The NBA calendar waits for no one.
Although the Warriors are surely still digesting their defeat in Game 7 of the NBA Finals just a few days ago, there isn’t any time to wallow in despair. The 2016 NBA Draft will be held tomorrow night, and that means Golden State must return to the table, prepared to make the first of an unknown number of offseason decisions that they hope will result in an improved roster moving into next season. That first decision is the 30th overall pick – the last pick of the first round – in Thursday’s draft, and due to the lengthy season that the Warriors just completed, there’s a lot of preparation to fit into a short amount of time.
“That’s the one disadvantage, if there’s any, of playing that deep. Obviously, there’s not a lot of prep time. In our sport, I don’t think like any other, you play that far – which is what you want to do – but if you’re not successful, it does hamper your ability to prepare,” said Bob Myers at his pre-Draft availability on Tuesday.
While the playoff run was certainly the primary focus of the organization’s attention, it’s not as if the Warriors are starting from scratch, and there’s no reason to believe the lengthy season and quick turnaround should prove to be too much of a detriment to overcome. Golden State has done quite well in the Draft under Myers’ tenure, and after all, this isn’t the first occasion they’re dealing with a time crunch. Almost exactly one year ago, the Warriors were coming off the high of their first championship in four decades, and although they didn’t have a whole heck of a lot of time to prepare, they still found a way to improve the team via the Draft.
On Thursday, the Warriors will have the 30th overall selection for the third time in the last five NBA Drafts. Just last June, the Dubs managed to snag Kevon Looney with the 30th pick after being surprised the talented big man out of UCLA was still on the board. And, back in 2012, the Warriors picked Festus Ezeli out of Vanderbilt with the 30th overall pick. Historically, the odds are against finding a contributing rotational player – much less a bona fide starter – that late in the Draft, but between Ezeli and Looney, the Warriors believe they’ve developed a track record of finding hidden gems late in the first round.
Much of the success behind that track record could be attributed to the mentality of selecting the best player available, rather than one for a specific need. Myers intimated that was the thinking behind the Looney selection last year, and on Tuesday, he insisted that the Warriors are likely to operate under the same mandate when it’s their turn to pick tomorrow.
“If you can get a player at #30 that can be a rotational player, I think you’ve done well,” said Myers. “A guy that can step in and at least give us something next year - not start, but play some minutes.”
That would seem to be a smart strategy given the current state of the Warriors’ roster. After all, this is the same team that won more regular season games than any other in NBA history, and the majority of its’ starting core will likely remain intact. Thus, there’s unlikely to be a ton of minutes available for whomever the Warriors select in Thursday’s Draft, and by opting to take the best player available at the very end of the first round, you give yourself the best chance of finding a diamond in the rough.
Of course, it’s always possible that the Warriors could make any number of Draft-day trades that could change both the number of selections they have, as well as the relative position of those selections within the overall Draft order. Due to the trade that resulted in Golden State acquiring Andre Iguodala back in the summer of 2013, the Warriors are currently without a second round selection in this year’s Draft, as well as a few additional picks in the next few years. In fact, the Warriors’ first round selection tomorrow is the last pick the team currently owns until its first round selection in 2018.
It wasn’t the ending to the season that the Warriors had hoped for, and as much as it may still pain them, it’s in the past now. As Myers said, “One marathon ended, and the other – got a drink of water – and now we’re moving on.”
Thursday offers the Warriors the first opportunity to improve upon their current foundation, and if the past is any indication, they’ll make sure to seize it.