Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy, discussing the return of head coach Steve Kerr last month, faces pressure to add an immediate contributor with the 11th overall pick in the NBA draft, which begins Tuesday.
Yalonda M. James/S.F. Chronicle
Five-plus weeks ago, during Steve Kerr’s news conference in the wake of his decision to return as Golden State Warriors head coach, his first answer offered a dose of introspection — two immediate references to having to perform his job better next season than he did last season.
Kerr also acknowledged the Warriors need to make changes. And he soon included general manager Mike Dunleavy and majority owner Joe Lacob, as Golden State’s brain trust peered ahead toward a vital offseason.
“Mike and Joe know they have a big job on their hands this summer,” Kerr said May 15, sitting in a spacious ninth-floor room at Chase Center with sweeping views of the bay. “We’ve got to find somebody in the draft who can help us and make a couple of good signings, maybe a trade. Who knows, right?”
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Dunleavy, especially, finds himself on the spot as Tuesday’s first round of the NBA draft approaches. The Warriors own the No. 11 pick, their highest position in five years and the first time Dunleavy will make a lottery selection since he succeeded Bob Myers as GM in June 2023.
Golden State has missed the playoffs in two of the past three years, as its core veterans — Stephen Curry (age 38), Jimmy Butler (36) and Draymond Green (36) — enter the twilight of their careers. The Warriors clearly need a jolt of talent, youth and athleticism as they try to return to relevance while Curry remains one of the league’s best players.
Guard Stephen Curry, now 38, and head coach Steve Kerr have won four NBA titles together since Kerr’s arrival in 2014.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
That jolt could come next week, when free agency begins. But the first and probably best opportunity arrives Tuesday — and the onus falls on Dunleavy, a 45-year-old onetime Duke standout whom the Warriors took with the third overall pick in the 2002 draft.
Golden State was adrift then, in the middle of what would become a 12-year streak of missing the playoffs. Now Dunleavy presides over a “fading dynasty,” in Kerr’s words, trying to squeeze more out of this epic, Curry-driven era that has yielded four NBA championships and eight trips to the conference semifinals in the past 12 seasons.
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This will be Dunleavy’s fourth draft as general manager, presiding over a collaborative effort but ultimately making the final decision. He tapped Santa Clara guard Brandin Podziemski with the 19th pick in 2023, and Podziemski has since blossomed into a productive (if polarizing) player.
Dunleavy also unearthed capable role players deep in the second round, swinging a trade for Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis (the 57th overall pick) in ’23 and selecting Boston College center Quinten Post at No. 52 in 2024.
Now Dunleavy faces a fresh challenge with massive consequences — choosing in the top half of the first round in a historically deep draft. Impact players abound. He and the Warriors cannot afford to miss, as they did with James Wiseman at No. 2 in 2020 and essentially did with Jonathan Kuminga at No. 7 in ’21.
Dunleavy acknowledged he has learned from previous drafts and grown more comfortable in his role as general manager. But does he feel pressure to get this one right?
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“I think when you have the right process in place, and you’re thinking about things the right way, then you go forward and just focus on making a good, sound decision,” Dunleavy said Wednesday. “I don’t feel any pressure in doing that. It’s the fun part of the job.”
Still, he will enjoy it more by adding a player who makes an immediate impact and also becomes a central character in the post-Curry era. That’s a delicate balancing act, seeking to fortify the supporting cast for No. 30 while also keeping an eye on the future.
That’s also exactly what Dunleavy confronts in the weeks ahead, starting with the draft and extending into free agency.
“He’s now having to look post-Steph, but we’re still here,” one league source said of Dunleavy’s quest. “There’s still pressure — Lacob says he’ll never tank, he wants to win (now), so they have to make some good decisions. This draft is deep, but you can’t pick the wrong guy.”
There’s little consensus about the type of player Dunleavy and the Warriors will target. Several mock drafts predict they will address their longtime size deficiency by selecting Aday Mara, the 7-foot-3 center who spent two seasons at UCLA and one at Michigan.
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Other analysts tie the Warriors to a wing player such as Mexico’s Karim Lopez, who has been playing professionally in New Zealand, or Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg. And they surely would be excited if Arizona shooting guard Brayden Burries somehow remains available at No. 11.
Like many NBA teams, Golden State has a recent history of taking chances on high-upside young players in the first round (see Wiseman, Kuminga, Moses Moody and Podziemski). The Warriors have preferred older, experienced college players in the second round (see Jackson-Davis, Post and Will Richard).
Dunleavy shared few hints about which way he might lean this time, though he did say the Warriors will consider a player’s positional fit more in the first round than in the second. They also own the 54th overall pick in Wednesday’s second round.
“I think you talk a little bit about position picking at 11,” Dunleavy said. “If you’re drafting a guy who can only play one position, it’s just something you need to be mindful of. For us, I think we’re in a good spot where frankly we need everything. So we don’t need to be picky about this thing.”
This marked a striking change of tone from Dunleavy’s comments last month, when he curiously declared his team’s issues weren’t “about the roster.” Now he flatly stated the Warriors “need everything,” which seems a bit closer to the truth after a disappointing 37-45 season.
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Dunleavy finds hope sitting at No. 11, giving him more confidence he will land a player he covets.
Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski was selected 19th out of Santa Clara in the 2023 NBA draft and has seen his scoring average rise each year, from averaging 9.2 points as a rookie to 11.7 to 13.8 this past season.
David Zalubowski/Associated Press
“Looking back on drafting Brandin, you get a little uneasy,” he said, referring to the anxiety of choosing 19th three years ago. “If we only have two guys we like, we hope they get there. Well, getting to 19 is a lot harder than getting to 11. I’m probably a little more at ease and comfortable this time.”
Dunleavy’s front-office history with the Warriors stretches back further than 2023, of course. Golden State hired him as a pro scout in September 2018, barely more than a year after his playing career ended. He became assistant general manager in 2019.
So he spent four years working alongside Myers, learning how to navigate the complicated puzzle of building an NBA roster. Along the way, they had many conversations about the draft and how to evaluate prospects.
“I think what you realize is when you think you’ve got it all figured out, you probably don’t,” Dunleavy said. “Then you rethink everything. That’s probably the biggest thing I learned from Bob — you have to be adaptable, malleable a little bit, and constantly evaluating how you’re doing things.”