<\/p>\n
Warriors general manager Mike\u00a0Dunleavy, discussing the return of head coach Steve Kerr last month, faces pressure to add an immediate contributor with the 11th overall pick in the\u00a0NBA draft, which begins Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Five-plus weeks ago, during Steve Kerr<\/a>\u2019s news conference in the wake of his decision to return as Golden State Warriors<\/a> head coach, his first answer offered a dose of introspection\u00a0\u2014 two immediate references to having to perform his job better next season than he did last season.<\/p>\n Kerr also acknowledged the Warriors need to make changes. And he soon included general manager Mike Dunleavy<\/a> and majority owner Joe Lacob, as Golden State\u2019s brain trust peered ahead toward a vital offseason<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMike and Joe know they have a big job on their hands this summer,\u201d Kerr said May 15, sitting in a spacious ninth-floor room at Chase Center with sweeping views of the bay. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to find somebody in the draft who can help us and make a couple of good signings, maybe a trade. Who knows, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Dunleavy, especially, finds himself on the spot as Tuesday\u2019s first round of the NBA draft approaches. The Warriors own the No. 11 pick<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n Golden State has missed the playoffs in two of the past three years, as its core veterans\u00a0\u2014 Stephen Curry<\/a> (age 38), Jimmy Butler<\/a> (36) and Draymond Green<\/a> (36)\u00a0\u2014 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\u2019s best players.<\/p>\n Guard Stephen Curry, now 38, and head coach Steve Kerr have won four NBA titles together since\u00a0Kerr’s arrival in 2014.<\/p>\n Santiago Mejia\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n That jolt could come next week, when free agency begins. But the first and probably best opportunity arrives Tuesday \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cfading dynasty,\u201d in Kerr\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n This will be Dunleavy\u2019s fourth draft as general manager, presiding over a collaborative effort but ultimately making the final decision. He tapped Santa Clara guard Brandin Podziemski<\/a> with the 19th\u00a0pick in 2023, and Podziemski has since blossomed into a productive (if polarizing) player.<\/p>\n Dunleavy also unearthed capable role players deep in the second round, swinging a trade for Indiana\u2019s Trayce Jackson-Davis<\/a> (the 57th\u00a0overall pick) in \u201923 and selecting Boston College center Quinten Post<\/a> at No. 52 in 2024.<\/p>\n Now Dunleavy faces a fresh challenge with massive consequences\u00a0\u2014 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<\/a> at No. 2 in 2020 and essentially did with Jonathan Kuminga<\/a> at No. 7 in \u201921.<\/p>\n 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?<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI think when you have the right process in place, and you\u2019re thinking about things the right way, then you go forward and just focus on making a good, sound decision,\u201d Dunleavy said Wednesday. \u201cI don\u2019t feel any pressure in doing that. It\u2019s the fun part of the job.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s a delicate balancing act, seeking to fortify the supporting cast for No. 30 while also keeping an eye on the future.<\/p>\n That\u2019s also exactly what Dunleavy confronts in the weeks ahead, starting with the draft and extending into free agency.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s now having to look post-Steph, but we\u2019re still here,\u201d one league source said of Dunleavy\u2019s quest. \u201cThere\u2019s still pressure\u00a0\u2014 Lacob says he\u2019ll never tank, he wants to win (now), so they have to make some good decisions. This draft is deep, but you can\u2019t pick the wrong guy.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Other analysts tie the Warriors to a wing player such as Mexico\u2019s Karim Lopez, who has been playing professionally in New Zealand, or Michigan\u2019s Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a>. And they surely would be excited if Arizona shooting guard Brayden Burries<\/a> somehow remains available at No. 11.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> and Podziemski). The Warriors have preferred older, experienced college players in the second round (see Jackson-Davis, Post and Will Richard<\/a>).<\/p>\n Dunleavy shared few hints about which way he might lean this time, though he did say the Warriors will consider a player\u2019s positional fit more in the first round than in the second. They also own the 54th overall pick in Wednesday\u2019s second round.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you talk a little bit about position picking at 11,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cIf you\u2019re drafting a guy who can only play one position, it\u2019s just something you need to be mindful of. For us, I think we\u2019re in a good spot where frankly we need everything. So we don\u2019t need to be picky about this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n This marked a striking change of tone from Dunleavy\u2019s comments last month, when he curiously declared his team\u2019s issues weren\u2019t \u201cabout the roster.\u201d Now he flatly stated the Warriors \u201cneed everything,\u201d which seems a bit closer to the truth after a disappointing 37-45 season.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Dunleavy finds hope sitting at No. 11, giving him more confidence he will land a player he covets.<\/p>\n Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski was selected 19th out of Santa Clara in the 2023\u00a0NBA 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.<\/p>\n David Zalubowski\/Associated Press<\/p>\n \u201cLooking back on drafting Brandin, you get a little uneasy,\u201d he said, referring to the anxiety of choosing 19th\u00a0three years ago. \u201cIf 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\u2019m probably a little more at ease and comfortable this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Dunleavy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what you realize is when you think you\u2019ve got it all figured out, you probably don\u2019t,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cThen you rethink everything. That\u2019s probably the biggest thing I learned from Bob\u00a0\u2014 you have to be adaptable, malleable a little bit, and constantly evaluating how you\u2019re doing things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warriors general manager Mike\u00a0Dunleavy, discussing the return of head coach Steve Kerr last month, faces pressure to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,5552,354030,590,85,7903,58049,3198],"class_list":["post-751024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-mike-dunleavy","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-stephen-curry","tag-steve-kerr","tag-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n