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Warriors entertaining idea of bringing Iguodala off bench

Kyle Terada / USA Today Sports

The Golden State Warriors signed Shaun Livingston this offseason with the intention of adding playmaking to a second unit that seriously lacked it in 2013-14.

With Livingston on the recovery trail following summer toe surgery, new Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is willing to find other ways to get that playmaking balance in the interim. That includes experimenting with Andre Iguodala coming off of the bench, as he did on Sunday night.

Livingston may end up being ready for opening night on Oct. 29, rendering this a moot point, but swapping Iguodala out of the starting unit for Harrison Barnes may be ill-advised.

Having a second-unit facilitator is desirable, and Iguodala is an excellent playmaker from the wing, but he also provides defense that's paramount to the starting unit's success. Iguodala isn't a lights-out shooter, but he's a strong enough threat from the corner and a good enough cutter off the ball to help space the floor for Steph Curry.

Also, starting Draymond Green over Barnes would probable make more sense, maintaining the offensive and defensive balance between the units.

It was tough to gauge the efficacy of Sunday's approach, with the Warriors steamrolling the Los Angeles Lakers by 41 points. Every unit looked unstoppable. Based on 2013-14 returns, however, Kerr may be best off leaving his starting unit as is and simply obliterating teams enough off the hop that the lack of a creator off the bench will go unnoticed.

The table below shows how the team's five most used lineups fared last season by net rating, which the number of points per-100 possessions by which a team outscored an opponent:

Lineup 2013-14 Net Rating
Curry-Thompson-Iguodala-Green-Lee 34.2
Curry-Thompson-Iguodala-Lee-Bogut 15.4
Curry-Thompson-Iguodala-Green-O'Neal 9.8
Curry-Thompson-Barnes-Green-Lee 6.8
Curry-Thompson-Barnes-Lee-Bogut -5.5

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