If the Golden State Warriors had jumped up from No. 14 to No. 4, they could have maintained their first-round pick for this season. However, just like a lot of rebounds, Draymond Green fast breaks, and Klay Thompson fadeaways this season, the balls did not fall in their direction.
The Warriors had to part with Andre Iguodala and his $16 million salary in the summer of 2019 due to the D’Angelo Russell sign-and-trade hard cap, which forced them to trade the pick this year to the Memphis Grizzlies.
This move gave the organization the opportunity to eventually trade for Jonathan Kuminga’s draft pick and Andrew Wiggins. It also ignited a long-standing rivalry between Ja Morant, Dillon Brook, and the Memphis “dynasty,” who have only won one postseason series to date.
After keeping the choice for four years, Memphis traded it to the Boston Celtics in a three-team trade that brought Kristaps Porzingis to Boston, Marcus Smart to the Grizzlies, and Tyus Jones to the Washington Wizards.
Three months later, on the days after the Milwaukee Bucks traded Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard, the pick was moved to the Portland Trail Blazers along with Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams, and a 2029 No. 1 pick.
The top-4 protected pick is now at No. 14 as its exciting trip came to an end. The pick had a 3.4% chance of landing in the top 4, which is comparable to Jordan Poole’s odds of going the entire game without making a mistake. For the Warriors, this is sort of good news.
Because of the “Ted Stepien Rule,” which prohibits teams from moving their first-round pick in consecutive years, a team’s ability to make transactions is limited if they have a future first-round pick pending. It bears the name of the former Cleveland Cavaliers owner who was so successful in trading for future first-round picks that the NBA forbade the Cavs from entering into new trade agreements and instituted this regulation.
To get around this restriction, teams have instead traded pick swaps, a move that went horribly wrong when the Brooklyn Nets mortgaged their draft pick to the Boston Celtics in order to acquire two aging veterans in Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, and it is about to go horribly wrong again after they traded for James Harden. The Houston Rockets have already received the third pick of this year, and Houston will have the rights to their first-round selections until 2027. In a couple of years, will there be a “Sean Marks Rule”?
The Warriors can now trade first-round picks in 2026 and 2028 without going against the Stepien Rule because this draft pick has now been transmitted. In the Chris Paul-Jordan Poole trade, they owe the Washington Wizards a 2030 first-round pick that is protected for picks 1 through 20. Should it drop out of the top 20, the selection becomes a second-round pick.
Though the Warriors don’t seem to be interested in acquiring a young, developing player at all, especially for the guaranteed money of a high first-round pick, the 2024 draft isn’t thought to have the best group of players. According to Ricky O’Donnell of SB Nation, Tinjane Salaun, an 18-year-old French forward with a wingspan of 7’2″, is projected to be the No. 14 choice. The scouting report is not very positive.
Since the pick’s pending status would have hindered the team’s front office, it’s probably best overall that the pick was announced this season. The 2026 and 2027 firsts would not be tradeable since the protection would have decreased to top-1 protection in 2025 and no protection at all in 2026.
The Warriors will only have one pick in the 2024 draft—No. 52—after an absurd sequence of second-round pick trades that we won’t go into here. The pick was formerly owned by the Milwaukee Bucks. It’s not a hopeless situation because they did select Trayce Jackson-Davis late in the previous year’s selection; however, it did assist that TJD’s agent is Mike Dunleavy Junior’s brother.
Is Dunleavy planning to make deals to swap draft picks with the newfound freedom? Are there any really athletic clientele of James Dunleavy who are able to run the court and make three-pointers? Do the Warriors have more alternatives now that the NBA has moved the second round of the draft to a different day? Regardless of the selection, has Steve Kerr already made up his mind to assign this draft pick frustrating and uneven minutes?
Warriors supporters may officially put a stop to their pipe dreams of adding a future legend like Matas Buzelis or Zaccarie Risacher when all these questions are resolved in June. Fans of the Blazers may be wondering why this wasn’t a better return for Jrue Holiday.
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