This Golden State Warriors Draft Will Richard & Alex Toohey

This Golden State Warriors Draft Will Richard & Alex Toohey

with the 41st pick in the 2025 NBA draft the Golden State Warriors select during the second round of the 2025 NBA draft something very strange happened the Golden State Warriors made one of the most puzzling moves we’ve seen in recent years considering they traded last year’s second round pick for cash just to reacquire it through two other teams and select Quinton Post that’s saying a lot so what happened this year the Warriors armed with the 41st overall pick and slated to draft possibly the second coming of Klay Thompson traded the pick to move down and select from a smaller pool of potentially less talented players why while some were expecting the Warriors could have possibly moved up to snag a player like Rashir Fleming or at worst select the best player available the Warriors did a complete 180 and went into the other direction was this a brain fog moment for Mike Dunlevy Jr or do the Warriors have something up their sleeve what we do know is that the Warriors ended up selecting 6’8 forward Alex Tui with the 52nd overall pick and 6’4 guard Will Richard with the 56th overall pick but things got even weirder when the Warriors traded the 41st pick they didn’t get the 56th pick they got the 59th pick and right after the 55th pick was made the franchise made a lastm minute dash to move up three spots from the 59th pick to get Richard at 56 why split hairs over players so far down in the draft when they just threw the 41st pick to the Suns
got a little hairy but we we moved around a little bit and got back up to where we needed to do get back up to and and got well
does the Warrior scouting department have some information that we don’t resulting in a strategic move to get a better chance at landing a player that could make a difference on a championship team there’s only one way to find out you are watching [Applause] with the 41st pick in the draft the Warriors know it’s really tough to hit on second round players also once you get past the 35th pick in this year’s draft the talent pool seemed to take a bit of a dip could this have been a factor in the Golden State Warriors deciding to forego the pick the Warriors are a team looking to compete for a championship and even if they were to get the first overall pick it would be unlikely that the player they drafted first would be able to help them right away teams don’t draft in the lottery for immediate impact they do so for potential these are players that teams will risk drafting as they have the best chance of becoming an all-star or better the middle of the draft is less so outside of the lottery from picks 15 through the end of the first round teams aren’t expecting much more than highlevel role players these guys could become rotation players or turn out to be starters if they’re lucky once we get to the second round it’s a totally different ballgame teams are looking for end of the rotation players that will likely end up in the G- League in extremely rare cases such as Mano Ginobi at pick 57 Draymond Green at pick 35 or the absolutely absurd pick of Nicoola Jokic at 41 you might get an all-time great player so when you get a second round pick objectively the more opportunities you have the better your chances of landing such a player could that have been the driving factor behind the Warriors trading the sole 41st pick to the desperate Phoenix Suns for the 52nd and 59th picks immediately following the pick being traded Sam Gordon of the San Francisco Chronicle tweeted Warriors had hoped to trade back in the second round for about a week dunlevy said like the value they got in exchange for the 41st pick whether Tui or Richard are on the standard roster depends on free agency dun Levy noted could spend time in their J-League program the move at first seemed a bit clumsy as they had the opportunity to draft Kobe Brea a lights out shooter at 6’6 who has some upside and similarity to Klay Thompson while it’s still early to make a judgment call the Warriors tactic became clear brea’s scouting report has him listed as arguably the best pure shooter in this class hitting 50% of his threes in his junior year and averaging 43% from downtown over the course of his college career he was a spark plug on the offensive end but the Warriors clearly weren’t sold on the pick in an interview prior to the draft Mike Dunlevy Jr might have left a clue as to why he wasn’t exactly enamored with drafting at 41 like I feel really good about our roster if you look at like guys 10 to 14 10 to 15 like and that’s part of having depth i think we can get better in the middle
in a post-draft interview he actually clarified the details
just one of those drafts i think with the NIL stuff it was a we felt like it was a little weak in the middle where we were drafted and so we could get some pretty good value by moving back and stuff’s hard to do ahead of time you kind of have to wait till today or on the clock and we were able to get something done before the draft and we felt good about the players being there and um got a little hairy but we we moved around a little bit and got back up to where we needed to do get back up to and and got well
based on that interview the Warriors are currently satisfied with their third string players dunlevy Jr likely views the players at the back end of the draft to be players they’d slotted from 10 to 15 or 16 to 18 on two-way contracts since they wanted to get better in the middle and decided to forego their 41st pick they didn’t view anyone available as a piece that could make it on the Warriors bench not based on anything they have in the scouting report anyway his report further stated that while Brea could shoot and had great shot selection it also said he can’t break down a defense couldn’t create his own shot and wasn’t really a passer on the defensive end he’s too slow to guard twos and not physical enough to guard fours this leaves him in a very niche category of players making it difficult for him to see a starting role at the NBA level did the Warriors miss an opportunity on Kobe Brea let me know in the comments below the team has already let it be known what they need is a perimeter defender and a big man if we put that together with the recent comments on getting better in the middle we’re looking at players that are going to be impactful right off the bench they are unlikely to get this in the draft however if they multiply their chances by snatching two picks instead of one not only do they improve their chances of hitting on one of the two they improve their tradeable assets so what did they like about the 52nd pick not a whole lot is known about Alex Tui what we do know is that he’s a 6’8 21-year-old forward he spent his last two years playing for the Sydney Kings in the Australian National Basketball League the NBL and participated in their Next Stars program the same program that kicked off with LaMelo Ball and R.J hampton back in 2020 while with the Kings Alex averaged 10.6 points four rebounds 1.4 steals and 1.3 assists in his second season while nothing really pops out about his game in the stat sheets he tends to make his impact at the defensive end of the floor he has active hands and stays in front of his man for the most part however it’s unlikely he’d be able to defend skilled guards in the NBA six-foot guard Bryce Cotton in the NBL for example easily throws him off balance and then shoots over him without much of a contested shot the fact that he was out there on the perimeter however shows that he has some versatility mike Dun Levy had this to say about Tui i think he’s like a four and I think with our system and the way we play he has the versatility to play multiple positions it’s who can you guard and where you can play offensively and we think especially on the defensive end he’s super versatile and creates a lot of plays we’ll find out just how well this translates in the summer league but something else happened after that initial trade right around the time the 55th pick was drafted the Warriors made a lastminute bid to move up their pick from 59th to 56th in order to select Will Richard in order to move up those three places Dunlevy Jr quickly gave up the rights to Justinian Jessup also a former NBL player whom the Warriors selected with the 51st overall pick back in the 2020 NBA draft jessup made a few summer league appearances for Golden State but never played in the regular season he’s played on the national scene since however carving out an international career since the Warriors traded the pick to the Memphis Grizzlies this means that the Grizzlies now have the first right of refusal to sign Jessup to a contract the Warriors had concerns that the Celtics or Cavs were going to draft Richard a player who wasn’t even invited to the NBA combine so they moved up and traded with the Grizzlies to get him so what do we know about Will Richard will Richard is a 6’4 22-year-old guard who spent his first year at Belmont and the next three at Florida State where he helped lead the team to the NCAA championship he was impressive against Houston putting up 18 points grabbing eight rebounds hitting four of seven threes two assists two steals and one block not only did he have a 75.6% true shooting rating in that game he’s also the only player to ever achieve this statistic overall Will Richard’s senior campaign saw him average over 13 points almost five rebounds two assists 1.7 steals while shooting 49% from the field and north of 80% from the free throw line a particular feat which he accomplished every year he played in college richard plays from the defensive end of the floor dunle had this to say about him we see him as a two-way player shoot it and defend it he’s a pretty good onball defender very good offball defender and he’s got good length and he’s coming from a really good program and system where he was well coached well taught through many years in college this is a guy that knows how to play he’s someone the Warriors could actually put on the perimeter to guard as the team currently doesn’t have a long list of players they can put in that role think of him as a player in the mold of DaVon Mitchell both of these players will likely see some time in the J- League and if things work out as they did in the past with TJD and Quinton Post they may see some time in the regular season i expect Richard just might surprise a few people at the next level i’ll follow up on these guys after summer league but for the moment the plan is to see whether or not their skills translate at the next level don’t look for big numbers look for all the intangible traits such as hustling defending and rebounding if they can knock down the occasional open three that’s icing on the cake anyway that’s it for the Warriors look on the 2025 NBA draft let me know your thoughts on the picks post them in the comments below just be sure 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]

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Has Mike Dunleavy jr done it again? The Warriors select multiple picks despite going into the night with only one.

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Music: True Detective by Soundridemusic
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