Even in the heyday of the Warriors, Bob Myers is the housekeeper. The president / general manager of the langy team can find storm clouds in even the bluest sky.
The fear is real today, however, not only for Myers, but also for his staff. The front office has to do with the most sensible design since Myers took the lead eight years ago.
Wildly successful from 2013-2019, the Warriors hit 2020 at a crossroads. Their decorated core trio – Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson – have each sailed past their 30th birthday. They still have games, but it is irrational to expect them to be so good in 2025. Longer franchise greatness requires winning today with youngsters who can take the torch. It’s the hottest route to maintaining the airy standard set in the first decade of Joe Lacob / Peter Guber ownership.
In a snare of unattainable timing, Myers is sitting on a lottery pick for the first time since Jerry West left the organization in 2017. We will know on Thursday whether it is in general no. 1 is, or letter.
In a battle of misfortune over basketball, the Warriors are trying to charge at the exact moment that the world is wrestling with a deadly pandemic.
“So far, it’s been a long run, much longer than we ever had,” Myers says. “I can say it’s easier because we have more time, but harder because we have less access.”
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Despite being limited to virtual interviews, there is pressure to nail it. To use the lottery to their full advantage, even if they are likely to have another (via Minnesota) in 2021.
And the process is different from her last trip to the lottery, in 2012. While West did not ignore the science of drafting, he relied heavily on the wisdom gained from 60 years as a player, coach and architect. He followed his instincts. Trusted his gut. With the Logo now featuring the Los Angeles Clippers, I asked Myers if his own gut was now more of a factor than in his earlier drawings.
‘There’s so much numerical processing to do that the idea of what it was, maybe 15, 20 years ago, where I look at that scene in’ Moneyball ‘, where they’re all sitting around the table and you have some of the old scouts commenting on what the boy’s girlfriend looks like, and then (A’s GM) Billy (Beane) sits there with the assistant GM and they process base percentage, ”says Myers. “It’s somewhere in the middle of that, especially in our sport, because we’re not baseball.”
In short, Myers & Co. will not completely relieve the gut feeling, but place a higher value on raw and advanced statistical analysis.
“It does not mean you respond to analytics, but they are much more introduced to the process than they were before in the last seven, eight years,” Myers says. ‘That’s factors in things. It becomes very mathematical, and you have to decide how much you want to weight that as part of the process. That’s another thing. “
As Myers & Co. these lottery venues just choose to play – whether through concept or trade – the Warriors will add a fundamental pillar to the roster they want in 2025.
If they play it bad, Myers will invite a level of draft-related heat so far hidden by the fact that the Warriors were the most accomplished and celebrated NBA team of the 2010s.
See, while pursuing rings and winning trophies, Myers and his crew were indistinguishable as graduates of the J. West School of Talent Evaluation. The late designs made the task challenging, yes, but the Warriors’ recent record has more whiffs than hits.
When drafting Jacob Evans III in 2018 – a move that a longtime scout asked me to pick up in Sacramento’s Summer League and tell me “he can not play” – the Warriors left Gary Trent Jr. and Shake Milton on the board. Myers has since admitted they were wrong.
She chose Jordan Bell in 2017, leaving two of his Oregon teammates – Dillon Brooks and Chris Boucher – on the board. Bell is on his fifth team. Brooks is a starter for the Memphis Grizzlies. Since being cut from his two-way deal with the Warriors, Boucher has become a two-year reserve on defending champions Toronto Raptors.
The Warriors liked Damian Jones’ athletics and smarts, but traded him to one healthy but mostly unproductive season. Six spots made later in 2016 was Malcolm Brogdon, whose Rookie of the Year award proved that many had missed his skills. Two spots later set up as Jones was Ivica Zubac, now the starting center for the Warring Clippers.
Since nails of the 2011 (Thompson, on the urgency of West) and 2012 drawings (Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli and Green, reunited with West in the room), the Warriors have only shown Kevon Looney as one who’s t make significant contributions to their success and still on the roster.
“You try to learn from mistakes you make and go back and look at the rankings,” Myers says. ‘And by having the same group together for a while, we can come back and say,’ Well, why did you rank this man on this number? ‘and look at the patterns of people and who has been successful and who is not in the group and how they value boys. That there is some more responsibility. ”
[RELATED: Steph calls out The Jet for saying Dame has more range]It’s too early to reasonably assess the concept of 2019, indications are Jordan Poole and Eric Paschall have NBA futures. They will also need help as soon as the 2020 concept.
The last time the Warriors were in the lottery, they beat gold. They ended a five-year playoff drought in year 1 and won a championship in year 3. Barnes, Ezeli and Green, no more than 25, play in fourth quarters of postseason games. It is very rare for three players of the same concept to play significant minutes together.
Whether you bet directly through the lottery – or with someone who gets won with that choice – there’s an easy way to track the success of Myers & Co. to win for the future of the Warriors.
