NBA Draft: Barca big would be unnecessary gamble for Golden State Warriors

With the 2022-23 season having officially come to and end on Monday, all eyes are now turned to the 2023 NBA Draft where the Golden State Warriors will hold the 19th overall pick in the first-round.

While the Warriors have constantly been within championship contention for the majority of the last decade, that hasn’t stopped them from betting on themselves with high-upside prospects in recent drafts.

Will the Golden State Warriors continue the trend of taking raw, highly-talented prospects in the NBA Draft, or will they opt for a safer pick with a number of unproven youngsters already on the roster?

The Warriors picked James Wiseman with the second overall pick in 2020, that despite a limited three-game college career at Memphis. A year later they selected the third youngest, and one of the most enigmatic prospects, Jonathan Kuminga, with the seventh overall pick. Even last year, the franchise bet on the high school pedigree of Patrick Baldwin Jr. despite a slightly disappointing and injury-plagued college year in Milwaukee.

Golden State have a habit of betting on individual talent, and the ability of their development team to unearth it. If they take a similar approach to this draft, then they may well be looking at Nigerian-born James Nnaji who’s played for FC Barcelona over the past two seasons.

In their most recently updated mock draft, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo have Nnaji as the best fit for the Warriors with the 19th pick. The 18-year-old is still a raw project type, but would undoubtedly address an area of need for Golden State.

"“Nnaji earned himself a role in Barcelona’s rotation this season with one of the better physical toolboxes in this draft, and could immediately add some depth and size up front alongside Draymond Green and Kevon Looney”, Woo wrote."

Nnaji played in 52 games for Barcelona this season, averaging 3.6 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks in 9.3 minutes per game. The defensive side of the game is his calling card right now, utilizing his size and athleticism to be as a strong rim protector and shot blocker. A field-goal percentage over 70 would suggest that his offense is almost purely around the rim, while a free-throw percentage under 50% is a worry and provides little optimism of developing a reliable jumpshot.

Steve Kerr has been hesitant to trust in his younger players over Golden State’s playoff run, and it would be hard to see that changing for an 18-year-old big man despite Nnaji’s experience playing at a professional level.

With the likes of Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Ryan Rollins yet to completely prove themselves as playoff rotation players, perhaps the Warriors would be better inclined finding someone with half a chance of finding meaningful minutes next season. As impactful as Nnaji could be in the future, that’s unlikely to be him in the short-term.