framework is in place for the Warriors to keep 12 players for the next two seasons, only adding to the continuity.
Iguodala won’t be around for 2023-24, as he is set for his final season in 2022-23. He has been moving well in practice, but will be absent from early action in an effort to preserve him for the second half. Still, Andre’s presence will remain vital as an architect behind the scenes.
“Internal leadership from within the locker room is the most important,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Within a team’s makeup, you have to have guys in the locker room who are leading and really kind of laying out a blueprint for how things have to be. Andre does an amazing job of that. We’re gonna need him this year, for sure.”
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The eras are changing. As Iguodala is leaving, he’s passing the baton to a team that features six players 23-and-under who are viewed as the next wave.
You got the 23-year-old Poole, a rising star who is leading the pack. Then you have 20-year-old 2021 lottery picks Jonathan Kuminga, 20, and Moses Moody, 20. The Warriors are also high on 2022 selections Patrick Baldwin Jr., 19, and Ryan Rollins, 20.
And then there’s Wiseman, who is still working his way through the front door after getting drafted in 2020. It’s been a long process since he tore his meniscus on April 10, 2021. When he steps on the floor Tuesday night, it will mark his first NBA regular-season action in 556 days.
The past few months, he’s been getting schooled up by a sage middleman in this two-timeline era, big man Kevon Looney. The 26-year-old Loon is entering his eighth season and has been Wiseman’s biggest peer mentor throughout his comeback. Like Iguodala, Looney is trying to spread that wisdom to all the youngsters.
“I just try to give guys the blueprint for what’s gonna happen,” Looney said. “It’s a recipe for winning for us. The patterns are kind of the same for everybody and you gotta kind of be patient, wait your turn. I just tried to get that message out, and then I became more vocal, more comfortable. And I think guys lean on me a little bit more.”
Wiseman’s five preseason games have been nothing short of impressive – the screens, the awareness, the passes, the shooting stroke, the dunks. You can see why the Warriors were enamored with the 7-footer’s size, athleticism and skill to make him the No. 2 overall pick a couple years ago.
They won the title without getting a minute from him this past season. Adding a 21-year-old center like Wiseman to the defending champs seems unfair if he starts reaching his potential.
We got to see slivers of the future in the preseason, as Wiseman and Poole pick-and-rolled opponents to death. Add Kuminga and Moody off the wings? Sheesh. Good luck in 2027, NBA.
The Splash Brothers can’t play forever. But if Joe Lacob had his way, there wouldn’t be a ‘win-now’ and ‘win-later’ phase. It’d just be one long period of winning.
“The big picture is everything,” said Wiseman, who was 4 when Iguodala debuted. “Just being sure we be patient with the progress and enjoy the process that it is. Because it’s gonna be a long season for us. Just falling in love with the process and the journey of it is what’s gonna make it more rewarding at the end.”
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The blueprint goes beyond basketball.
Iguodala has taken advantage of his time with Golden State by making inroads with some head honchos of Silicon Valley. On any given night, there are billions of dollars sitting courtside for a Dubs game. The average NBA player’s bank account would be small potatoes compared to those of the CEOs in the front row.
It’s not uncommon to see Iguodala chopping it up with fans at the end of the bench during a game. Guy is probably making money while he’s making money.
Iguodala’s decision to start his Point Forward podcast as an active player last year is another example of his enterprise. He said he keeps a rolodex of about 200 business contacts that he likes to speak with 3-4 times a year.
Networking, networking, networking.
“In the league, they tell you, ‘Once it’s over, it’s over,’” Iguodala said. “The way we view you as a current NBA player as opposed to an ex-NBA player, it’s a totally different experience. You may not be able to get access to some of the same opportunities, or some of those doors may close.”
Iguodala said he wants to leverage the league’s visibility into a “trampoline” for his outside interests.
“What do NBA players do in Orlando?” Iguodala said. “Not a knock on Orlando, but everyone sees Disneyworld. I’m 38, I’m not going to Disneyworld. How do I make the most in time in Orlando, from my perspective? Who’s a business man I can connect with? Then using that experience – I’m giving out IP (intellectual property) right now – but, that’s one example.”
Iguodala has been profiled by Forbes and Bloomberg about his entrepreneurship and portfolio, which includes more than 50 company investments, including companies like Zoom and Robinhood. He hosts an annual event called “Business in the Bay” to introduce the Warriors to Silicon Valley execs and also founded the Players Technology Summit in a similar vein. Not everyone gets it or understands it, but he wants to make that world available to his teammates.
One time, Iguodala also took Looney to a software conference that featured a day full of speakers. Loon sounded like a bored kid at school, but Andre sees beauty in that.
“After about an hour, he said, ‘I’m gonna go take a nap,’” Iguodala said. “Like, we just got here. We got six hours to go. He was like, ‘I can’t do all this talking. This is a lot.’ But it’s that side. If you’re gonna put that same energy you do on the court and apply that to something else, you’re gonna have success. But it takes that much attention to detail.”
Looney spent his summer interning at Warner Bros. Music and aspires to run his own record label one day. There’s a Jay-Z “Blueprint” joke in here somewhere.
As for the youngsters on the team, Iguodala is impressed with the way Moody moved through his first year in the NBA.
“I saw Moses Moody at DreamForce,” Iguodala said, lighting up about the annual convention put on by SalesForce in San Francisco. “He has a friend who’s into STEM and he’s into coding and he started a company. Moses is gonna be one of those guys who I think is gonna have success, and has a really good understanding with how to connect with the community, especially this one we have in The Bay.”
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On the court, Andre wants to see the young guys fail. He encourages it. That’s where the growth happens.
We’ve only heard from him once since he re-signed with the Warriors, coming back on Sept. 26. But Iguodala spit a lot of game in that 20-minute Q&A.
Social media, lightning-quick information sharing and instant gratification has skewed how we judge players, Iguodala argues. He cited the first few seasons of Kobe Bryant’s career before he led the Los Angeles Lakers to a title in 2000. Could that happen in today’s climate?
To think that the Warriors’ young guns won’t go through struggles is unreasonable, he says.
“We aren’t letting these kids fail,” Iguodala said. “They’re failing, we’re criticizing and writing them off and they don’t have the opportunity. We got guys out the league at 21-22, which is crazy. I think it’s just letting ‘em develop, letting ‘em go through actual hardships and letting ‘em go through a rookie wall as opposed to, ‘He’s not focused, he’s at a rookie wall.’ Like, no, we all gotta go through it. It’s just part of the maturation process for our young guys.”
Golden State should be good enough to make the playoffs this year. From there, they’ve gotta be considered the most qualified and experienced group when it comes to getting through the gauntlet of the 16-win playoff push.
But how can they make the most of those 82 games this season to help the young guys make those 16-game pushes in future years?
Kerr is a master at keeping his entire team involved, but admitted that it’s tough to play more than nine guys in a regular rotation. That means Baldwin and Rollins will spend their rookie seasons developing in the G League and will have to work their way into Golden State’s 2022-23 plans. That means Kuminga, Moody and Wiseman might play less minutes than they want or deserve.
At least the Warriors will be able to spread around more minutes while the starters build up their stamina to begin the season.
“We are developing our young players whether they get into a game or not,” Kerr told 95.7 The Game’s “Steiny & Guru” on Monday. “The work they’re putting in on the practice floor everyday is so helpful for their development. We see the progress.”
Just look at Poole for evidence of the progress. Dude couldn’t buy a bucket his rookie year. As recently as 2020-21 he was shuttling back and forth between the NBA and the G League. Now he just cashed a four-year, $123 million extension with $17 million more in incentives.
The Warriors have declared he’s next, and he’s already arrived. It’s all part of the blueprint.
“Being able to say I’m the future is huge,” Poole said. “Just because I get to rally these other guys and still learn from Steph and Klay and ask questions and really try to apply everything that they have to continue to add that to the blueprint. We’re here to stay.”
