How Warriors can create their perfect path in first round of 2026 NBA Draft originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
As the basketball world has its eyes on the 2026 NBA Finals, the first round of the draft is only two weeks away. Before we know it, the draft will be here, followed by free agency in a blink.
The Warriors find themselves in a great spot nearly two months after their 2025-26 season ended in the NBA play-in tournament. Of course, they would have loved to rise in the draft during the lottery instead of staying at No. 11. But if there’s a draft where big talent can be found outside of the top 10, it’s this year.
The Class of 2026 is seen as the Big Four of AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cam Boozer and Caleb Wilson. It’s also more than only a four-player draft, which is why the Warriors have to feel confident in their slot.
It’s also why the Warriors should get greedy. The best path forward for the Warriors isn’t somehow moving up in the draft. The real best outcome would be leaving the first night of the draft with multiple first-round picks.
So, what’s the easiest way for that idea to come true? There are two teams that have two first-round picks this year: The Oklahoma City Thunder and Charlotte Hornets. Let’s start with OKC.
The Thunder sit one spot behind the Warriors at No. 12, and also have the No. 17 pick. Changes will be coming to Oklahoma City’s roster to better clean the books, but there also isn’t much room. The consensus is, the Thunder will not be using both first-round picks, and they’d ideally use their two picks to move more than one spot up.
The Hornets own picks No. 14 and No. 18 in the first round. Charlotte is coming off a season where Kon Knueppel, the No. 4 pick last year, finished second in NBA Rookie of the Year voting behind his Duke teammate Cooper Flagg and helped completely change his team’s trajectory. After winning 44 games, their most in a decade, the Hornets are in the perfect spot to add even more young talent.
How the top 10 shakes out could have the Warriors in the driver’s seat, making general manager Mike Dunleavy in control to get creative.
“We’ll look at everything,” Dunleavy said on May 15 at Chase Center. “If there’s offers to the pick to move up, move back, trade for a veteran player that could help us, we’ll definitely look at all that stuff. It’s early in the process right now, and just got through with the combine.”
New rules to the draft lottery starting next year also can play a factor into how the Warriors are viewing their own future picks.
Though they’ve been reluctant to trade future first-round picks in the past, and nothing has indicated that has changed, every team is now calculating the years to come a bit differently. For instance, the Warriors this year had a 2 percent chance at the No. 1 overall pick. The new system would have them with a 5.4 percent chance. The biggest difference is the current/old system gave them a 9.4 percent chance of a top-five pick this year, and that number would have jumped to 28 percent.
The few teams that don’t believe in the T word (tanking), like the Warriors, should be big fans of the new system that is guaranteed to be in place for 2027, 2028 and 2029.
Dunleavy can see what everybody else can. The Warriors are not one player away. Their problems won’t be fixed by filling one position in the draft. What they’re devoid of and needing an influx of is talent. Sometimes it really is as simple as that.
All options are on the table, yet every inkling has leaned towards the Warriors being extremely invested in the draft and believing they can add at least one player who will make a real impact now and down the road.
Thus far, the Warriors have brought in prospects for pre-draft workouts that will be available in the second round or be undrafted free agents. That’s about to change. Prospects expected to go in the first round will begin coming through for pre-draft workouts in the week leading up to the draft, sources say.
Can they find a way to add a win-now player like Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg, who, per sources, will be part of next week’s pre-draft workouts, and another talent in the first round? What about both a high-upside scoring wing like Baylor’s Cameron Carr and a ball-handler like Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie or Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz?
Golden State’s front office has been preparing for what will be a very busy offseason in the Bay, and the first avenue to add youth and talent starts with the draft going the Warriors’ way.
