Joe Lacob isn’t pretending the Warriors got every draft call right, but he’s making it clear this one feels different.
Speaking on 95.7 FM The Game, the Golden State owner said the team’s latest pick has already changed the way the franchise views its future. He was blunt about the misses that came before, but even more direct about how strongly he felt about this selection.
“Everyone makes mistakes, and we didn’t get the draft exactly right, or maybe we didn’t get the development right on a couple other higher draft choices in the past. Fine, criticize us for that, but the draft is hard guys,” Lacob said.
“It is hard, and not everybody gets it. Some teams never get it right, and we got this one right.
I was 100 percent sold that this was the guy we wanted in the draft, we were, not just me, and there were some other really good players in this draft. The only question was ‘Would he get to No.
11?’ And I was confident, actually that he would, because the NBA, I’ve been doing this a long time now, the NBA GMs just love their 18- and 19-year-olds.
We’ve all been guilty of looking at ‘There’s great upside to some of these guys,’ but this guy seemed like a champion, ready to play.”
The University of Michigan product has backed up that confidence fast. He’s averaging 21.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists, and he already has a 37-point game against the Clippers on his résumé.
“The amazing thing is, everything we thought he could be, he’s come in and kind of exceeded that,” Lacob said. “I think (Steve Kerr) has stated that.
He’s surprised Steve for sure. He doesn’t have any weaknesses is what I would say.”
Around the Pacific Division, the Suns are staring at a 1-4 start and a possible lineup rethink. Gerald Bourguet laid out three different starting-five changes in a Sports360az.com post, with each version featuring Oso Ighodaro replacing Khaman Maluach at center. Bourguet’s case is that Ighodaro would help with playmaking, set better screens and make fewer mistakes than Maluach, who is in his second season.
Luka Doncic’s strong start with the Lakers got a small boost from the league office as well. His technical foul from the second quarter against Miami on Monday was rescinded after NBA review, according to NBA Official tweets, leaving him with just one technical on the season.
On the Clippers’ side, second-year guard Kobe Sanders is averaging 11 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.3 steals. Sanders, who went from a two-way deal to a standard contract during his rookie year, said flexibility has been a major part of his adjustment to the league. “Just knowing how to play a role and adapting from the role in college you played, where you’re the main guy, to coming to the NBA where you’re not,” he told Janis Carr of the Orange County Register.
Max Strus also made his Clippers debut Monday after missing four weeks with a partially torn plantar fascia in his right foot. He finished with 11 points and six assists, but it wasn’t enough to stop Toronto from erasing a 16-point deficit in the Clippers’ sixth straight loss. Strus, who was traded by Cleveland in August as part of a five-team deal, tried to keep the tone steady afterward.
“I don’t think there’s a reason to hit the panic button,” said Strus, per The Athletic’s Law Murray. “ We got guys out, guys coming in and out.
Lose guys every now and then. I mean, it’s growing pains.
We’ll be alright. I mean, I don’t think it’s, ‘We need to start panicking, when’s it gonna happen?’
We’ll keep building, and we’ll find a way to chip in and get wins and build off of that.”
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