Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala (Photo : REUTERS)
NBA veteran Jared Dudley noted that Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green is the blueprint for small ball, where a wing player or forward is slided up one position.
The scheme provides extra space for offense and spreads the opposing defenses thin.
Furthermore, it creates a more versatile defense for the team employing it where players can shift from defending big players to guards when necessary.
Dudley, who plays for the Washington Wizards, explained that when players slide up a position, they suddenly have an athletic advantage against the bigger players assigned to them.
The method has been around for a while, but it was the Golden State Warriors that best popularized it when the effectively used 6'6" Draymond Green at power forward and center in the NBA Finals
Dudley said that while Green is unique, the style could be done bo others.
He noted that while there may not be not many players that can do it as long as Green can, other can do spot minutes in the scheme.
The 6'7" Dudley revealed that he gradually played power forward in small-ball lineups.
He shared that his three-point percentage suddenly jacked up as he was able to get more open shots since bigger players are lazier and get tired faster on defense.
Dudley said that just a few teams commit entirely to small ball, and uses it more as a weapon in spot
minutes.
However, there are still many question marks defensively in using small ball.
Observers wondered how physically taxing it would be for smaller players to rotate at power forward or
center where they may be overpowered by huge, athletic players.
Dudley agreed that playing against a bigger player is physically taxing.
The Bucks, Dudley's former team, played small balls against the Chicago Bulls last season and had a
smaller player put on Joakim Noah, who isn't an offensive threat.
Dudley said that Noah was able to bang their smaller guy.
Noah kept coming to the boards, putting on pressure and hitting his smaller counterpart in the back.
