This is usually the column where I pretend I\u2019ve unlocked the secrets of the sporting universe.<\/p>\n
An annual tradition where, after countless hours of grinding the tape and texting with a dozen people who watch all of college basketball (and not just the Missouri Tigers, which have almost no application here), I proffer a suggestion as to who the Golden State Warriors<\/a> should draft on Tuesday<\/a> \u2014 this year at No. 11<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a tedious exercise in feigned certainty. Every pundit on the internet is currently screaming about wingspans and pick-and-roll efficiency.<\/p>\n But this year, I have a new suggestion for the Dubs: Go to town.<\/p>\n Take whoever you want. Get weird with it, even.<\/p>\n Because I can\u2019t differentiate much of anything between the half-dozen, hell, dozen prospects that are in the Dubs\u2019 range to select at No. 11.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a glorious, chaotic spot to occupy. The pressure of landing a generational franchise savior doesn\u2019t exist because those guys are long gone.<\/p>\n Instead, you\u2019re shopping in the NBA\u2019s discount aisle of future potential. It\u2019s a crapshoot dressed up as science.<\/p>\n You want to take a point guard like Burries, Alabama\u2019s Labaron Philon, or Houston\u2019s Kingston Flemings? Go for it.<\/p>\n This team desperately needs someone to run the point when Steph Curry is off the court.<\/p>\n Seeing as that\u2019s a more-frequent event these days, you\u2019d best have someone who can really turn into a player.<\/p>\n The local basketball heroes are aging, and the miles are piling up on those dynastic legs.<\/p>\n I like all of these young guards to help ease the burden. Put their names on a dartboard, close your eyes, and let it fly.<\/p>\n Want to go for a true big, seeing as you don\u2019t actually have one? Great idea!<\/p>\n Aday Mara from Michigan is 7-friggin-4.<\/p>\n He just won a national title, and you simply can\u2019t teach that kind of absurd, terrifying height.<\/p>\n His teammate, Morez Johnson, might only be 6-foot-10, but he\u2019s 250 pounds. That stuff matters in the league. Mass moves mass.<\/p>\n The Warriors have been playing small-ball for a decade, and frankly, they\u2019ve been bullied in the paint lately.<\/p>\n Even glass-cleaning big man Hannes Steinbach from Washington makes sense to me here.<\/p>\n Less sense than the kids from Ann Arbor, but sense nevertheless.<\/p>\n And then you could also do the sharp, prudent thing and take a wing.<\/p>\n You can never have too many good wings in today\u2019s NBA. They\u2019re the currency of the realm.<\/p>\n You can go with an old wing who can play right away, in Michigan\u2019s Yaxel Lendeborg, whom I will always credit to UAB.<\/p>\n Frankly, we don\u2019t have nearly enough Yaxels in our lives. I\u2019m rooting for the kid based on the name alone.<\/p>\n Or you can swing for the fences with the too-young Karim L\u00f3pez.<\/p>\n You can ride with the maybe-3-and-probably-not-D of Nate Ament, who at least looks the part of a modern basketball player.<\/p>\n You can even talk me into Santa Clara\u2019s Allen Graves, who started four whole games in the WCC.<\/p>\n Why not? It\u2019s the 11th pick. The world is your oyster, provided you prefer mid-tier oysters.<\/p>\n If you really wanted to press me, I\u2019d find a way to take Stanford guard Ebuka Okorie.<\/p>\n He is going to be a bucket, and absolutely nothing else, at the NBA level.<\/p>\n But pick 11 is entirely too rich for selecting him. (Or is it? OK, fine, it is.)<\/p>\n So that\u2019s a trade-down scenario, which is something else I am completely open to.<\/p>\n Trade the pick for a veteran. Trade it for future assets.<\/p>\n Hell, trade it for some guy I never heard of in the Uzbek league.<\/p>\n I\u2019m open to nearly everything right now.<\/p>\n Because amidst the droning non-answers Mike Dunleavy sent our way earlier this week, he did say something exceptionally true:<\/p>\n \u201cWe need everything,\u201d he confessed.<\/p>\n He isn\u2019t wrong. The current roster is a patchwork quilt of aging legends and unfinished projects, as well as some finished products that won\u2019t sell.<\/p>\n And when you\u2019re picking No. 11, you get to go in any direction you want.<\/p>\n Just so long as you weren\u2019t setting your hopes on anyone who went in the top 10.<\/p>\n The Warriors might come out of this draft with a rotational player, and perhaps even a definitive direction.<\/p>\n But they won\u2019t be cheating off my homework to make the selection.<\/p>\n At long last, here he is, positive Dieter: I think all these guys can play.<\/p>\n Just make sure to make a pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is usually the column where I pretend I\u2019ve unlocked the secrets of the sporting universe. An annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,160,479,164,4025,4024,6,162,66,255],"class_list":["post-767834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golden-state-warriors","tag-basketball","tag-california","tag-golden-state","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-goldenstate","tag-goldenstatewarriors","tag-nba","tag-san-francisco","tag-sports","tag-warriors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116795364006664285","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}