The wait for the initial glimpse of Quinten Post ended Friday night in Las Vegas, where the Warriors unveiled their only selection in the 2024 NBA Draft.
The 7-footer chosen in the second round (No. 52 overall) showed well enough for observers to understand why Golden State’s front office decided to acquire his rights minutes before the draft concluded.
With Post coming off the bench making significant contributions, the Warriors survived their tightest game this summer, closing out a 90-83 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder at Thomas & Mack Center.
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The win puts the Warriors in the NBA Summer League semifinals Sunday afternoon (1 p.m.) against the Miami Heat.
Post scored 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field, including 2-of-4 from distance. He added three rebounds, one assist, one steal and was plus-5 over 14 minutes, as the Warriors monitored his minutes coming off a lower leg injury.
“We wanted to make sure he was healthy before he got on the floor, so he was on a minutes restriction, from 12 to 15,” assistant general manager Larry Harris told NBC Sports Bay Area. “I thought Anthony used him well. He’d told us before the game exactly how he was going to use him. First get a sense of what the game is looking like, and then have him go in and play as hard as you can in short spurts and see if he can be productive.”
After missing the first seven Summer League games, Post entered with 5:49 remaining in the first quarter. He wasted little time committing the foul many opponents claim is part of Golden State’s arsenal. He was whistled for an illegal screen 37 seconds after stepping onto the floor.
Golden State Warriors
Once Post got that misstep out of his system, though, he provided flashes of the offensive skills mentioned by general manager Mike Dunleavy in his post-draft news conference. He moves relatively fluidly, looks like he belongs on the court and has a nice shooting stroke.
Post’s most impressive moment came in early the fourth quarter when he lost his defender with a quick pump fake on the perimeter wing and then drove to the rim for a layup. That move suggests he’s crafty enough to utilize the threat of his shot to create space to score off the dribble.
It’s risky to try this against most NBA defenses, but it’s important to note that Post recognized an advantage and moved quickly to exploit it.
There were at least three other moments that stood out, the first coming minutes after the illegal screen.
Seeing an opportunity for a mismatch against 6-foot-6 Hunter Maldonado, Post immediately set up on the low block, caught a smart entry pass from Kevin Knox and practiced what all coaches preach. He didn’t hesitate, nor did he waste time trying to dribble. He immediately spun into an easy bank shot.
“The biggest thing we saw right away is that offensively he was what we're hoping he can be,” Harris said. “Moves well, can run up and down the floor and he can pass. He handles the ball for a big guy and, obviously, shoots the three well. The offensive side, we feel pretty good about.
“On the other hand, defensively he’s going to have to learn some concepts on how to play defense in the NBA at the center position. He was caught out of position a few times, but part of that is natural and can be overcome. The other thing is to see him concentrate on rebounding, being able to rebound his position.”
It was shortly after reentering in the second quarter that Post flashed the deep-shooting ability that was crucial to being drafted, playing pick-and-pop with guard Pat Spencer and punctuating it by splashing a 3-ball from the top of the arc.
Post drained another triple midway through the third quarter, this one from the left wing in the face of a strong closeout by 6-foot-10 Thunder forward KJ Williams.
One factor that surely helped Post’s draft appeal is that he’s 24 years old. He spent five years at two different schools, beginning at Mississippi State before transferring to Boston College. He shot 41.6 percent from deep at BC. His mechanics are solid and he’s comfortable beyond the arc. It’s conceivable that he’ll be a legitimate Stretch 5 as a pro.
“We would have no problem drafting a young player that looks like he could have a chance to be an All-Star or superstar,” Harris said. “No doubt. But we're never going stray away just because a guy’s a little bit older. That won’t knock him out of the box. Some teams do that, and they have their own process.
“But if we did that, we wouldn’t have Trayce [Jackson-Davis] or him."
Although Post likely will spend much of his rookie season with the G League Santa Cruz Warriors, there is reason for optimism about his ability to add dimension to Golden State’s offense in the future.
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