Kyle Anderson shows his value to the Warriors, who 'hated' playing him – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

SAN FRANCISCO – Draymond Green doesn’t forget. His memory is one of the many resources he can draw from his toolbox. One such example illustrates how his new Warriors teammate Kyle Anderson can influence games without creating highlights that spread across social media.

“He’s one of the guys I hated playing against, I’ve told you that before,” Green said Wednesday night. “Either last year or a few years ago, he got a steal when I threw a pass and he reached out his long arm and took the ball and I said, 'Yo, how did he get the ball?' ”

Many players have asked themselves the same question throughout Anderson's 11-year NBA career. When the Warriors won a second game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night, Green was reminded of that, but only this time he was able to enjoy the moment knowing he was now wearing the same colors as Anderson.

Pelicans star and super athlete Zion Williamson tried to take Anderson off the dribble. The man known as “Slo Mo” slipped and stopped a freight train on its tracks.

“I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm glad I don't have to deal with this anymore,'” Green said.

Anderson is neither the fastest nor the most athletic. He can throw it down, but he won't dunk in the manner of Vince Carter, Dominique Wilkins or any of the great high flyers. What he'll do is use his 6-foot-2, 220-pound frame with a 7-foot wingspan to his advantage in every way possible.

Combine that with one of the most cerebral minds in all of basketball, and you have a winning player no matter what franchise he represents.

The experienced forward, who can play almost all five positions, especially on defense, is now on his fourth team after previous stints in San Antonio, Memphis and Minnesota. The impact he had on the undermanned Warriors, who won back-to-back games against the Pelicans, first a 124-106 win followed by a 104-89 win, was exactly what they envisioned when they hired Anderson picked up in the offseason.

And the very reason they were tired of playing against Anderson on his previous teams.

“What he does is sometimes hard to quantify because he is an excellent defender and he makes sense of the game with his brain,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Wednesday night. “He sees the chessboard very well and influences the game at a high level.”

“What he does is sometimes hard to quantify.”

Steve Kerr talks about Kyle Anderson's hidden influence on the Warriors pic.twitter.com/XbBqbNcefu

– Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) October 31, 2024

Anderson trailed by 20 points early against the Pelicans on Tuesday night and was a key reason the Warriors came back and outscored New Orleans by 35 points in the final three quarters. Anderson played 20 minutes off the bench and was a plus-9 while missing all nine of his shot attempts. He made one of his two free throws and ended up only scoring one point.

But Anderson also grabbed two rebounds, dished out four assists and had five of the Warriors' 15 steals.

The Warriors' best lineup in plus-minus Tuesday night was a group of Anderson and Green as big men who essentially served as point guards, flanked by shooters Buddy Hield and Lindy Waters II and a downhill cutter in Jonathan Kuminga . They were a plus-10 and outscored the Pelicans 24-14 in 30 possessions.

Just five games into his tenure with the Warriors, Anderson was directing traffic on offense and disrupting the Pelicans on defense on Wednesday night. Without the injured Steph Curry and De'Anthony Melton, Anderson was the Warriors' point guard on many occasions Wednesday, their second-best lineup having him with the ball in his hands and setting his teammates up for success.

Slo-mo with the quick bounce pass to Buddy 🎯 pic.twitter.com/7SgPiTBO41

– Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) October 31, 2024

Additionally, Anderson was a perfect 4 of 4 from the field. In his first four games as a Warrior, he totaled 10 points on 4 of 18 shooting. He then reached that score in one game without missing a single shot and in 14 fewer attempts.

“He was our point guard most of the night,” Green said. “He got BP (Brandin Podziemski) off the ball and was our point guard most of the night. He just has a level of versatility that most guys in this league don’t have and having him alongside us is absolutely incredible because he’s one of those guys that you can trust in any situation.”

Playing for Western Conference opponents, the Warriors faced Anderson 45 times over the last decade – 30 times in the regular season and 15 times in the playoffs. The Warriors defeated Anderson and the Spurs in the playoffs two straight seasons, in 2017 and 2018, and in 2022, when he was with the Grizzlies.

Like Green, Kerr can put his nightmares to sleep knowing that the highly adaptable Anderson is now with the Warriors.

“I always hated playing against him,” Kerr said, echoing Green’s sentiments later that evening. “He was always one of those guys who just looked like things were going wrong when he competed against us. It’s great to have him by our side.”

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