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After winning the 2022 NBA championship, the Golden State Warriors entered the 2022-23 campaign with one central goal in mind: to repeat as NBA champions. But fast forward to the current day, and it's clear that Stephen Curry and the Warriors fell very short of their ultimate goal.
The Warriors finished the 2022-23 regular season with a mediocre 44-38 record and barely escaped the play-in tournament. And after beating the Sacramento Kings in seven games in the first round of the postseason, the Warriors were eliminated by LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals. Not only did the Warriors not win the 2023 NBA title, they didn't even make it out of the second round.
But if there's one positive takeaway from the Warriors' short-lived postseason, it's that the team owns a relatively high first-round pick at 19th overall because of it. And in a very deep draft, there are plenty of prospects projected to fall in that 19th-pick range which could make an impact for the Warriors right away. But there are also prospects at that range which stand out as players that the Warriors should not select. With all of that said, here are two prospects the Warriors must avoid with the 19th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft:
2 players Warriors must avoid with No. 19 pick in 2023 NBA Draft
Trayce Jackson-Davis
A 6'9″ forward/center, Trayce Jackson-Davis starred on the offensive end of the floor in his senior season at Indiana University. He scored 20.9 points and dished 4.0 assists per game while shooting 58.1% from the field across 32 appearances in his senior year. But while Jackson-Davis was one of the best offensive players at his position in the country this season, he has one big weakness that should make the Warriors think twice about drafting him.
Jackson-Davis is a non-threat from behind the three-point arc. He is not a non-threat in the sense that he takes threes and doesn't make them — Jackson-Davis didn't attempt a single shot from deep all season long. It wouldn't make sense for the Warriors — whose best bigs in Draymond Green and Kevon Looney are non-shooters — to add another non-shooter to their frontcourt in Jackson-Davis.
Rayan Rupert
The 19-year-old Frenchman Rayan Rupert is one of the more intriguing international prospects of the 2023 NBA Draft class. He has tremendous size for a wing at 6'6″ with a 7'3″ wingspan. Rupert is also a great athlete. But he's far too raw of a prospect for the Warriors to take a risk on at pick number 19.
After all, Rupert spent the 2022-23 season playing in the New Zealand AUS NBL and NBL Blitz leagues against subpar competition. Plus, like the last prospect, Jackson-Davis, outside shooting is one of Rupert's biggest holes in his game. Rupert isn't quite the non-shooter that Jackson-Davis is, but he's mediocre in this area.
Warriors fans won't have to wait much longer to figure out who their team will select with the 19th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, as the draft will take place on June 22nd, a mere ten days away. Will the Warriors decide to bolster their point guard or shooting guard depth and add a guard to back up Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson? Or will they decide to draft a frontcourt player to their roster? Only time will tell, but what's clear is that the Warriors must avoid selecting Trayce Jackson-Davis or Rayan Rupert.
