NBA: Ranking every team based off draft success over the last 20 years
3. Golden State Warriors: 83.5 points
- 2001: Jason Richardson: 0.5
- 2001: Troy Murphy: 0.5
- 2001: Gilbert Arenas: 20 (3x all-star, 1x 2nd team, 2x 3rd team, double points for 2nd round pick)
- 2002: Mike Dunleavy: 0.5
- 2005: Monta Ellis: 0.5
- 2009: Stephen Curry: 36 (6x all-star, 2x MVP, 3x 1st team, 2x 2nd team, 1x 3rd team)
- 2011: Klay Thompson: 9 (5x all-star, 2x 3rd team)
- 2012: Harrison Barnes: 0.5
- 2012: Draymond Green: 16 (3x all-star, 1x 2nd team, 1x 3rd team, double points for 2nd round pick)
The Warriors are rightfully considered to be amongst the handful of best-run teams in the NBA right now, but it wasn’t always like that. From 1995-2012 they made the playoffs one time and only won 40 games twice during that stretch.
That tune changed almost overnight. They’re now fresh off of three championships and five straight Finals appearances, making the nearly 20 year stretch of awfulness before that feel like ancient history.
Some of the credit for the recent success goes to Kevin Durant for taking them to a new level, but Durant never comes to Golden State if they don’t crush the draft from 2009-2012. And the most impressive part about that draft stretch might be that they did it without a single top 5 pick. They were able to find three All-NBA players with the 7th, 11th, and 35th picks. There isn’t another team in the NBA that has been able to find that much value outside of the top 5, let alone finding all of it in a four-year span. It’s truly unprecedented.