Whose hand will David Stern shake for the Warriors #9 pick?
Our annual Golden State Warriors playoff equivalent is arriving, yes the NBA Draft. Most people throw a draft party, Warrior fans just throw up their hands in frustration. Every May we wait for those lottery balls to bounce around and hopefully push us to one of the top 3 spots. Then in June we hope to cash in on our high draft picks. This is the only time of year it's more exciting to be a Warrior fan over any other team. What other team provides this consistent kind of buildup every single year? Nobody. Only Chris Cohan and his wonderful staff have been able to provide us with nonstop lottery excitement year after year after year after...
So let's look at the Golden State Warrior needs. It's all pretty simple to me and has been discussed a lot over the past couple months. There are 2 glaring weaknesses.
1) They need an upgrade at small forward. Dunleavy and Pietrus are not cutting it.
2) Get an athletic, low post defender. Someone who can change shots on defense. Someone who can keep up and stay in front of the Western bigs. We don't need him to be skilled offensively either. Just be able to screen, roll, catch and dunk/layup on offense and be active on defense.
If you can plug in 2 capable role players to complement JRich and Baron, the team improves dramatically.
On to the draft. Some little tidbits of information about the #9 pick.
1996 Samaki Walker
1997 Tracy McGrady
1998 Dirk Nowitzki
1999 Shawn Marion
2000 Joel Przybilla
2001 Rodney White
2002 Amare Stoudemire
2003 Mike Sweetney
2004 Andre Iguodala
2005 Ike Diogu
With those picks you could form an awesome team. Let's hope somehow this year's #9 can join that elite squad. Of course, knowing the Warriors draft history, this pick will be more Samaki Walker than Dirk Nowitzki. But we're not here to harp on the past, let's look forward to what might happen. Here's where each of us at Golden State of Mind filled out two questions, just like in last year's draft. 1) Who do you want the Warriors to draft? 2) Who do you think the Warriors will draft?
Atma Brother #1
1) Who do you want the Warriors to take?
Rudy Gay if he slips, but realistically Rodney Carney
2) Who do you think the Warriors will take?
Ronnie Brewer
DJ FuzzyLogic
1) Who do you want the Warriors to take?
Kevin Garnett in the 1995 Draft.
2) Who do you think the Warriors will take?
O'Bryant
Fantasy Junkie
1) Who do you want the Warriors to take?
At #9, Rudy Gay if he slips. Any chance Brandon Roy is available? He's my ROY. But if not those 2, then how about Rodney Carney.
2) Who do you think the Warriors will take?
JJ Redick if he's there. If not him, Rodney Carney.
Hash
1) Who do you want the Warriors to take?
Dwayne Wade. What? The Heat have him? He led them to the finals? They won?!!!! I'm going back to bed.
2) Who do you think the Warriors will take?
Redick of course.
YaoButtaMing
1) Who do you want the Warriors to take?
At #9, Brandon Roy!! For sure! I would also like Andrea Bargnani but I think he's going top 2.
2) Who do you think the Warriors will take?
JJ Redick first, if not Patrick O'Bryant
Let's have some fun, we'd like each of you to fill out the same two questions and post your answer as a comment:
1) Who do you want the Warriors to take?
2) Who do you think the Warriors will take?