Warriors GM Bob Myers said team will draft with an eye on immediate help

OAKLAND – The Warriors know exactly what they need. Getting it might not be so easy, though.

The Warriors own just one pick in the NBA Draft - pick No. 28, three from the end of the first round. Not the most valuable selection. General manager Bob Myers met with Bay Area reporters Tuesday to discuss how he plans to use it.

“With our limitations as far as what we can spend in free agency,” Myers said, “we have to…”

Myers stopped mid-sentence, correcting himself. “We would like to draft a guy that can play. It has been four years of our major core playing a lot of minutes. We recognize that. You guys probably saw that last season as well. The idea of having some youth that can step on the floor and give us some good minutes, it’s appealing.”

The Warriors may not “have to” draft an instant contributor, but they aim to. Someone who can play big minutes right away and take the burden off the veterans who have played 83 playoff games the past four seasons.

“The draft is great,” Myers said. “It’s youth. It’s potential. And that’s how you keep your window open longer. It’s hard to do, though, when you’re drafting later in the first, or the second round. You may get lucky and get a Draymond Green. You never know.”

Or, you might get not so lucky, and end up with a non-factor, like a Tony Bradley, a Skal Labissiere or an R.J. Hunter – the players taken 28th the past three years.

The Warriors are more likely to draft one of those types than another superstar like Green, who fell to the second round in 2012, the 35th pick.

Warriors assistant GM Larry Harris talked Tuesday about the team’s dilemma. “It’s very hard where we’re picking to find a guy that you think is going to plug in and play right away.”

And yet, the Warriors will try to do just that.

“We need a guy that at least will commit to the defensive end,” Harris said, laying out the Warriors strategy for the draft. “We can’t have just a matador defender. We can find ways to score the basketball. In order to get on the floor with us, you need to be able to defend your position.

“And the way that the NBA game is being played now, the way we play it with so much switching, one of the things we factor in looking at a guy is to determine can he switch? If you’re a 5, can you switch onto point guards, like we have seen Kevon Looney and Jordan Bell and JaVale McGee do? That’s a component you need to have, because the league has become a switching league one through five.”

Sounds relatively simple: Draft a defensive specialist, a guard, forward or center, it doesn’t matter, and let Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant take most of the shots.

But, it’s not that simple. “Most of the college guys in this draft, there is an offensive component more than there is a defensive component,” Harris said. “Maybe at the top of the draft when looking at some of the younger bigs, they probably bring more of a defensive mentality right now.

“But, I think most of the guys, certainly the ones we’re looking at, the guys we have talked about, that we have narrowed down, all of them have an offensive skill set to them - taking it to the basket, better in transition, catch and shoot, maybe they’re a mid-range shooter.”

The Warriors feel they’re in no position to draft a quality defensive specialist with the 28th pick. They’re prepared to take a player who’s more of an offensive specialist.

“You’d love to have both,” Myers said. “But if a player can score and defend his position, usually they’re gone before we pick.”

Unless the Warriors trade up.

If they’re dead set on drafting an instant contributor, someone who can help the team next season both offensively and defensively, they might consider trading up for one of the top power forwards or centers Harris mentioned. This year’s draft is unusually deep at those positions.

“It would shock me if four of the top six guys are not 6-foot-9 or bigger,” Harris said. “Once you get to about 14, 15, 16, the wings start coming into play.”

The top-rated big men in this year’s draft are DeAndre Ayton from Arizona, Marvin Bagley from Duke, Mohamed Bamba from Texas, Michael Porter Jr. from Missouri, Jaren Jackson Jr. from Oregon, Wendell Carter Jr. from Duke and Robert Williams from Texas A&M.

All seven could play major roles for the Warriors next season. All seven are expected to get taken within the first 14 picks.

Will the Warriors try to trade for one?

“It’s the time of year when you talk to other teams,” Myers said, “and they have all been nice.”

The Warriors need more than nice.