OAKLAND -- He’s an effervescent presence joining a team that occasionally drifts due to process tedium.
He’s a veteran willing to speak up on a team that could benefit from a new, subjective voice.
He’s a rebounding, ball-moving, screen-setting, rim-protecting 7-footer.
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He’s both fresh and familiar.
It’s altogether possible no one else on the basketball landscape could have brought to the Warriors what they’re getting from Andrew Bogut.
“Bogut has been such a brilliant fit for us,” coach Steve Kerr said late Sunday night. “Just to be able to get him, to add him to our roster at this stage is just incredible. He’s a phenomenal basketball player and you can see he’s in great shape. He’s re-energized, focused, having fun and he knows our team. So, he fits right in immediately.”
Bogut took note of what the Warriors needed Sunday night against Charlotte when starting center DeMarcus Cousins was ejected midway through the second quarter. Opponents have been gobbling up offensive rebounds, so Bogut crashed the glass. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were lighting it up from deep, so Bogut used his big body to create space for them.
Golden State Warriors
Replacing Cousins with 6:09 left in the second quarter, Bogut over the rest of the half recorded four points, five rebounds, one blocked shot and a couple bruising screens. And, oh, the Warriors outscored the Hornets 19-9 over the final six minutes of the half.
This is what Draymond Green, who reached out to Bogut months before he returned to the Warriors on March 6, expected. Green anticipated the big man would bring great defense, basketball intellect and playmaking.
Considering he signed for veteran’s minimum salary, pro-rated at just under $500,000, Bogut has been a bargain. And it goes deeper than what he does on the court. He has pumped new life into a locker room that has had some tense moments this season.
“When I got here this season, the first road trip it was a little quiet in the locker room,” Bogut recalled Monday. “But since then, it’s been pretty good. Guys are joking around, smiling more and loosening up because the light is there at the end of the tunnel and the playoffs are around the corner.”
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It’s apparent, however, that Bogut and the Warriors both benefited from the 32-month break between trading him to Dallas in July 2016 and re-signing him last month. Bogut’s oft-injured status eroded some of the team’s faith that he would be available when needed. That, along with Bogut’s spasms of mild crankiness, became a bit of a burden, according to some within the organization.
And, let’s not forget, there was no way for the Warriors to add Kevin Durant -- their No. 1 priority at the time -- without trading Bogut.
Yet when Bogut, 34, agreed to the reunion and joined the team, the locker room radiated good vibes. That’s the power of mutual interest in the pursuit of a single goal.
“A lot has changed, for everybody, since the 2015-16 season in terms of overall perspective in life,” Curry said the other day. “The things that used to bother us, or bother him, push a button or whatever, don’t anymore with a newfound love of the game, but also of life and the things he’s got going on off the court, with his family.”
Upon completing his season in the Australian Basketball League, Bogut was hired to play sporadically, 10-14 minutes per game in the postseason, depending on matchups. He’ll play mostly against big centers and only in case of emergency against more agile big men.
Kerr described Bogut’s addition as “an insurance policy in the frontcourt.” It is. There has been very little orientation because Bogut has so much history with Curry, Green and Thompson. Cousins and Durant understand why he’s an asset.
The Bogut gamble has signs, as long as he’s healthy, of being successful for the Warriors. And it’s conceivable that his mere presence will be as significant as anything he does on the court.