Warriors take calculated risk hoping to revive career of notable draft bust

Kevin Knox II is a Golden State Warriors player. That feels weird to write, even if the chances of him being on the final roster entering the season remains slim.

The 25-year-old was signed to an exhibit 10 contract on Wednesday, giving the Warriors an opportunity to evaluate Knox during training camp and preseason before deciding whether to retain him over the non-guaranteed contracts of Gui Santos or Lindy Waters III.

The Warriors are betting on themselves in regard to Kevin Knox II

On the surface Knox isn't your prototypical Golden State-type player. Criticisms of him have often surrounded his tunnel vision on offense -- he takes the meaning score-first player to the extreme, and that scoring hasn't been efficient throughout his six years in the league.

Knox averages more turnovers than assists in his career -- for a team that prides itself on ball and player movement, and quick and efficient decision-making, this could be a disaster. The Warriors are looking to win and rejuvenate their dynasty, yet have just signed a player who holds a career plus-minus of -1230.

The 6'7" forward averaged a relatively inefficient 12.8 points in his rookie year, having played nearly 29 minutes per game on a bad New York Knicks team. There were signs of potential, but ultimately it's been all downhill from there with Knox bouncing around the league and never again averaging more than 6.6 points or 18.1 minutes in a season.

Yet Golden State are looking past all that and the obvious concerns with Knox, and are rather placing faith in themselves to revive a player who's become a fairly notable draft bust. In fact, in a 2023 article outlining the Knicks all-time draft bust starting five, Fansided's Josh Cornelissen simply had to feature Knox in the lineup.

Knox doesn't have any familiarity with success throughout his career to date -- he's always been at losing teams, and ones that were actively trying to lose. The Warriors may not be the team they once were, but they still have the key pillars in place like Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and head coach Steve Kerr.

Could that unlock something in Knox that the previous incompetent franchise's couldn't? To his credit he seems to have the right attitude -- willingly heading to Summer League as a top 10 pick after six years is commendable, let alone accepting a bench role and proving impactful to the point of a 30-point outing in the final game.

This is a calculated risk on the franchise's environment and developmental program, rather than just on Knox himself as a player. There remains a high likelihood that it doesn't work out and that he's waived after the preseason, but maybe there's something there that could defy expectations and see this peculiar Warriors-Knox pairing last a little while longer.