The Warriors may not have landed the kind of headline-making addition they wanted this summer, but there’s still a path for them to keep tinkering before the roster is finalized. One name worth watching is Walter Clayton Jr., especially if Memphis decides to move on from him.
Blue Man Hoop’s Peter O’Keefe pointed to Clayton as the player Golden State would likely target in that scenario. As he put it, “Clayton is the one player the Warriors would likely show interest in if the Grizzlies surprisingly moved on, but otherwise Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the front office might be happy with their young core entering the season. Still, if the Warriors are willing to take a gamble on Terry despite his underwhelming career numbers through four years, it might be worth monitoring the Grizzlies’ situation to see who is ultimately moved on,” O’Keefe wrote.
Clayton’s appeal is easy to understand. At Florida, the national champion guard drew Steph Curry comparisons, and Kevin Willard didn’t hold back when talking about what stood out in his game.
“He reminds me of Steph (Curry) a little bit of how good he is off the dribble,” Kevin Willard said. “It really is amazing that he shoots - like we get a scouting report done by our analytical company. And he grades better than any player they’ve ever had analytically shooting the basketball off the dribble going right off the dribble, going left - if you go under pick-and-rolls, what he shoots.”
That kind of praise helped build the expectation that Clayton would be able to carve out a strong NBA path. So far, though, the start has been slow. He was known as an elite shooter in college, but that touch hasn’t shown up at the same level yet in the pros.
Clayton is on his $19 million rookie contract, and the next step is simple: get his shot back. If Golden State does get a chance to bring him in, there’s obvious intrigue in pairing a player with that kind of shooting pedigree with Curry himself.
For now, Clayton is still with the Grizzlies, but he has been mentioned as a possible roster-bubble player as Memphis trims its group down to 15.
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