Golden State Warriors: 2016 NBA Draft Grades

Signing Mamadou Ndiaye

Technically speaking, this wasn’t a draft selection for the Warriors. But since the signing happened in the wake of Mamadou Ndiaye going undrafted, we’re going to include it anyway.

As mentioned before, the Warriors could use a little frontcourt depth. It was all too apparent when Bogut went down in Game 4 of the Finals and the Warriors squandered a 3-1 series lead playing the Festus Ezeli-Anderson Varejao–Marreese Speights pu-pu platter, and it’ll be doubly important if they make an all-in push for Durant this summer.

Signing the 7’6″ behemoth Ndiaye won’t do much to help the Warriors now if they lose both Ezeli and Bogut over the next year or two, but if they can help sculpt this massive ball of clay in the meantime, it could pay off down the road.

As the tallest player in college basketball last year, Ndiaye averaged 12.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 23.2 minutes per game for UC Irvine. He shot 67.3 percent from the floor, putting his incomprehensible 8’1″ wingspan to good use as one of the only players in the sport who could score without leaving the ground.

Ndiaye is obviously a very flawed player for so many teams to pass on his remarkable size. He is extremely limited on the offensive end, he’s already 22 years old, he’s not in great shape (as his low minutes per game averages indicate) and he’s still just learning the game. There’s no guarantee he even makes the 2016-17 roster.

But if any team could afford to take a risk on a player blessed with so many physical gifts, it’s the Warriors.

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The signing of a 7’6″ mammoth directly conflicts with Golden State’s patented small-ball approach, but planning for the next big thing — not to mention bolstering the frontcourt depth — is a necessary and cunning step in a low-risk, high-reward move like this.

Grade: B