Warriors News: Iguodala Embraces the 6th Man Role

By Yama Hazheer

After starting over 800 career games in the NBA, Andre Iguodala was used as a 6^th man off the bench in 2014-15 in favor of young Harrison Barnes. Coach Steve Kerr decided that it would work out better for the both of them and while Barnes didn’t necessarily excel last season, Iguodala remained a significant part of the team.

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Heading into 2015-16, Iguodala says that he embraces being the team’s 6^th man and is “actually looking forward” to it.

“I’ve been through it for a year, and I understand it a trillion times more than last year,” Iguodala said.

However, he doesn’t like the 6^th Man of the Year award that’s handed out to a bench player at the end of the season.

“I’m not a fan of the award, actually. It’s like affirmation action or something to me,” Iguodala said.

As one of the veterans on the team, he understands what comes with winning a championship.

“I definitely think that weight is off the shoulders, but you kind of have more of a business outlook,” Iguodala said. “Just handling business night in and night out, getting the most out of the time in the gym. You’ve been through it, you know what it takes.”

Draymond Green said the Iguodala’s wedding was his most fun part of the summer. It’s important to keep the chemistry at a high level if you want to repeat, and the Warriors demonstrated that Monday at Media Day.

After winning Finals MVP, Iguodala said his son has higher expectations for him heading into the season.

The wingman mentioned that he will help Festus Ezeli get paid because he feels like he won’t get as much as he deserves. As for Harrison Barnes, he didn’t want to dive too much into it with how the new contracts are working out. He sounded like he know Barnes was going to get paid and ended talking about the situation with a “rich is rich.”

If Iguodala plays as well as he did in the NBA Finals and Barnes doesn’t progress or even struggles and regresses, time will tell if we see Iguodala in that 6^th man role that he now embraces for a long time.