The Warriors playoff series has come to an end. But it started with Golden State’s success in the 2012 NBA Draft.
Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green joined the Warriors as rookies for the 2012-13 season and helped usher in a new era of Golden State basketball. Yes, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson led the way, but the 2012 draft class provided the depth – directly and indirectly – that would ultimately lead to five consecutive NBA Finals appearances and three NBA titles.
Since then, the Warriors have had minimal draft success. For every Kevon Looney, there is a Jacob Evans. Patrick McCaw and Jordan Bell showed glimpses of promise, only to switch off and head elsewhere in no time. Their most recent first-round draft pick, Jordan Poole, had a disappointing rookie season, and Golden State has already invested heavily in Alen Smailagic for a still rough second-round pick. Ironically, the Warriors’ most recent selection, Eric Paschall, may be their best since Green was selected with the No. 35 in 2012.
It could be said that they were lucky with Paschall’s choice. But as Warriors GM assistant Kirk Lacob explained in the most recent episode of the podcast “Runnin ‘Plays”, it was the product of a consistent approach.
“I’ve equated a lot of things – this will seem odd – to blackjack,” Lacob said. “You can play a hand of blackjack perfectly and you can lose the hand. You can play it really, really bad … and you can still win the hand and everyone at the table says, ‘God, I’m an idiot.’ So, it’s not binary. You can. do everything right and lose. You can do everything wrong and win. But if you do the right thing over and over enough times, that ledger will move quite where you are going to be right enough.
“The tricky thing about drafting is that it’s once a year and the stakes are extremely high. And you often have a first round pick and a second round pick, something like that. So if you’re wrong, you may be wrong. 50 percent – that sounds like a lot. Most GMs don’t have the opportunity to draft for like 15 consecutive years or something. “
[RUNNIN’ PLAYS PODCAST: Listen to the latest episode]
The upcoming 2020 NBA Draft may be the most important for Golden State since Curry fell to their knees (thanks a lot to David Khan). essential they try if they hope to return to the championship contest.
But regardless of who chooses Golden State, the Warriors know they need to improve in some areas of player development.
“We need to have better plans in place,” added Lacob. “We have to do a better job of organizing the coaches and say,” This is why we have recruited this player. That’s how we think they’re going to be successful. “Then, they need to implement those plans and they need to have a player development program. And then, it’s up to the player, by the way, to do all these things.”
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Obviously, the Warriors will pick a lot higher in the draft than they have in a long time, but Lacob won’t use that as an excuse for those who lost.
“It’s certainly more difficult when drafting players late in the draft,” he continued. “It’s more of a card game. I’m not going to use it as a crutch and I’m going to say, you know,“ Yeah, none of these players would have made it anyway. ”Because while it’s true that most of those players aren’t going to make it, We still have to find some players who will make it. This is our job. This is what we are paid for. “
The Warriors don’t want to be in the position they are in, thus garnering high in the lottery after a season full of losses. If they manage to have a successful draft, though, it will only be a temporary thing.
