Warriors’ generational mistake may have cost Steph Curry another title originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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It’s hard to overstate how big a whiff the Golden State Warriors made with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
It’s not that no one thought they should take James Wiseman, the huge and talented center out of Memphis. It’s that it simply hasn’t worked out.
And when you compare it to the guys taken around him, it looks even worse.
Anthony Edwards was the No. 1 overall pick, so the Warriors couldn’t have him. The list of guys taken after Wiseman is painful for Golden State fans to read, though.
LaMelo Ball was the No. 3 pick to the Charlotte Hornets.
Deni Avdija went ninth to the Washington Wizards.
Tyrese Haliburton was 12th.
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Later on in the first round were Tyrese Maxey, Payton Pritchard and Desmond Bane.
Of course, there weren’t all those guys really in the running for the first pick, and the Warriors aren’t the only team that whiffed.
The five picks after LaMelo were Patrick Williams, Isaac Okoro, Onyeka Okongwu, Killian Hayes and Obi Toppin.
Jalen Smith at 10th by the Suns was one of the draft’s worst choices, too.
It was definitely one of those classes that aged well in part because of players further down teams’ boards becoming great players, but it’s hard to always predict that.
Still, the Warriors missed.
Ant. Melo. Deni. Haliburton. Bane.
Turns out 2020 was actually a very good draft. Warriors just happened to take the most obvious bust candidate in a decade #2 cause they saw him run in an empty gym 🙃 https://t.co/0YeNeGfHnL
— Sam Esfandiari (@samesfandiari) April 15, 2026
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The reality here all centers around Steph Curry, of course. The Warriors have relied on Curry to make them one of the premier teams in the sport.
But in the latter stages of his career, Curry could’ve used a young star alongside him. And after an injury-plagued disaster season, that 2020 draft gave the Warriors a chance to find one with the second pick.
Instead they chose Wiseman, a major failure, and Curry never really got that young running mate.
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