The Warriors' Draft Night is officially over.
NOT!
The Warriors, while executing an pretty good draft last night, still have tons of work to do this offseason. Chris Mullin and the rest of the gang still have to work relentlessly in order for the Warriors to be a successful playoff team next season.
Lets see what the Warriors got done today:
14th Pick
With the 14th Overall Pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, the Golden State Warriors select Anthony Randolph from Louisiana State University.
The Skinny: A tall and skinny Power Forward with a long wingspan and tons of potential. Hmm—sounds a lot like Brandan Wright.
A couple of weeks ago, if you told ESPN.com draft columnist Chad Ford that Anthony Randolph would fall to the Warriors at 14, he wouldn't have believed you. This guy has got talent, and unlike Brandan Wright, this guy can create his own jumpshot—which he actually has range on, although he doesn't have the three-point potential Don Nelson favors.
But the fact is, we did not really need him. I know that a lottery team as good as the Warriors should draft for the best talent and not for need, but the fact is that we already have an up-and-coming forward in Brandan Wright, who is working very hard at the Warriors' facility along with Marco Belinelli so that they can be part of the rotation next year.
Anthony Randolph is just a more offensive-minded version of Wright. Don't be surprised if Randolph OR Wright get traded sometime this offseason, because I really don't know how we can have both those players on the same roster competing for playing time.
The 49th Pick
With the 49th Overall Pick in the 2008 Draft, The Golden State Warriors select Richard Hendrix from the University of Alabama
The Skinny: The Warriors have a history of finding gems in the second round of the draft, such as Monta Ellis. With this pick, the Warriors may have found another one.
Coming out of high school, Hendrix had to choose between going directly to the NBA or going to college. If he went to the NBA, he was projected to be a lottery pick, but instead made the wise choice to go to college.
Unfortunately, his draft stock slipped terribly while in college, but it apparently was not because of his performance. He still put up some big numbers and was All-SEC the last two years of college.
Hendrix is going to have to work very hard in order to make Don Nelson's rotation—but if he makes it through, the Warriors will definitely welcome him. Golden State needs a strong power forward, and Hendrix could be a good counterpart to Anthony Randolph or Brandan Wright at the four-spot for the Warriors.
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3 months ago
Solid piece. Really like it. Like you said, he might be used as a trade bait (Randolph) but I really think they might use Al Harrington for sure. It's really not good for the Warriors to leave a combined talent of Randolph and Wright together, it's gonna be quite a front line we have when they, in the future, play together: B-Wright, Randolph, and Biedrins...and they're all growing so that's good as well. I say, firstly, since B-diddy is really close to moving out, we need a back-up point guard and a solid bench player to have an impact on the game, something we certainly lacked last season.
3 months ago
The Skinny on Randolph is his is one skinny mof. The dude is 6'11'' and only 197 pounds. Ridic. Maybe Mullin can use him and the trade exception to get something big in return, but it'll have to be quick because the exception expires on Monday. If he doesn't do anything with it, that's almost as big a blunder as giving big money deals to Adonal Foyle and Troy Murphy.
As for Hendrix, he sounds intriguing, but I seem to remember hearing similar things about 2nd rounder Stephan Lasme last year. We'll see if Hendrix can last longer than Lasme did.
3 months ago
WHAT WAS MULLIN THINKING??? Drafting another lefty prototype like the recently acquired Brandon Wright and former Warrior Troy Murphy is not what the Warriors need!!!! Worst Draft since Adonal Foyle.
from 3 months ago
calm down eric. We haven't seen the man play yet, so u cant say worst deaft since adonal foyle... but point made we didnt need him.
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