SAN FRANCISCO – Bob Myers walked into the Chase Center interview room Friday afternoon with the aid of a crutch required after undergoing hip surgery last month. He was playing with discomfort, as he had in the hyperactive hours leading up to the NBA trade deadline.
The Warriors have to hope he is fully recovered, if not at the peak of his powers, by June 25. That’s the night of the NBA draft, and it’s when Myers will announce the results of the most significant decision in his eight years as the team’s general manager.
It’s practically certain the Warriors will have a top-three lottery pick, which makes it the first chance for Myers and his lieutenants to minimize the errors of draft nights past.
The next such opportunity will come in June 2021, when the Warriors almost certainly will own another lottery pick, that which they acquired Thursday morning.
Though it was obscured by the principals in the deadline deal that sent D’Angelo Russell to Minnesota in exchange for Andrew Wiggins, the draft picks coming to Golden State in 2021 and 2022 represent the real treasure. A top-three protected pick in 2021 with protections removed in 2022. Holding a lottery pick in consecutive drafts, as the team’s core slides into its 30s, is the quickest route to a reboot that can hold for years to come.
“Picks are important, especially for us, because there are two ways we could have gone,” Myers said. “With Steph, Klay and Draymond getting close to 30 ... the ability to add youth while those guys age. The biggest fear in our business is you’ve got five or six 33- or 34-year-olds, it ends, and it ends abruptly. And then it’s four or five or six years to get it back.”
Klay Thompson turns 30 on Saturday. Draymond Green turns 30 on March 4, 10 days before Stephen Curry turns 32.
So, yes, with the collection of draft picks added over the past two weeks – six in all – the Warriors in position to shape a bright future.
But only if Myers & Co. get it right. After six drafts, they have plenty to prove as personnel experts. Indeed, the team’s draft failures by the team’s glorious run of success.
Of the five rookies added between 2014 and 2018, only Kevon Looney, the first-round draft pick (No. 30 overall) in 2015, remains with the team. He worked his way into becoming an important member of a championship squad, the others are scattered about the NBA.
The latest to go, 2018 first-round draft pick (No. 28 overall) Jacob Evans III, was sent to the Timberwolves on Thursday as part of the Russell-Wiggins deal. Jordan Bell (2017 second round, No. 38) is in Memphis, his fourth team. Damian Jones (2016 first round, No. 30) is in Atlanta, Patrick McCaw (2016 second round, No. 38) is in Toronto.
To be fair, the Warriors were drafting late in the first round and had to spend millions to get into the second. They needed be particularly discerning and lucky. The results indicate they usually were neither.
Everyone in the front office, from CEO Joe Lacob to Myers and his assistants to the scouts, must share the blame. The Warriors paid a price for winning at such high levels, and the personnel folks were not able to uncover a couple hidden gems coming out of college.
Now that they are in position to take big swings, they cannot afford to miss.
“Luckily for us, or unluckily, we’re going to have high pick this year,” Myers said. "Which is unusual, to have the caliber of players we have and be in this situation."
“I don’t know what will happen, going forward, with Minnesota’s picks. But I do know first-round picks are highly valuable. You have to draft the right player. But also, as a vehicle to do quite a bit. They are highly, highly coveted. Maybe never as much as now.”
The Warriors are holding, over the next three drafts, four first-round draft picks and six second-round draft picks. They will operate from a position of power to dictate their future, whether by drafting or trading the picks outright or as part of a package to get an established player.
“It’s a way to hopefully build,” Myers said. “You’d like to use them for you own. Trading them is fine. But you’d like to draft young players so for our fans we have a long runway.”
There is widespread debate of and dwelling on the Wiggins acquisition, which undoubtedly represents a significant move. He’s due to earn about $94 million over the next three seasons.
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But there also is a general undervaluing of the draft picks that came along with Wiggins.
Regardless of what Wiggins brings to the team, it’s up to Myers and his lieutenants to be at their best, to make those picks at least as valuable as the player – and maybe more.