Barber: Warriors have high hopes for first-round draft pick

OAKLAND - When Jacob Evans was here at the Oakland Marriott City Center for his first workout with the Warriors, he poked his head outside and saw a sea of humanity. It happened to be the day of the team's 2018 NBA championship parade. Before Evans' eyes was a massive outdoor carnival. People from all over the Bay Area, and beyond, were waving signs, gulping Hennessey and paying tribute to the greatest basketball team on the planet.

Evans said he found it inspiring. But with glory comes pressure.

The Warriors made Evans, a lanky swingman from the University of Cincinnati, the newest member of the team Thursday night, selecting him with the 28th pick of the draft. Rarely has a player arrived at the bottom of the first round with such tangible expectations.

The Warriors have won three titles in the past four years. They are the most accomplished team since the Kobe-Shaq Lakers, if not the Michael Jordan Bulls. Yet the 2017-18 season shone a light on their vulnerabilities. The Warriors frequently looked detached from their mission. They were prone to sloppy plays, sloppy games, even sloppy weeks. And they are getting older, as fresh challengers are emerging around the NBA.

Evans will be part of the short-term solution. He has to be.

“You can picture him playing NBA games, and I think that's kind of the feeling in our draft room,” Golden State general manager Bob Myers said Thursday night, at a makeshift podium set up on a practice court. “For us that's important.”

As the season ended, well before Evans joined the fold, Myers and coach Steve Kerr both talked about the need to make their roster younger. This team isn't in desperate need of a brilliant 3-point shooter or an intimidating rim protector or a veteran locker-room presence. It needs an influx of energy. Preferably, right away.

When the Warriors drafted Kevon Looney in 2015 and Damian Jones in 2016, each at overall pick No. 30, they could afford to be patient. Looney was a skilled player with major injury concerns. Jones was an eye-popping athlete in need of polish. No problem. The team was still hungry, still growing into its vast potential. Looney could take a couple years to get his hip right and cut weight. Jones could take a couple to learn his assignments.

Evans will not enjoy such luxuries. He will be expected to absorb the Warriors' run-and-pass (-and-pass-again) offense and their switch-heavy defense early in the process. He'll be expected to play substantial minutes in the regular season, and to contribute in the postseason as the Warriors begin their next championship pursuit in earnest.

“You think about the games he might be playing in. For us last year with Jordan Bell (whose rights the Warriors purchased from the Bulls during the 2017 draft), we did picture, this guy might be able to play in the playoffs for us. He did. Obviously, he played in the (NBA) Finals. … I don't know if this guy can do that, but we'd like hope that that's possible.”

High expectations are usually reserved players who go among the top five picks, and for those who are claimed by terrible NBA teams. They are rarer for someone like Evans, who is joining the reigning champion at No. 28.

Part of it has to do with the Warriors' current labor situation. As we enter the offseason, their impending unrestricted free agents include Looney; veteran big men David West, JaVale McGee and Zaza Pachulia; and quirky shooter Nick Young. (I'm not including Kevin Durant, whose contract is lapsing, but who is almost certain to re-sign with the Warriors. (They have already indicated they will deliver as many briefcases of unmarked $100 bills as he requests.) Young guard Patrick McCaw, meanwhile, is a restricted free agent.

The Warriors cannot realistically retain all of those players, or even all of the ones they want - probably West, McGee, Looney and McCaw.

Factor in Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, a pair of thrice-crowned core Warriors who had subpar seasons in 2017-18, and you can see why Kerr and Myers are looking for some suitable young replacements. And why those replacements don't have a lot of time to coast.

Questioned by reporters as the second round progressed - the Warriors did not own a pick in that round - Myers downplayed the notion that Evans would need to make an immediate impact. It's easier to make that assertion when the rookie doesn't have a name. When he does, you can see why the GM would avoid adding undue pressure.

“Well, look, hopefully he can play. But nobody knows,” Myers said. “He's got to earn it. Steve has to trust him. His teammates have got to trust him as well. Ideally, it's that: You get a guy at 28 that you plug into the rotation and he helps you win a championship, but it's not easy.”

Evans is a tenacious defender with long arms; he plays taller than his listed height of 6-foot-6. That makes him a good candidate for the Warriors' defensive system, in which he is liable to cover any opponent on the court for spurts. And Evans showed accuracy on his outside shooting at Cincinnati, though he wasn't a prolific scorer.

Again, the Warriors don't need him to fill up the basket. They just need him to contribute.

“For him, it'll be pretty simple, understanding it's better for him to move it to Klay (Thompson) or Steph (Curry) or whoever,” Myers said. “It sounds simple, but that's not obvious to some players. And for a guy like this, we're not gonna ask him to carry our team. He's the 28th pick in the draft, he's not gonna be the reason we win or lose a game for the most part. But you'd like to know, can he play with our core four guys? Maybe. Maybe. Just the thought that that's possible is intriguing.”

One of the guys Evans will have to accommodate is Draymond Green, the Warriors' power forward and court leader. Green sat in on the team's scouting sessions this year, and he reportedly liked what he saw in Evans. Myers called that “a pretty high compliment.”

An even higher one will be giving Evans meaningful NBA minutes. He'll get every opportunity to earn those this summer and early fall. If he ends up riding the bench, the Warriors will have misfired on this pick.

“He knows how to play basketball,” Myers said. “I know that's kind of a broad statement. But I think he'll fit well into what we do.”

Which is win championships. Jacob Evans is about to get his introduction.