Here we are again. It’s late June and, like clockwork, the local whipping boys are at it again.
Coming to you live from Madison Square Garden … the Golden State Warriors find themselves wanting to believe – and for you to believe – that they’ve finally gotten it right. Really.
With Wednesday’s NBA Draft, the Warriors have some fresh, new blood that they hope halts their mind-numbing string of 12 seasons out of the playoffs. This will be The Year, they want you to believe. The end of drafting in the lottery. The beginning of realizing the team’s vast potential.
And they may be on to something.
Of all the many things largely missing from the Warriors’ decade-plus run of futility – All-Star players, nationally-televised games and, of course, that postseason thing – there’s another that looms large. Really large.
Quick, name Golden State’s last 7-foot starting center.
‘Uhmmmm. You got me,’ you say?
Well, you’re not alone.
12 straight trips to the lottery and guess how many 7-footers the Warriors selected in the first round?
One. Jeff Foster in 1999, but they quickly shipped him out in a deal with Indiana.
Houston, we have a problem.
Just as it seems mathematically impossible for Golden State to miss the playoffs so many times in a row – after all, more teams qualify for the postseason than miss it – it seems equally unlikely that the team could go that long without drafting a first-round 7-footer.
No playoffs. No 7-footers. Hmmmm, could there be a correlation?
Wednesday, Golden State finally broke down and selected a ‘big.’ Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Patrick O’Bryant. He of the 7-0, 249-pound frame.
Hallelujah.
Now, this is not to say we’re past the ‘What if he’s a stiff?’ part of the equation. Cliff Rozier, Todd Fuller, and especially Joe Smith loom as big-bodied failures that have so jaded many a Warrior fan that O’Bryant will have to win them over. As he will the team’s management and coaching staff.
But an athletic big man – and reports on O’Bryant are that he is certainly that – is precisely what the Warriors have lacked. Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy?
Capable players, but not the inside presence that commands respect at either end of the floor. Adonal Foyle? The perfect backup center with a great locker-room rapport to boot. Andris Biedrins? Heavy on potential, but also heavy on the fouls and free-throw skuds.
No, the Warriors haven’t had that presence that looms in the key – disrupting opposing offenses with cat-like instincts and showing the consistent ability to finish when receiving a pass in the post.
This isn’t to say O’Bryant immediately vaults the Warriors to the postseason – that’s too heavy a burden to toss on someone who may not even start in his rookie season.
But he gives Golden State what it didn’t have. Playmakers? Perimeter players? Guys who can create their own shot? Got plenty. But a true, low-post threat? At both ends of the floor?
You’re it, Patrick. Catch the ball when the guys throw it to you. Hit close to 50 percent of your shots. Keep swatting away those shots as we saw you do for Bradley in the NCAA Tournament.
And don’t hesitate to mix it up with opposing ‘bigs.’
It would be a mild surprise if the team’s second-round pick, 7-2 Kosta Perovic, joined O’Bryant on the opening-night roster, but selecting the twin towers leaves no doubt that Golden State has seen the error of its ways. And that it has what it hopes is a new lucky number.
Seven, of course.
