2021 NBA DRAFT
Owned Draft Picks: MIN 2021 1st Round Pick (Top-3 Protected), Own 2021 1st Round Pick (Pick #14 Pending Lottery)
Not only do the Warriors have their own first-round pick in this year’s draft, which will be included in this year’s draft lottery, but they also could own the rights to the Minnesota Timberwolves’ first-round pick, which is extremely valuable right now.
At last year’s trade deadline, the Warriors traded D’Angelo Russell, Omari Spellman and Jacob Evans to the T-Wolves in exchange for Andrew Wiggins, Minnesota’s first-round picks in 2021 (protected Top-3) and their second-round pick in 2022. With Minnesota finishing with the sixth worst record in the league this year, they have a 9% chance to end up with the #1 overall pick in this year’s draft and they have a 27.6% chance of their pick ending up inside the Top-3 of the draft.
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If their pick falls 1-3, they keep their first-round pick this year and give the Warriors their 2022 1st round pick (unprotected). But, if the Timberwolves’ pick falls outside of the Top-3 this year, which there is a 72.45% chance of this happening, then the Warriors get Minnesota’s pick, giving them two lottery picks in this year’s draft.
The Warriors selected James Wiseman 2nd overall in the 2020 NBA Draft and if they can have two lottery picks in this year’s draft, they will not only be able to add two more high-level, young players to their roster in order to build a championship-caliber core of the future around their current Hall-of-Fame caliber core, but they will be able to add two young talents to help them contend for a championship in 2022.
While the Warriors may have had the worst record in the league last season and failed to make the playoffs via the play-in tournament this year, they are still very much championship contenders if Klay Thompson can look like the Klay Thompson of old and Stephen Curry continues to look like an MVP-caliber point guard.
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Assuming the lottery odds hold, the Warriors could end up with the 6th and 14th picks in this year’s draft, giving them a wide-range of possibilities in terms of adding talent to their roster. Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Jalen Suggs, Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga, in no specific order, are the five best players in this year’s draft class and all of them are franchise-altering players in their own way.
By having a chance to add one of these guys to their roster with the Timberwolves’ pick, the Warriors would not only have the chance to have one of the best players in back-to-back draft classes, but they would have another young player that can join their team and immediately help make them a championship-contender during the 2021-22 season.
Golden State’s offseason truly starts when the NBA Draft Lottery begins and the Warriors will figure out if they will end up with two picks in this year’s first-round and where they will be selecting. This year’s draft has a chance to keep the Warriors among the best teams in the league for many years to come, which is why the 2021 NBA Draft has a chance to be one of the most significant events in Warriors’ history.
