If the Golden State Warriors had moved up from 14th to 4th place this year, they may have maintained their first-round choice. But, like so many rebounds, Klay Thompson fadeaways, and Draymond Green fast-break passes this season, the balls did not go their way.
This year’s pick was initially transferred to the Memphis Grizzlies in the summer of 2019, when the Warriors were forced to part ways with Andre Iguodala and his $16 million deal due to the D’Angelo Russell sign-and-trade hard cap. The deal enabled the team to eventually trade for Andrew Wiggins and the draft selection that would become Jonathan Kuminga. It also sparked a long-running dispute between Dillon Brook, Ja Morant, and the rest of the Memphis “dynasty,” which has won just one postseason series.
Memphis held onto the pick for four years until trading it to the Boston Celtics as part of a three-team transaction that also included Marcus Smart, Tyus Jones, and Kristaps Porzingis. Three months later, the pick was dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers along with Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams, and a 2029 No. 1 pick for Jrue Holiday, who had been traded by the Milwaukee Bucks for Damian Lillard days before.
The top-4 protected choice has ended its wild ride and is now ranked 14th. There was a 3.4% chance the pick would finish in the top four, which is about equivalent to Jordan Poole playing the entire game without committing a turnover. In a sense, this is good news for the Warriors.
The “Ted Stepien Rule” prohibits clubs from moving their first-round pick in consecutive years, therefore having a future first-round pick pending limits a team’s ability to make transactions. It is named after the Cleveland Cavaliers’ former owner, who traded so many future first-round picks that the league forbade deals and implemented this regulation.
Stepien had a history of making racist remarks, injuring fans by throwing softballs from Cleveland’s Terminal Tower, and once inviting a beat reporter to “sit around the pool and watch porno films.” In a remark that sums up his ownership tenure, he once said, “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 picks instead, which ended disastrously when the Brooklyn Nets mortgaged their draft future to the Boston Celtics in exchange for two aging veterans in Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, and is on track to end disastrously again after trading for James Harden. They’ve already traded this year’s No. 3 pick to the Houston Rockets, and Houston owns their first-round picks until 2027. Will there be a “Sean Marks Rule” in a few years?
Shaun Livingston: Magic Johnson 2.0, terribly injured, three-time champion.
Now that this draft pick has been communicated, the Warriors can trade first-round picks in 2026 and 2028 without breaching the Stepien Rule. They owe the Washington Wizards a first-round pick in 2030 as part of the Chris Paul-Jordan Poole trade, which is protected for picks 1-20. If it falls outside of the top 20, the pick becomes a second-rounder.
The 2024 draft is not regarded the strongest crop of players, and the Warriors do not appear to be interested in acquiring a young developmental player, especially at the guaranteed salary of a high first-round pick. According to SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell, the No. 14 pick will be Tinjane Salaun, an 18-year-old French forward who stands 6’9″ tall with a wingspan of 7’2″. The scouting report isn’t very encouraging.
Salaun still has a long way to go: his game sense is still growing, he struggles to score within the arc, and his three-point shot is chilly rather than scorching.
Be thrilled, Blazers supporters!
It’s arguably better overall that the pick was relayed this season, as the pending nature of the selection would have hampered the team’s front office. The protection would have reverted to top-1 protection in 2025 and none at all in 2026, rendering the 2026 and 2027 firsts 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 helped that TJD’s agent happens to be Mike Dunleavy Junior’s brother.
Does Dunleavy have deals in mind to use the new freedom to trade draft picks? Does James Dunleavy have any hyper-athletic clients who can run the floor and shoot threes? Does the NBA moving the second round of the draft to a separate day open up the Warriors options? Has Steve Kerr already decided to give this draft pick inconsistent and frustrating minutes, regardless of who they choose?
All of these questions will be answered in June, and Warriors supporters may put a stop to their pipe dreams of acquiring a future legend like Matas Buzelis or Zaccarie Risacher. And Blazers fans may ask why Jrue Holiday’s homecoming was not more successful.
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