Golden State Warriors: 15 greatest draft steals in franchise history

The 1985 NBA Draft is remembered for three things: for being the first draft conducted under the new lottery format, for the New York Knicks winning the Patrick Ewing sweepstakes and for the ensuing conspiracy theories surrounding the lottery process’ validity that still persists to this day.

This class wasn’t quite as strong as the historic 1984 NBA Draft, which gave us Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and John Stockton, but there were plenty of gems to be found once you got past Ewing (Joe Dumars, Detlef Schrempf, Karl Malone, Terry Porter, Charles Oakley).

After picks No. 2-6 whiffed on such opportunities, picking the likes of Wayman Tisdale, Benoit Benjamin, Xavier McDaniel, John Koncak and Joe Kleine, the Warriors found their hidden piece of gold at No. 7 when they took St. John’s sharpshooter Chris Mullin.

Armed with a rapid-fire, high-arching shot and the length to shoot over most defenders, Mullin became one of the preeminent shooters of the 1980s and 1990s.

But Mullin was more than just some spot-up shooter who took advantage of defenses gravitating towards other teammates. He was also a crafty ballhandler who could go into his bag of tricks to get defenders off-balance before either stopping on a dime to sink a pull-up jumper or finishing at the rim with touch.

Mullin was a mainstay in the Golden State lineup for 13 seasons, most famously during the “Run TMC” era of the early 1990s, averaging 20.1 points per game on 59.2 percent true shooting with .135 WS/48 and five NBA All-Star appearances between 1988 to 1993. Best of all, the Warriors didn’t need a frozen/bent envelope in order to get him.