Iggy explains why intangibles are valuable.
Andre Iguodala was one of the most important players in the Golden State Warriors dynasty (2014-15 to 2018-19).
Despite coming off the bench during their first championship run, he was able to win the Finals MVP award.
So, how’d he do it?
Well, he did it with intangibles.
On the Two Cents Penny Hardaway podcast, Iguodala said that the only way a talented player can become great is for them to do the intangibles.
“How do you impact the game with more than just shooting the ball?” Iguodala told Penny Hardaway. “What’s going to get talent over the top are the intangibles, you know? Like, are you defending, are you communicating? Like, communication is one of the most important things in basketball that our youth -they don’t understand that part.”
Intangibles, if you don’t know, are the aspects of basketball that don’t show up on the stat sheet. Things such as staying in front of your opponent on defense, communicating on the defensive end, calling out plays, and screening are all examples of intangibles.
Iggy then talked about how intangibles, specifically communication, helped the Warriors be the most dominant team for over half a decade.
“That’s one of the things that made our team so great. Like, from Andrew Bogut, um, Draymond Green’s going to the Hall of Fame, and maybe one of his best attributes is his voice. Like, just his IQ in general because if you don’t have an IQ you can’t have a voice. But he calling out things five seconds before he making everybody else life easier. He can funnel a whole entire defense just by using his voice. Those are like the small things that don’t show up on the stat sheet that can extend your career eight years.”
For 5 straight seasons (2014-15 to 2018-19), the Golden State Warriors won a minimum of 57 games a season (they even went 73-9 in 2015-16). They were killing all of their opponents and no one had a solution for them.
But they weren’t just winning regular season games. They were also doing well in the playoffs, where they won 3 championships in the span of four years.
Iguodala was also playing well.
He may have been the team’s sixth man (he started 21 out of 350 games), but he averaged 26 minutes a night.
With those minutes, he led the second unit and closed the majority of games out with the starters. Additionally, he holds averages of 7 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal for those years.
Final Thoughts
The “Steph Curry Warriors” are among the greatest NBA teams ever.
And that’s not just an opinion. The numbers and accolades prove it.
And they became great by being a fantastic intangibles team.
So, develop your IQ and start doing the intangibles to get better at basketball.