The Warriors are champs again and now it’s NBA Draft season

The Golden State Warriors may be the 2022 NBA champions, but the world of professional sports stops for no one. So while most of Dub Nation is prepping for the team’s championship parade, the NBA Draft is less than a week away.

The Warriors have a selection in the first and second rounds of this year’s draft. They have their own first-round pick, which is 28th overall, and the Raptors’ second-round pick (acquired from the Sixers in the Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III trade back in 2020), which is the 51st overall pick.

The entire Golden State of Mind staff will be looking at prospects that could be top targets for the Dubs over the next few days. However, if you are calibrating yourself for NBA Draft season and want to place some casual bets, you can check out the DraftKings Sportsbook.

One set of odds that caught my eye on the DraftKings book is A.J. Griffin at +210 to be a top-10 pick. Griffin is entering the draft after one year at Duke where he averaged 10.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.

While his numbers were far from exceptional for a 6’6’’-wing, Griffin was an incredibly efficient scorer, shooting 54.7% from inside the arc, 44.7% from three, and 79.2% from the free-throw line. He is considered somewhat limited athletically but also seems to have an easy path to immediately contributing to an NBA offense.

Griffin is considered a consensus lottery pick and is consistently mocked in the 8-12 range of the draft. His lack of star upside could lead him to fall, but I think it’s just as likely that a team looking to contribute next season reaches for Griffin. The breakeven probability on a +210 bet is just under 33%, which seems too low to me given his prospect status.

While we know casual gambling can be fun for some fans, we recognize that it can cause problems for others. If you would like to talk to a professional about your gambling habits, an anonymous national hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-522-4700.

Check out DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.