The Truth about The Warriors Drafting Kai Sotto

The Truth about The Warriors Drafting Kai Sotto

the 2024 NBA draft is right around the corner and the Golden State Warriors are currently in due or die mode with the length of the rest of Steph Curry’s career coming into question the organization is stuck between a rock and a hard place do you go all into win or do you try to close out these last few years of the dynasty ensuring your legendary players play out the last few years of their careers with the team they’ve always played with hey what’s happening everyone this is switch culture the answer to this is very simple win now the warriors were not able to keep their first round pick this year as that has been conveyed to the Portland Trailblazers after a 2019 trade that saw Andre Iguodala go to Memphis the Warriors sent the Grizzlies a first round pick in order to dump off iguodala’s salary after they were hard capped by the KD for D’Angelo Russell signing trade deal one which eventually got them Wiggins and kaminga this has left the warriors with a single late second round pick at number 52 via the Milwaukee Bucks now the likelihood of the Warriors getting an impactful player this late in a draft that doesn’t seem all that talented from the outset is very slim however there is the small chance that a player could pan out and give the Warriors some good minutes off the bench considering these late second round picks don’t contain much value it’s better that the team keeps the pick and see if they can get lucky with a player that could provide some backup minutes after scoring on a player like tjd last season it’s possible that a potential top pick could be hidden in the later rounds as such I’ve rounded up five mock draft picks for Golden State from each of five sports Publications ESPN Bleacher Report the ringer Hoops hype and Sporting News have all released their two round mock draft and in today’s video I’ll go over the five potential picks to determine who best would help the Warriors The Warriors also worked out a sixth player in Sam Griffin whom I’ll discuss as well as this provides some insight as to what the Warriors are looking for before we start however don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to switch culture for the most analytical and entertaining NBA content on the planet now get ready you’re about to [Applause] [Music] get one of the first things you have to realize about evaluating late round draft prospects is that teams are drafting based on player fit when drafting at this position while there are likely still some young players available that might develop it’s a higher risk selecting these players at this point in the draft a 19-year-old at this position is well behind his lottery pick peers at the same age unless the player has been overlooked an established player who has developed into their skill set will provide more value in the short term and have less risk so taking that into account we look at the player the Warriors already worked out Sam Griffin Griffin is a 22-year-old 5-year college player who spent two years at Arlington two years at Tulsa and his last year at Wyoming He’s listed as 6′ three and averaged 17 points almost four rebounds three and a half assists while shooting 39% from three and 43% from the field his final year his strengths lay in his shooting and his range as a guard he tends to focus more on scoring than passing and with poor shot selection it wouldn’t do well to have him facilitating for a second unit as a primary he’s mostly good for an off the- bench scorer in catch and shoot with limited handling opportunities while he can spot up shoot with a nice mid-range as well as a float game it’ll be a lot more difficult to score over NBA defenses and my expectation is that he’ll struggle at the next level his comp would be Marcus Sasser of the Pistons and bigs will dislike playing alongside these types of players on the second unit now while the main complaint about this team has been the lack of the true 7 foot big man that can protect the rim most of the seven-footer skilled enough to play in the NBA are already gone by the 52nd pick you’re left with a 6’8 or 6’9 backup center at this point and the Warriors are going to need more than that to compete despite this let’s have a look at what these Sports Publications are suggesting the Warriors select with their pick from Hoops hype the first player we have on the list is also the youngest isan almana is a 6’9 18-year-old center from Spain who most recently played for the gag League ignite averaging over 11 points and seven rebounds in 27 minutes a game he’s got great footwork for a young big man great agility for his size can put the ball down and get to his spots he’s got a great hook shot that he can rely on out to 10 ft and effortless athleticism providing a lob threat around the rim while his catch radius isn’t as impressive as a player like Derek Lively the second his 7′ one wingspan means he still has some potential his dad is former professional player Steve Horton who’s also 6’9 so the advanced footwork makes sense his two weaknesses of note are his low shooting percentage which comes in at just 56% for a player who doesn’t shoot threes defensively he could be better which is likely one of the reasons he’s this far down in the draft considering he’s just 18 though he’s got plenty of room for growth if the warriors were to start with tjd next season almana could be a serviceable backup if he shows some improvement and also gets the proper amount of playing time if the Warriors do draft him another season in the g-league would help him further develop his skills and put some great perspective on a prospect that could turn into a longer term investment for Golden State this doesn’t help a whole lot with winning now but it certainly gives the Warriors some youth to build around a Future squad the next player we have comes from the ringer and is also a center when he steps on the court at 6’8 with a 7′ 4 wingspan you will feel Adam bonus’s presence the 21-year-old third-year college player recorded a third 38 1/2 in vertical jump at the combine but reportedly recorded a 48 1/2 in jump in a private workout which would best Keon Johnson’s record of 48 in whether that’s true or not is irrelevant as he’s easily the most athletic big man in the draft matching Jericho Sims at the very least he’s an extremely physical player who at 245 lbs uses his size to dominate his opponents this can either work well at the next level or not so well he’s been whistled for a lot of files at the college level and my instincts tell me that such physical dominance in the NBA might not lend itself well to this type of bully ball on the defensive end while he is indeed a very good Defender it might take him some time to get acclimated to the foul calling in the NBA the smart players who specialize in drawing contact like Luca yic SGA could make things difficult for him in the interior while it’s great to have a player like boner to come off the bench it’s more important that he can stay on the floor ESPN has the Warriors drafting bronny James and considering I’ve given you guys multiple videos on LeBron Jr we’ll skip the comparison for this go around you can see the latest on bronny James here in the link posted in the top right of your screen next up the Bleacher Report has Golden State drafting the oldest player in this group 23-year-old Tristan Newton a 6’3 guard who spent the last two of his five college Years at Yukon by the way due to the shortened season during Co these players were afforded an extra year so that explains all these 5year players I figure I should mention it how however because at the end of the day it allows us to evaluate the younger players properly with more context from the box scores his last year he averaged 15 points 6.6 rebounds 6.2 assists and committed 2 and a half turnovers a game he shot over 80% from the free throw line every year in college but only shot 32% from deep and 42% from the field last season what this means is he’ll benefit a lot from spacing and he does take some difficult shots like very deep step back threes he eased the into more of a facilitating and rebounding role during his final year but watching him play it’s obvious he’s a very cerebral player he knows the complex schemes Yukon Dan Hurley wants to run and executes them very well he knows where to find his teammates in their spots and takes every Advantage given to him he’s not a player that seems to be looking for his own shine and by the looks of it could have scored more than 15 a game if he was that type of player he gets his guys involved sets screens and makes winning plays he sees the floor extremely well and is a guard I believe could excel at the next level he’s not especially athletic but he’s quick and he moves his feet well on defense he plays under control uses his speed when he needs to but otherwise sets up his offense to execute in a half court set his stats didn’t really sell me on his abilities but his film certainly did the last player covered in these mock drafts proposed by sporting news is a point guard named KJ Simpson a player out of Colorado who last season averaged 19.7 points 5.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists on 43% shooting from three and 47% from the field if he was a freshman in college putting up these numbers every team would be looking to draft him at number one but they’re not so what’s keeping KJ Simpson off the top of draft boards he’s a 21-year-old Junior out of Colorado oh he’s also only 6′ tall now the first thing you’re probably thinking is that he’s a liability on defense however that is not a particular area of weakness for Simpson he’s got tight handles top tier Court vision and a deadly three ball he knows where to find his teammates on the floor knows when to slow it down and when to speed it up did I mention he shot 87% from the free throw line what really stands out is how drastically he improved in the last two years in his freshman year this kid was shooting 25% from three and 77% from the free throw line he’s gotten better each year and despite his small size at 6′ tall the fact that he has such a well-rounded and Polished game sets him up well for Success at the next level this is the player you want off the bench that can facilitate shoot the three ball and isn’t a liability on defense a player like Simpson can run alongside tjd his ceiling isn’t yet defined so expect him to get even better now since we didn’t cover bronny James in today’s video I figured I’d give you guys a bonus I’ve had a number of requests to do a video on kaado but up until now I haven’t really had much of a reason for the Warriors to draft him for those of you who don’t know kai is a 7’3 200 132 lb Filipino player only the second tallest Filipino to ever play professional basketball he’s 22 years old and has been playing professionally since 2020 when he joined the NBA G League there haven’t been any full blooded Filipino there has been to the NBA and I just want to be the the first one and I just want to show everyone that we can also make it the frackers that ensued due to co prevented him from rejoining the g-league ignite team after leaving the country so he ended up not finishing that season he continued to play professionally for the Adelaide 36ers in the NBL as well as a few stints in Japan most recently he played 34 Games Starting 24 of them and averaging 20 minutes per his field goal percentage improved from 51% up to 58% over the last few years and his points per game also improved to 13 again this is a Japanese league so take these numbers with a grain of salt he did play last year in the summer league for the Orlando Magic where he averaged three points three rebounds and two blocks in 11 minutes before he sustained a back injury after which he went back to play in Japan he also averaged two turnovers per game in these summer leagues so not the greatest showing what he does bring is a lot of size and a defensive presence in the paint if the warriors were to take a chance on kaado they likely wouldn’t draft him but bring him on as an undrafted free agent to give him an opportunity he did work out for NBA teams a few years ago but those didn’t really work out they didn’t think he was ready he has improved since and considering the Warriors need for size it might be tenable for them to invite him for a workout to see how much he’s improved that said I am expecting the Warriors to inquire about a center after Steve K comments but I expect them to look for a more talented player that they could use in the starting lineup so now that I’ve laid out six potential options for the Warriors three guards and three centers who do you think the Warriors should draft which of these players could be the most impactful for Golden State in a bench revamp that will likely see Chris Paul head to a different team and answers to Steve K’s prayers about needing a big man post your thoughts in the comments below don’t forget to like the video subscribe to the channel and turn on all your notifications so you don’t miss any of my latest uploads thanks for watching till next time [Music]

The Golden state Warriors have a second round pick in this year’s draft. They absolutely need help throughout the roster. Here’s a look at what the Warriors could do