In Thursday's Game 4 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors guard Andre Iguodala played a key role, going 8-for-15 from the field (4-for-9 from 3) for 22 points and eight rebounds. He also was tasked with being the primary defender on LeBron James, who has been nigh unstoppable in the playoffs.
Iguodala has been a starter and All-Star during his career, but just as San Antonio's Danny Green illustrated in last year's NBA Finals, Iguodala's performance and role in Golden State's win underscored the evolution of a particular type of player -- the "3-and-D" player.
That player is defined as a 3-point shooting defensive wing and has become a glamour position in the NBA.
What started as an almost accidental feature of players has grown into one of the more pivotal (and valued in free agency) elements of winning organizations, as teams seek to surround their talent with pieces that won't hurt them on either end of the court.
With a summer free-agent frenzy that is expected to be very lucrative for players such as Green, Khris Middleton and DeMarre Carroll, there's never been a better time to be a 3-and-D player.
Humble beginnings
Two of the earliest versions of the 3-and-D player faced off against one another in the NBA Finals more than 20 years ago.
During the 1994 NBA Finals, the Houston Rockets' Vernon Maxwell and New York Knicks' John Starks were both fiery, undersized shooting guards who had to fight to earn their places in the NBA -- Maxwell was a mid-second-round pick, while Starks went undrafted. Defense was the easiest meal ticket in a league full of accomplished scorers, particularly on the perimeter.
As their respective team offenses revolved around a singular dominant interior presence (Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing, respectively), an abundance of perimeter opportunities materialized from the outside as opposing defenses keyed in.
In truth, both players were more combo guards who did their share of ballhandling and play creating. So they weren't necessarily labeled as 3-and-D players. And despite being high-volume 3-point shooters (both averaged north of five attempts per game), neither was particularly accurate.
Over the years, however, other fringe NBA talents who made their bones defensively have added the 3-point shot to their repertoire (such as ESPN's own Bruce Bowen), while some older offensive talents saw their roles reduced into a 3-and-D role (such as Dan Majerle circa 1996-2001). Still, it was rare to find an accurate 3-point shooter who also excelled defensively specifically groomed for that role.
New emphasis on 3-point shot
As ESPN Insider Tom Haberstroh's excellent history of the 3-point shot illustrated, the changing of the NBA handcheck rules coupled with the allowance of quasi-zone defenses created a new emphasis on finding players who could deter overly helpful defenders from straying away from their assignments with perimeter shooting.
The Phoenix Suns (2004-10) set the tone for what would eventually become the dominant form of basketball in the league ("pace and space" basketball), and the ability to keep the paint clear for point guard Steve Nash to attack off pick-and-rolls. He created opportunities for everyone else and made the offense go. As such, it was important to find complementary defensive players who could maintain the integrity of the offense.
Enter guard Raja Bell. An undrafted rookie, he signed a 10-day contract at the end of the 2000-01 season with Philadelphia 76ers and a few weeks later was guarding Kobe Bryant in the NBA Finals.
Bell was known for his defensive prowess but was underrated as a 3-point shooter. In his three seasons prior to joining Phoenix in 2005-06, Bell shot 41, 37 and 40 percent from 3-point range in limited attempts.
"I always felt I could shoot the ball, but the opportunity wasn't there," Bell said. "In Utah, Jerry Sloan's system didn't exactly afford you the luxury of being able to come down and pull on the break. When I got to Phoenix, Mike D'Antoni told me he was missing a couple hundred 3s made from the year before [from the departure of Quentin Richardson]. It was the system I was in and the opportunity to get attempts up."
Bell ended up third in 3s made in his first season in Phoenix, connecting on 197 on 44 percent shooting while also being Phoenix's best defender and enforcer (famously clotheslining Bryant in a playoff game). Bell's role paved the way for other teams trying to emulate the Suns' offensive style to find players who could bring the same sort of combination of defensive toughness and 3-point accuracy.
The impact of analytics
With today's heavier emphasis on efficient shot selection, we're seeing more offenses crafted around high-percentage tentpoles of layups, free throws and 3-pointers (particularly from the corners, where the distance is shortest). As teams try to find ways to let their superstars have space to operate, it becomes increasingly more important for the surrounding cast of characters to complement by contributing on both ends of the floor.
Today, almost every NBA team has at least one or more players who can be classified as a 3-and-D player, and yet there still seems to be a shortage. With 3-and-D players expected to see average annual values (AAVs) of more than $10 million per year, teams are tasked with trying to somehow find them at discounted rates, even if that means "creating" them through player development. But that takes a level of buy-in from the player.
"I don't think you can steer players toward it as much as you have to find guys who embrace that mentality," says Cavaliers general manager David Griffin, who was part of the Suns' front office during those formative days for the 3-and-D role. "I don't look at it as 'you have to convince people to do it' as much as you have to value the guys who are willing to do it.
"Jimmy Butler is a great example," Griffin added. "When he came into the league, he got drafted later than he should have and certainly later than any player like that would be drafted now, but he had the right mentality; Raja had the right mentality ... if you look at what they did in San Antonio with Kawhi Leonard, there's a reason that Chip Engelland [is as revered as he is]. Those guys can be molded into shooters, but you can never make a guy a tough SOB."
That also means good defensive players who can't shoot 3s will have a tougher go of things as time goes on, as the need to maintain spacing continues to be a point of emphasis. But it also depends on the construction of the roster.
"It has to be the exact right fit for the right group of people, but they won't be the type of player there's going to be a stampede to get," Griffin said. "Those people will always be underpaid relative to the impact they could have on the right team."
In that sense, the new market efficiency might be finding defenders who can't shoot and then investing the time and energy into developing their shooting, a strategy emphasized in Philadelphia, where the Sixers have made it a point to acquire players with length, athleticism and defensive intensity but missing a 3-point shot. The trick is to realize the fruit of your efforts before the player leaves in free agency to get paid handsomely by someone else.
"There'll always be a place for a guy who can lock down, but that place is getting smaller and smaller," Bell said. "You have to be able to stretch defenses and keep them honest."
Just ask Iguodala.