The Golden State Warriors used to be a team that drafted players in the top 10 all the time. A perennial lottery team, the Warriors lived at the bottom of the standings, and in the NBA that means picking high in the NBA Draft year after year.
That is how they build the core of their championship team. Stephen Curry was the seventh pick in the 2009 NBA Draft; Klay Thompson went 11th in 2011, but then the Warriors were back up to seventh in 2012 to take Harrison Barnes.
After seven straight years in the playoffs and three titles, the Warriors saw injuries strike in the most brutal way in 2019-20, which lead to the team’s first lottery pick since Barnes in 2012. Sitting at second overall the Warriors took Memphis center James Wiseman, who had an up-and-down rookie season for the Dubs.
One year later, a narrow miss on the playoffs plus Minnesota’s first-round pick they picked up in the D’Angelo Russell / Andrew Wiggins trade has the Warriors armed with not one but two lottery picks. Drafting at seventh and fourteenth in the 2021 NBA Draft, who will the Warriors take?
The Golden State Warriors have the No. 7 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. Who are some prospects they should consider drafting in that slot?
The Warriors expect to compete for a title next season. Curry is at the top of his game, Thompson should be back early in the season fully healthy, and Draymond Green is still a defensive force, finishing third in Defensive Player of the Year a season ago. Some rotation pieces came to light last season, including young guard Jordan Poole and versatile forward Juan Toscano-Anderson.
How do the Warriors add to that core in a way that helps them the most? Do they look to add a prospect who is able to contribute right away? That’s usually something teams do later in the draft, taking a low upside prospect who can be a rotation player right away; the Memphis Grizzlies did this with Xavier Tillman Sr. in last year’s draft.
The Warriors also have to think about the future. Do they take the best prospect available, even if he is raw, trying to build a future core with Wiseman and Poole, balancing winning now with the future as Curry, Green and Thompson begin the downslope of their careers? It may be a long time before the Warriors pick this high again.
That is the tension for the Warriors if they cannot move the picks in a trade for a superstar. It is even more significant at pick No. 7, as there could be the ultimate dichotomy of now-vs-then available. In light of that tension, who are five options for the Warriors with the seventh pick?