Golden State Warriors snag potential steal of draft deep in the second-round

The Warriors and Wizards made waves on Thursday afternoon when it was announced that Golden State was sending Jordan Poole and future draft equity to Washington in exchange for future Hall of Famer Chris Paul.

Yet the two teams were not done with each other just yet, with a draft night trade seeing the Warriors acquire the 57th overall selection in exchange for last year’s 28th overall pick Patrick Baldwin Jr. With the late second-round pick, Golden State decided to take Trayce Jackson-Davis out of Indiana.

A versatile 6’9 forward who dominated at center during his senior year at IU, Trayce Jackson-Davis has all the makings of an impactful big man for the Golden State Warriors.

Jackson-Davis was named a consensus first-team All-American, averaging 20.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 2.9 blocks per game on 58.1 percent shooting during an impressive senior campaign.

Many draft experts projected the 23-year-old big man to go as high as late in the first-round, but the Warriors were fortunate enough to get their hands on him at the tail-end of the draft. If Jackson-Davis develops into the interior force that he’s been over the past year at the college level, the selection could pay off big time down the line for the Dubs.

Like current Warrior big-man Kevon Looney, Jackson-Davis is a bit undersized as a center, and like Looney, he makes up for it with elite intangibles and a feel for the game that enhances his versatility. ‘TJD’ struggled to read the game during his first couple of seasons at Indiana, but he returned this year as a completely different player with a refined passing ability and newfound confidence as a scorer on the low block.

Defensively, Jackson-Davis is an imposing interior disruptor whose rim-protecting instincts are off the chart. He’s athletic enough to get up off the floor for contents at the apex but disciplined enough to maintain his grounding against opposing big men. He plays with an energy and effort that will surely earn him minutes under Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr, who tends to favor those who understand their role and play within themselves and the game.

Golden State’s recent flurry of moves indicates that they are operating with a win-now mentality, and Jackson-Davis is the perfect young prospect to bolster the team’s frontcourt depth as they begin the chase for another Larry O’Brien trophy.