Kyle Anderson: Draymond Green has told him he’s a center now

Kyle Anderson: Draymond Green has told him he’s a center now

Given their cap situation, the Minnesota Timberwolves spent the majority of this offseason making cost-cutting decisions. One of them was letting free agent Kyle Anderson walk, though they were able to execute a sign-and-trade with Golden State, where they acquired cash and a future second-round pick in return.

Anderson, who turned 31-years-old in September, will now go from a team that played double bigs between Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year award, to a team that relied on small-ball for the better part of the last decade.

Thus, during his Media Day availability earlier this week, Anderson revealed that Draymond Green has been in his ear about playing a new position this year.

“Around the facility here, [Draymond Green] was telling me, ‘Nah, you a five now, you not a guard no more, you a center in this offense,'” he said. “It’s going to be something I got to get adjusted to–not having Rudy out there, big KAT out there with me. Playing more small ball. I think I’ll be more comfortable in that setting, being a four or sometimes even playing at the five.”

Kyle Anderson played with Gobert/Towns in Minnesota. Now he’s part of an undersized Warriors frontcourt. Draymond Green’s been telling him: “You a (center) now.” pic.twitter.com/Ppht8Dc7E4

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) September 30, 2024

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Over his two seasons in Minnesota, Anderson played the small forward spot 30 percent of the time, power forward 67 percent and center the remaining three percent, per Basketball Reference. That may not always be an accurate description of his possessions played at each position, but it’s a good-enough estimate to suggest that he hasn’t played much center.

According to Cleaning The Glass, Anderson played 120 non-garbage time possessions at center. The Timberwolves performed quite well in those lineups, outscoring opponents by 29.9 points per 100 possessions while scoring 127.5 points, which ranked in the 100th and 99th percentiles, respectively.

Now, should he play center, he’ll be in those lineups with at least a combination of Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, De’Anthony Melton, Buddy Hield, Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga. Not bad!

I’ll be interested to see how often he’s deployed, with sophomore big Trayce Jackson-Davis and Kevon Looney to spare off the bench. Regardless, a move to center should be more beneficial for Anderson’s skillset more than often than not with who’s surrounding him.

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