While several teams trying to skip a few steps, trading away future picks for “win-now” pieces, the Warriors believe that’s not the best way to go regarding building a team in the NBA.
“The organization took some criticism from people that we should trade all our draft choices that we had to get one more great player or whatever,” Warriors governor Joe Lacob said, per 95.7 The Game.
The franchise is in the middle of an extended championship window after reaching five straight NBA Finals from 2014-15 through 2018-19. They returned back to contention after two seasons as they overcame injury struggles.
“I was very adamant about it, so was [general manager] Bob [Myers], that was not the path we’re going down. We want to be great for a long time.”
The Warriors selected James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga,Moses Moody and Jordan Poole in the last two drafts. All of them, minus Wiseman, assumed a small or a big role in this year’s playoffs despite their young age.
With Kevin Durant on their roster, the Dubs created one of the best teams ever between 2016 and 2019. Although Kevin Durant left the team following the 2018-19 campaign, the main core of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson was still in place.
Packaging multiple draft picks could have helped the Warriors land another star in the wake of Durant’s departure. But in that case, they would never see Jordan Poole florising and becoming the most important player aside from Curry, Green and Thompson.
The Warriors will take on Boston in their sixth final in the last eight years. Teams like the Suns, the Bucks and the Celtics, who made the NBA Finals in the last two seasons, had their own home-grown star or stars to lead them like Golden State.
That’s saying something about what way the NBA teams should go in order to build a championship caliber team.
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