The Golden State Warriors would have kept their first-round pick this year had they moved from the No. 14 pick to the No. 4 pick.
So many offensive rebounds, blocks from Klay Thompson and quick passes from Draymond Green this season, the ball has yet to bounce.
This year’s pick was originally awarded to the Memphis Grizzlies in the summer of 2019, when the Warriors had to give up Andre Iguodala and his $16 million contract because the D’Angelo Russell signing and trade severely limited them.
This move allowed the team to then trade for Andrew Wiggins and the draft pick that became Jonathan Kuminga.
It also sparked a long-running feud between Dillon Brook, Ja Morant and the rest of the Memphis “dynasty”, which to date has won only one playoff series.
Memphis retains choice. for four years before sending him to the Boston Celtics in a three-team deal that sent Marcus Smart to the Grizzlies, Tyus Jones to the Washington Wizards and Kristaps Porzingis to Boston.
Three months later, the pick was sent to the Portland Trail Blazers along with Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams and the 2029 No. 1 pick for Jrue Holiday, days after the Milwaukee Bucks traded Holiday for Damian Lillard.
The protected top-four pick ended his crazy run and settled into 14th place.
There was a 3.4% chance the pick ended up in the top 4, roughly the same odds as Jordan Poole playing full game without committing a turnover. In a way, this is good news for the Warriors.
Having a future first-round pick pending limits a team’s ability to make deals, because of the “Ted Stepien Rule” that forbids teams from dealing their first-round pick in consecutive years.
It’s named after the former owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who traded so many future first-rounders that the league banned the Cavs from making trades and put this rule in place.
Stepien had a history of racist comments, injured fans by tossing softballs off the Terminal Tower in Cleveland, and once invited a beat reporter to “sit around the pool and watch porno films.”
In a quote that sums up his ownership tenure, he once admitted, “I may not be able to run a basketball team, but I can run a lingerie show.”
Teams have gotten around this restriction by trading pick swaps instead, something that ended disastrously when the Brooklyn Nets mortgaged their draft future to the Boston Celtics to get two aging veterans in Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, and is on its way to ending disastrously again after trading for James Harden.
They’ve already sent this year’s No. 3 pick to the Houston Rockets and Houston controls their first-round picks through 2027.
Will we see a “Sean Marks Rule” in a few years?
Now that this draft pick has conveyed, the Warriors are free to trade first-rounders in 2026 and 2028 without violating the Stepien Rule.
They owe a 2030 first-rounder to the Washington Wizards in the Chris Paul-Jordan Poole deal which is protected for picks 1-20. If it falls out of the top 20, the pick turns into a second-rounder.
The 2024 draft is not considered the strongest crop of players, not that the Warriors seem inclined toward adding a young developmental player anyway, especially at the guaranteed money of a high first-rounder.
SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell projects the No. 14 pick to be an 18-year-old French forward named Tinjane Salaun who is 6’9” with a 7’2” wingspan.
The scouting report isn’t all that encouraging.
At the moment, Salaun still has a long way to go: his feel for the game is still developing to put it kindly, he struggles to score inside the arc, and his three-point shot runs cold more than hot.
Get excited, Blazers fans!
It’s probably better all around that the pick conveyed this season, since the pending nature of the selection would have hamstrung the team’s front office.
The protection would have dropped to top-1 protection in 2025 and no protection at all in 2026, meaning the 2026 and 2027 firsts would be untradeable.
The Warriors will go into the 2024 draft with just one selection, at No. 52, a pick originally belonging to the Milwaukee Bucks and landing with the Warriors after a mind-numbing series of second-round pick swaps we won’t describe here.
They did get Trayce Jackson-Davis late in last year’s draft, so it’s not a hopeless position, but it helps that TJD’s agent happens to be Mike Dunleavy Junior’s brother.< br
Does Dunleavy intend to use his new free agency to trade draft picks? Does James Dunleavy have a super-athletic client who can run the court and shoot threes?
Would the NBA moving the second round of play to another date open up options for the Warriors?
Has Steve Kerr decided to give this draft inconsistent and frustrating minutes regardless of who he picks?