Ostler: Warriors should forget trades tonight and just make good draft picks.
If you’re bummed that the Warriors failed in their mission to land Bradley Beal, or Damian Lillard, or even Pascal Siakam, and seem resigned to rolling the dice by using their top draft picks as draft picks rather than trade chips — take heart.
For one thing, Draft Night will be a doozie, possibly the most dramatic in the team’s Bay Area history, and as impactful and anxietyproducing as the 49ers’ last draft, when the franchise’s future hung in the balance. More on that below.
Meanwhile, if you think the lack of a major deal dooms the Warriors for this season, cast your memory back to the 201415 season, the dawn of their dynasty.
Going into that season, the Warriors had a nice squad,
but they didn’t scare anybody — until the season started. Then all hell broke loose.
The Warriors dominated the league, they crushed people, they were breathtaking. And they did it all with no bigtime acquisition, no hot rookie.
Fans now are worried that whichever players the Warriors draft at No. 7 and No. 14 won’t be immediately useful. In 2014, the only rookie on the team was James Michael McAdoo.
The center back then was a beatup Andrew Bogut. New additions? An aging, washedup, backup point guard, Shaun Livingston. That team had one returning AllStar, Stephen Curry, who made his AllStar debut the previous season.
My point is, it’s possible to win an NBA championship without making a blockbuster move for a bigtime player.
It’s not only possible, it’s more fun. The two championships won with Kevin Durant were great, sure, but not as much fun as that first championship, when a bunch of relative nobodies just figured out what the game of basketball is all about.
Durant was a deus ex machina, an unexpected and somewhat contrived plot device that saves a seemingly hopeless situation. But it’s just one way to go for a championship; teams do it all the time.
The other way, like how the Original Warriors did it, is more organic. Like entering the Soap Box Derby with a car all the neighbor kids put together with garage scraps.
The Warriors have said they hope to model the style of the Spurs, staying near the top year after year, avoiding the ugly dips. Well, the Spurs have never been a blockbuster team, trading high draft picks for big names. They draft smart, develop, and win.
San Antonio’s championships were all led by players it drafted: David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard (via a draftnight trade).
Though some Warriors fans would prefer the superstarshortcut route in team building, the organic way has its proponents. Giannis Antetokounmpo subscribed to that system, opting to stay and slug it out in Milwaukee rather than superteam himself away via free agency. That worked out well for him.
The Warriors’ lack of a major deal adds a lot more zest to Draft Night. For eventual impact, the Warriors won’t be able to top their drafting of Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. But at the time of those drafts, they created the mildest of buzz, with zero expectation that they would lead to NBA championships.
This draft class is different. The Warriors’ two picks, especially the gent they select at No. 7, will be expected to develop quickly, contribute soon, and by next season at the latest, play a big role in maximizing the Curry Window.
When Curry was drafted, there was no Curry Window. That’s not true, there was, but nobody knew it at the time, and the window was about 20 years.
Just as Trey Lance is expected to lead the 49ers into the future, quickly, to maximize their solidroster window, the Warriors’ picks will carry that same burden, and that same opportunity.
If the Warriors keep both their picks, and assuming they don’t trade James Wiseman, this team will be Hoops U, a crash course in championship basketball. Flunking out is not an option. Well, actually it is, but not a pleasant one.
It will be impossible to duplicate that 201415 season, which involved a ton of luck, a strong head coach and chemistry, and the element of surprise, a different way of playing basketball.
It was a season of magic, and magic is elusive. But the Warriors will be looking to create some, starting Draft Night.