James WisemanDavid Dow/NBAE via Getty Images
Golden State general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. looks like he has at least a couple hits from the 2023 draft.
Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis should be, at the very least, solid rotation players for the foreseeable future. But to attach superstar upside to either would be overly optimistic.
The Warriors’ opportunities to find that kind of player came in 2020 and 2021.
Typically competitive franchises taking advantage of a gap year is nothing new. David Robinson missing most of the season prior to Tim Duncan’s draft set the San Antonio Spurs up to win for decades.
Curry playing five games in 2019-20 opened up a similar window for Golden State, but then-GM Bob Myers followed that campaign by using the No. 2 overall pick on James Wiseman. He, of course, isn’t even on the Warriors anymore. Only 42 players in the three-point era had fewer wins over replacement player through their age-22 campaign, and LaMelo Ball, Tyrese Haliburton, Onyeka Okongwu, Tyrese Maxey and Desmond Bane were among those selected after Wiseman in 2020.
The next year, they had the No. 7 pick. And though Jonathan Kuminga has probably changed the perception of himself a bit this season, Franz Wagner, Alperen Şengün, Trey Murphy III and Herbert Jones were picked after him.
The draft is far from an exact science. And no one bats 1.000 with their picks, but just imagine the position the Warriors might be in if even one of Ball, Haliburton, Wagner or Şengün were on the roster.
Staying at the top of the league is hard, especially after a decade of excellence, and missing those opportunities may have been the difference between making and missing the playoffs in 2024.
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