Ranking all of Steph’s teammates: #33 — Andris Biedriņš

During his time with the Golden State Warriors, Steph Curry has had 106 teammates who have appeared in at least one game. Some played in exactly one game, while others played in hundreds. Some never actually played in a game that Curry was active for, while others formed historically great partnerships with him.

And I’m ranking all 106 of them before a new season starts and he adds to the tally. Better get a move on.

Players are ranked — and stats are shown — based only on their time as Curry’s teammate. How good/bad they were in other organizations doesn’t matter. How good/bad they were on pre-2009-10 Warriors teams doesn’t matter.

#33 — Andris Biedriņš

Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

Games: 192 (11th out of 106)
Points per game: 2.9 (T-86th out of 106)
Rebounds per game: 5.3 (T-14th out of 106)
Assists per game: 0.8 (T-66th out of 106)

Oh, Beans. I have nothing but fond memories of Andris Biedriņš, even if the last few years of his career were exceedingly rough to watch.

Truthfully, I’m probably ranking Biedriņš a touch too high, since his best years with the Dubs came before Curry arrived. In the three-year span from the We Believe Warriors to the final year BC (Before Curry), Beans averaged 10.5 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game, while shooting 60.1% from the field. He was a beast.

In the first two years AC (After Curry), Biedriņš saw his minutes drop, his role diminish, and his confidence plummet as the free throw issues really took shape. In those two years he averaged 5.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks per game, while shooting 55.3% from the field.

And then he slowly drifted away into barely playing, before Golden State traded him to Utah to help facilitate the Andre Iguodala signing. He played just nine games for the Jazz before hanging up his NBA sneakers.

It may not have been the best version of Biedriņš that shared the court with Curry, but he was still a very impactful player. He was at times excellent on defense, as he had a stellar combination of length, timing, and the ability to remain upright when defending the rim. Even as his offensive confidence faltered, and he became a liability on that end of the court, he always graded out as a strong defensive player, both by the eye test and by the advanced metrics.

Above all else, I’ll always remember Biedriņš for his rebounding, which felt on a different level than other NBA players. Beans had good rebounding totals, but not in range of some other centers; but I attribute that to the fact that he wasn’t concerned with individual rebounding totals, just team ones. He was always willing to volleyball bat the ball out to a teammate to increase the odds of Golden State having the ball.

During Biedriņš’ peak, I would occasionally keep a tally of how many offensive possessions he kept alive without getting credited for an offensive rebound. It was always a lot.

It was rough watching his offensive decline, and seeing a person lose all of their confidence on live TV. But it shouldn’t make us forget how good he was at defense and rebounding. And for that, he was Steph Curry’s 33rd-best teammate.

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