What if we had drafted someone else instead of Klay that year?! Do you remember Klay’s first season?
“The Warriors did not need to draft Thompson. The Warriors needed to draft a big man because Andris Biedrins and Kwame Brown are not threats down low. The Warriors have arguably the best backcourt in the NBA with Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis—this pick was a head scratcher.”
Link to article: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1049940
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Jerry West hand selected Klay. We did what smart organizations do, draft for talent and not for need.
To their credit, they were half right about the back court
They were not too far off, because we went and traded Ellis for Bogut pretty soon thereafter…
Another very important thing that’s been forgotten is the organization used to be ruthlessly self-aware. I remember Jerry West just saying the shit you’d never hear said in today’s NBA.
Jerry West used to basically say out loud. We need to defend and the Steph Monta backcourt might not be able to defend. Klay is 6-7. We drafted him to pair with whatever backcourt guy we keep long-term.
It is wild thinking back on it. He’d say it all over the place for that first year. He was right and he knew it.
Now that it’s time to shift in a different direction they are having trouble with questions that have obvious answers but they want to skip steps and rely on luck to get from point a to z.
lol almost 15 years later and they still haven’t figured out the front court