OAKLAND -- For the Warriors, the NBA Draft was about two things: Waiting for the right time to buy the rights to a player they love and being entertained, for the fourth consecutive day, by the earnest efforts of the league's underclass.
Not that they would put it quite so impolitely.
"It's a competitive league. All we do is try to get better," president/general manager Bob Myers said late Thursday night, insisting that the Warriors are too immersed in their own challenges to look down their noses at the other 29 teams.
But the truth is inescapable. This is the week that touched off the flailing of franchises feeling particularly feeble and futile in the wake of Warriors destructive run through the postseason.
The Warriors were 16-1, the best record in NBA postseason history. Their average win margin, 13.5 points, is No. 2 all time. They demolished LeBron James and the Cavaliers in The Finals, after the Cavs had annihilated all comers in the Eastern Conference. Part III of The Trilogy was by far the most lopsided.
And the Warriors followed that up by buying a second-round pick to get, by most accounts, a first-round talent in Oregon's Jordan Bell.
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The rest of the league is determined to fight back and, therefore, is scrambling and shuffling and trading and posturing in an effort to close the gap on the champs. Those teams, staring up at the Warriors, have to do something to feel productive today while trying to keep their fans from giving up on tomorrow.
No team did more draft-night hustling than their neighbors in Sacramento, who after using their No. 5 pick to select the player they coveted most, Kentucky point guard De'Aaron Fox, traded the No. 10 overall pick to Portland for Nos. 15 and 20, choosing North Carolina forward Justin Jackson and Duke forward Harry Giles.
The 76ers chose Markelle Fultz, believing he is the final piece to assembling the best young team in the East. The folks in Philly, who avoided the team for nearly a decade, suddenly are on board, buying 14,000 season tickets -- a franchise record.
The Lakers grabbed UCLA's Lonzo Ball, who will generate an enthusiasm missing at Staples Center since the best days of Kobe Bryant.
The Timberwolves and Bulls completed a major trade, with Minnesota getting All-Star guard Jimmy Butler in exchange for guards Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn, with the teams also swapping draft picks.
This all followed several moves made earlier this week, beginning with the Cavaliers dumping general manager David Griffin precisely seven days after being run over by the Warriors in The Finals.
Griffin's dismissal preceded by a day the Hawks trading once-imposing Dwight Howard to the Hornets, as well as the Lakers dealing D'Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov to the Nets for All-Star center and Stanford product Brook Lopez.
Meanwhile, as the Warriors examine their various free-agent contingencies, so much more is percolating around the league:
-Trade talk swirls about Pacers All-Star forward Paul George, who is destined to get out of Indiana, perhaps sooner than later.
-The Cavs are searching, so far without much success, for a team willing to engage in serious negotiations regarding power forward Kevin Love.
-Knicks top executive Phil Jackson, committed to a mission of unknown purpose, announced he's now willing to shop 21-year-old wunderkind Kristaps Porzingis.
-The Spurs are ready to move on from LaMarcus Aldridge and Danny Green.
-The Clippers -- already with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and JJ Redick set to become free agents -- reportedly are willing to ship out DeAndre Jordan.
-The Rockets seemingly are ready to swap anybody not named James Harden.
-And the Celtics also are known to be on the market, though that is not unusual when Danny Ainge is sitting in the corner office.
The Warriors are the cause for such a mad frenzy, and the sight of their competitors making mad dashes toward their respective futures is the effect. They are two cuts above and that's tough to take in a league of men who may not mind losing but do not care to be humiliated.
"We never looked at it as far as catching anybody, or people catching up," Myers said. "Our job is to try to get better each day. And whether that's through personnel, coaching, developing our players or us in the front office learning and growing.
"I guess I don't view us as ahead of everyone," he added. "I know it's been mentioned by everybody else, but once you start thinking that, you're in trouble. You've to start believing and keep pushing."
