Golden State Warriors Draft Conundrum: With the NBA Draft lottery tonight, here we look at 3 draft prospects for Warriors
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While the whole world waits for the NBA to restart in Orlando , Florida their is a notable absentee from the contigent. The team that appeared in five straight finals, winning three of them and huffed & puffed to almost a fourth one , till half of their squad broke down. If your guess is right , Yes , I am talking about the mighty Golden state Warriors.
Stephen Curry , his splash brother Klay Thompson and the rest of dubs squad took a step backward this past season and focused on resetting to increase thier title window and continue the dynasty by making the most out of the prime years of Curry , Thompson and Draymond Green.
But, this offseason would be a long one for the dubs. A summer training camp looks unlikely as of now. Free agency won’t begin until late October. No one can say when the next season will start. In fact, the next big thing on the Warriors’ to do list will be the NBA Draft lottery in late August, followed by the draft night in October, just before free agency opens. The Warriors, who unceremoniously had the worst record in the NBA, share the best odds for the No. 1 overall pick and are almost guaranteed a top-five selection in the draft.
But till then to fill the void , the dubs have their handsfull and are faced with the biggest question, what to do with the draft selection ? Who should they select ?
Golden State Warriors Draft Picks
Should it be Anthony Edwards out of Georgia who has emerged as per a lot draft boards the top talent in this draft or LaMelo Ball who can be the heir apparent to Curry and can be a third splash brother. Can it be James Wiseman, who found some sort of backing from two time defensive player of the year , Draymond Green or USC big man Onyeka Okongwu or if sources are to be believed the Warriors are high on Iowa State’s Tyrese Haliburton. The Warriors will also have to consider Dayton’s Obi Toppin and Israeli sharpshooter Deni Avdija.
The problem is that all of these players are wild cards and unknown quantities due to no March Madness and lot of questions around their ability to contribute from get go.
Yes, of course, that’s always the case with the NBA Draft, but this draft class is not known to be one of the better ones in the recent past and apparently next year’s draft class is touted to be more loaded. Simply put , this was the wrong year to tank.
Will there be an all star or a superstar from the class of 2020? Definitely. They might come from that list of top prospects, too.
But my take is that , the Warriors shouldn’t select anyone with their high selection. And instead they should look to wheel and deal this pick and see how they can maximize their present and reinforce the current core without sacrificing the future.
Is it the best long-term move? Probably not. The 2025 Warriors might again find themselves in middle of rebuild. It’s certainly not the most logical move, either.
Going with an established NBA player instead of the unproven prospect is the safe bet for the short-term and gives Curry and party some more title contending years.
The Warriors have a $17.2 million traded player exception from their trade of Andre Iguodala to the Memphis Grizzlies last summer.Using the early draft pick could maximize the return on that trade exception.
The ideal trade candidate for the Warriors would be a player who is roughly the same age as Andrew Wiggins, 25.
There are countless names for the Warriors to target and pursue with that exception, and dubs should look to willingly deal the draft pick to rack in more consideration. The Warriors have Minnesota top 3 protected draft pick for the 2021 draft class and this should provide them enough comfort to go all in with this year’s draft pick.
Additionally, it can be expected that all of Warriors last year picks would fair much better playing alongside healthy alpha dogs such as Curry , Thompson and Green, and players such as Eric Paschal , Jordan Poole and Alex Smailgaic would be the sole beneficiary of this revolution.
The Golden State Warriors find themselves again on the cusp of something special and it’s upto Bob Meyers and Steve Kerr to call the right shots.
