As the Golden State Warriors enter their off-season, they are looking to add another significant scoring or playmaking piece that can help solidify their veteran core into a genuinely championship-contending team.
However, defensive quarterback Draymond Green has highlighted their need even further by reflecting upon a missed draft opportunity in 2020: the fact that All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton would have been available to the team. Instead, Golden State chose James Wiseman: a pick that made sense at the time but has sense turned out to have disastrous consequences for the organization.
On his podcast, Green spoke about Haliburton's ball-handling abilities, saying "It's like they give him so much space. His shot takes a little time to load it up anyway... The reason they don't pressure him like that, though, is Hali's handle is very underrated and sneaky...".
Green goes on to compare Haliburton's abilities in this area to NBA legends such as Stephen Curry or Kyrie Irving.
As Haliburton's Indiana Pacers make a run to the NBA Finals, Green's comments only make any commiseration of Warriors fans just a little bit worse.
Draymond Green highlights another reason the Warriors missed terribly in the 2020 Draft
Haliburton, after struggling at the start of this season, averaged 18.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 9.2 assists. However, he has amped up his performance in the playoffs, averaging an absurd 9.8 assists to go along with 18.8 points per game.
Haliburton is exactly the type of ball-handling guard the Warriors might need to pair with Curry in the backcourt, and, to make matters worse, the organization had their chance to bring in Haliburton in the 2020 Draft.
Speaking to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, Haliburton said that he wanted to go to Golden State at the time, but, since they were picking inside of the top three selections, he knew he would probably not be picked.
Now, as the Warriors attempt to maximize the final seasons of Curry's career, they are sorely lacking a guard who can help facilitate the offense beyond Curry's shot-making gravity, taking much of the playmaking burden away from players such as Green and Jimmy Butler.
Throughout the years following the 2020 NBA Draft, the organization has attempted multiple solutions to this problem. Most recently, an experiment with Dennis Schroder failed miserably, as Schroder averaged only 10.6 points and 4.4 assists in his time in Golden State, eventually being dealt to the Detroit Pistons in the Butler trade.
While it is merely a hypothetical scenario, Green's remarks regarding Haliburton's ball-handling ability, and how it enables his scoring as well as the entire Pacers offense, takes on a special meaning to fan-base that has been denied another deep playoff run.