The Bay Area media will miss Andrew Bogut.
Alongside Draymond Green, nobody was more honest than Bogut in the Warriors locker room the past couple of seasons. Beat reporters enjoyed a brutally honest relationship with the 7-foot Aussie, and he often provided glimpses behind the curtain that you wouldn’t get from any other player.
Now a Dallas Maverick, Bogut’s not surprised at all that Kevin Durant is now a Golden State Warriors. He sat down with ESPN.com’s Tim MacMahon.
“That’s part of the business,” Bogut said. “I think the deal was done long before the summer. I think it was done — obviously, K.D. didn’t make his concrete decision, but I think our organization knew for a while what was going to happen. That’s just a part of it. Andre [Iguodala] and I knew it was one of us that was going to go, and it was me. That’s part of the business. I have no gripes about it. You get a Hall of Famer — he’s going to be a Hall of Famer — in K.D. If I’m the GM, I do the same deal. That’s just the reality of the business.”
Bogut doesn’t seem bitter about the situation, but how could anyone feel good about leaving the Warriors? The move to keep Iguodala makes sense in a modern NBA world that doesn’t value big men. Steve Kerr is obsessed with Iguodala as a player and a leader. There’s no way he would ever let Andre go.
People tend to forget how valuable Bogut was to the Warriors. He was injured in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on a whacky baseline play with J.R. Smith, who undercut Bogut’s legs. The Warriors did not win a game in the NBA Finals last season without Bogut; both Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love became much bigger factors to close out the series.
You can say the Warriors will use a death lineup, or that Zaza Pachulia is a capable replacement, or that Kevin Durant is actually the team’s rim protector, or that JaVale McGee will be a competent player surrounded by superstars.
But there will be moments — especially against Oklahoma City — where this Golden State will miss Andrew Bogut. Kerr has not denied that fact. Unlike the San Francisco Giants, let’s hope the big men soft spot isn’t a season-long issue that ends up biting the Warriors in the ass.
