The NBA will return on July 31 and the 2020 Draft is happening on October 15 with the lottery set on August 25 so preparations are now underway for teams not part of the season restart. To no surprise, the Warriors have been gearing up for the campaign next season, and reports said the team has already met with prospective recruits.
Shooting guard LaMelo Ball and big man James Wiseman are said to be the prime targets of the Dubs, which exited the season early after clocking on 15 wins before the season was suspended in March. To be sure, Golden State will want to erase from memory the dismal showing this year that seemed to belie the team's juggernaut run in the better part of the 2010s.
The Warriors are heading to a warpath when the new season starts in December and they will need new talents they can depend on. According to NBC Sports, the former NBA champs have already met with Ball and Wiseman via Zoom and the calls took place in the last two months.
Citing the information shared by Anthony Slater of The Athletic, the report said there will be further meetups ahead of the upcoming draft, and possibly both parties will opt for face-to-face the next time around.
"Expectation is they will be allowed to meet with prospects in person at some point," Slater was reported as saying.
It's unclear if the Warriors are prepared to make an offer to any of the incoming players mentioned but it can be assumed that the conferences held were mostly exploratory, meaning the Dubs are in scouting and possibly sizing up first the draft pool's most high-profile candidates.
Ball and Wiseman are thought to make the Top 5 of this year's draft and the Warriors will likely get the first pick so no surprise there that the team has elected to start early for better decision when the time comes.
According to Yahoo Sports, one thing going for Ball is name recall in the NBA as he is the younger sibling of Lonzo, whom the Lakers made No. 2 pick in 2017. However, the same brand name could also work against the younger Ball. For one, Lonzo is not exactly the star that he was touted to be before he entered the league.
Then there is the Ball patriarch, LaVar, whose reputation made him more of a notorious, which is the last thing that Lonzo needs to attract attention from NBA teams like the Warriors.
In the end, interested teams will assess Ball on his basketball merits and there is a promise he could be game-changer on a franchise that he would join. But scout reports said Ball's offensive and defensive skills will require fine-tuning works.
As for Wiseman, the Warriors can certainly use a center going to the next season and this requirement could be the reason the former Memphis Tigers will make the cut as the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft.
