The Warriors still have two standard roster spots to hand out, and the names that keep coming up are Brandon Williams and Georges Niang.
Marc Stein of The Stein Line reported Tuesday that both free agents are “drawing legitimate interest” from Golden State. That lines up with the buzz around the team over the past few weeks, and it fits with what general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said Tuesday: he plans to fill both openings rather than leave one vacant the way the Warriors did for most of last season.
The fit question is pretty straightforward. Golden State needs help at point guard and on the wing.
Williams addresses the first issue. Niang helps on the second.
Williams is still on the market largely because the shot from deep hasn’t come around yet. His career three-point percentage sits at 28.0 percent, which is a real hurdle.
But he brings more than enough in other areas to matter. Over the last two seasons, he’s hit 55.8 percent of his two-pointers, and his handle and burst let him get into the paint whenever he wants.
That matters for a Warriors team that could use more ball-handling, more downhill pressure and more scoring around the rim. Williams would give them all three.
He’s also 26, which is no small thing on a roster leaning heavily on older players who could run into availability problems. There’s a decent chance he’d be healthy for most, if not all, of the 2026-27 season.
Niang brings a different kind of value. Golden State would love to land a wing who can defend and knock down threes on the veteran minimum, but that kind of player probably isn’t sitting out there. Niang at least gives them the shooting piece, with a career mark of 39.9 percent from beyond the arc.
The complication is where he fits defensively. Niang is best matched up on opposing 4s, and the Warriors already have Draymond Green, Yaxel Lendeborg and Gui Santos in that lane.
With all three healthy, finding clean minutes for Niang could be tricky. And if he’s forced onto 3s or 4s with real driving ability, there could be problems.
Still, there’s a durability argument for Niang too. He missed only 13 games from the 2020-21 season through the 2024-25 season. He then sat out the entire 2025-26 season because of a severe foot injury, and if he’s fully recovered, he should be able to land a reserve spot somewhere in the NBA.
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