Golden State has a knack for finding promising young prospects.
The Warriors were fortunate enough to have Stephen Curry (No. 7, 2009) and Klay Thompson (No. 11, 2011) fall to them in the lottery. In 2012, when other teams passed on Draymond Green because of perceived limitations in his game (“he doesn’t have a position”), the Warriors were happy to snag him at No. 35.
Even in years Golden State doesn’t have a pick, the organization finds a way to snag upstart rookies. They’ve purchased a second-round pick in each of the past two drafts. Last year’s pick, Patrick McCaw, has shown tremendous upside, and the Warriors have high hopes for this year’s (Jordan Bell) as well.
At least one Golden State player wasn’t happy when the Warriors purchased the pick, though. “Team mom” Draymond Green was furious that he found out about it online, as Warriors General Manager Bob Myers explained at Bell’s introductory press conference.
Bob Myers explains "team Mom" Draymond Green's reaction to the Jordan Bell pick pic.twitter.com/pVWfha0Gg6
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) June 23, 2017
“Draymond texted me as I was driving home and he said, ‘What the’ and then expletive ‘is your problem?’ to me,” Myers said. “So you can fill in the blank. Then he said, ‘I have to hear about this ‘expletive’ on the internet, you didn’t expletive ‘tell me about it!’ So I couldn’t text and drive so I called him and I said, ‘OK, all right, calm down.’”
Myers later passed along Bell’s contact information to Green, and Green contacted him via FaceTime.
“With Draymond, it’s about respect,” Myers told Bell. “I’m sure just by watching you, that’s what you earn with him. So that’s the type of team we have, but we feel like that’s who you are, too. So we’re excited.”
Bell, a 6-foot-9 power forward, is a rim-protecting machine. He averaged 2.3 blocks per game this season and helped the Oregon Ducks improbably advance all the way to this year’s Final Four, where they lost by one – 77-76 – to the eventual national champion North Carolina Tar Heels.
