The Golden State Warriors made their latest signing official on Tuesday, announcing the acquisition of Australian point guard Taran Armstrong to a two-way contract.
The signing was first reported by ESPN's Shams Charania on Sunday, with Armstrong having just concluded his second season in Australia's NBL with the Cairns Taipans.
Former Warriors center Andrew Bogut has delivered analysis of Taran Armstrong
Armstrong is the first Australian on the Golden State roster since former long-term starter and 2015 NBA champion Andrew Bogut. Most will remember his first stint as a Warrior where he was part of the 2015 championship team, but the former number one overall also came back for 30 combined regular season and playoff games to close the 2018-19 season.
Who better than Bogut to speak about the newest Australian on the Warrior roster, with the former seven-foot big man sharing some thoughts on a recent episode of the Rogue Bogues podcast.
"He's a fighter, really aggressive. Really good at getting two feet in the paint and finishing. Gets to the free-throw line a lot," Bogut said. "He knows how to play and what I like about him is that he's got a lot of fire. He's got some s**t to him. He's not intimidated."
Bogut also mentioned that Amrstrong's shooting is coming along, having shown significant improvement in that area over this season in the NBL. The now 23-year-old shot less than 31% from 3-point range in 59 combined collegiate games over two years with the California Baptist Lancers, before shooting just 26% from beyond the arc in his first year with the Taipans.
Armstrong lifted that to a reasonable 35% on over five attempts per game in his second NBL season, having averaged 17.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists which made him a finalist for the league's Next Generation award.
Bogut believes Armstrong's defense will also be a work in progress, but at 6'6" the young guard should at least have the size to be able to compete on that end of the floor with a little more development.
Armstrong has drawn comparisons to former sixth overall pick Josh Giddey, with the two Australians having played together at the NBA Global Academy before Armstrong headed to the U.S. for college.
He is expected to spend a significant amount of time in the G League, with Armstrong unlikely to make too much impact on the main Warrior squad over the remainder of this season.