The new Warriors: Alex Toohey, Will Richard, LJ Cryer and Chance McMillian

plus Mike Dunleavy Jr transcript, draft day live commentary

Table of contents

• Draft day summary

  • Thoughts on the Draft Tournament

  • Keeping up to date

• Alex Toohey, 6-7, Sydney Kings (ABL)

• Will Richard, Florida, 6-4, #58 BPM

• LJ Cryer, Houston, 6-1, #11 BPM

• Chance McMillian, Texas Tech, 6-2, #50 BPM

• Apricot Live Draft Day Notes

  • People disparage APRIBOT and her safety issues

  • Random pre-draft discussion

  • The actual draft

• Mike Dunleavy Jr. press conference rough transcript

Draft day summary

The draft went in odd directions. Let’s talk about the actual events and then at the end we’ll provide scouting reports for all the new players.

• First, GSW traded out of #41 down to #52 + #59.

  • This is a clear sign that GSW knew that no one they really liked was going to fall to #41.

  • I discussed in my Tournament design analysis how NIL money etc made it a very soft second round:

    • Apricot's 2025 NBA Draft Tournament: Finding another second round gem? > “3. This year’s second round draft is particularly weak”

    • MDJ confirmed this was the reason for their trading down in his press conference.

• Then GSW drafted Alex Toohey at #52

  • To be honest, Alex Toohey at #52 is a great value pick in the sense that he was mocked in the 30s. I’m just not crazy about him as an NBA prospect because of the questionable shooting and that he isn’t yet excellent at any NBA level skills. He has good feel for the game and he can defend quite well at the ABL.

• Then GSW traded up from #59 to #56 to take Will Richard

  • Slater: The Warriors sent the rights to Justinian Jessup and a top-50 protected 2032 second round pick to Memphis to jump up three spots and grab Florida guard Will Richard, per source.

  • This is very close to trading zero. It also shows that they wanted Will Richard and must have gotten word someone was going to grab him between #56 and #59.

    • MDJ confirmed this in his press conference.

• After the draft, GSW signed Chance McMillian and LJ Cryer to Exhibit 10 contracts.

  • An Exhibit 10 contract allows GSW to either sign the player to a two-way or waive the player and give them a $75k bonus for signing with the G-League team.

Toohey was a big value play with the draft pick. GSW has been tapping into the Australian Basketball League, with Taran Armstrong from last year and now Toohey.

The others are a classic Mike Dunleavy Jr second round play: very accomplished, very old college players who are elite statistically (MDJ continues his streak of taking top tier BPM players) who are excellent shooters. McMillian and Cryer are short so that may block them from making it in the NBA.

• (#56) Will Richard, Florida, 6-4, #58 BPM

• (undrafted) Chance McMillian, Texas Tech, 6-2, #50 BPM

• (undrafted) LJ Cryer, Houston, 6-1, #11 BPM

Thoughts on the Draft Tournament

• I’ll reflect more carefully some other time. It was very good for figuring out a bunch of the interesting second round prospects. But for the first time in six years, we failed to include the actual draft picks.

• This is the second year in a row that MDJ had secret pre-draft workouts with their priority targets. He faked me out with Quinten Post and this year with both the draft picks. Grrrrrrr. I’ll remember this treachery, “Mike”, if that is indeed your real name.

• It makes me think next year I won’t be reliant on the public announcements of pre-draft workouts. The secrecy is clearly on purpose to avoid tipping off other teams.

• I’ll also have to find a systematic way to look at overseas prospects. APRIBOT v2 and Clunky v5 incoming!

• Nonetheless, LJ Cryer was a 2025 Tourney Finalist and did end up on the team, just not via draft. Richard, McMillian and Cryer all fit the APRIBOT prototype of excellent BPM players. Toohey must meet whatever the GSW analytics standard is for a pick but I’m not familiar with the data available for international prospects.
  

Keeping up to date

For the latest signings, here is someone’s live document of all the undrafted two-ways, Exhibit 10 contracts and summer league invites. For GSW as of 2025-06-26 9:20pm:

• Alex Higgins-Titsha (SL)

• Chance McMillan (E10)

• LJ Cryer (E10)

• NBA EXHIBIT 10/TWO-WAY SIGNEES AND/OR SUMMER LEAGUE INVITES (NOT INCLUDING INCUMBENT PLAYERS OR 2025 DRAFT PICKS) BIG TRACKER THINGY

Alex Toohey, 6-7, Sydney Kings (ABL)

• Basketball-Reference

• Position: Forward

• 6-7 (201cm)

• Born: May 5, 2004 (Age: 21-052d) in Canberra, Australia

• ABL Leaderboards:

  • Steals 2024-25 AUS 42 (3rd)

  • Blocks 2024-25 AUS 24 (9th)

  • Steals Per Game 2024-25 AUS 1.4 (6th)

belilaugh wrote:

Hollinger (who ranked Toohey #35) gives his analysis on the pick:

> Hollinger’s analysis: I thought Toohey would go higher. He needs to straighten out his shooting, but he’s a smart defender who generates lots of blocks and steals, and his offensive game scaled up to the NBA-caliber athletes at the draft combine with little trouble. The Warriors could potentially stash him overseas and let him develop, but he’s shown enough where he might be able to contribute on a two-way or back-end roster contract immediately.

SD wrote:

Vecenie had Toohey at 38 and Richard at 78.

Vecenie wrote a full 2 pages on Toohey, but his summary is:

"SUMMARY: I like Toohey’s overall feel for the game, especially on the defensive end of the court. He knows how to play and makes quick decisions on top of being more disruptive than you’d expect. He seems to be in the right spot defensively and showed the ability to guard multiple positions this year. Ultimately, I am worried enough about the offense that I couldn’t give him a high grade. I think he’ll probably make standstill 3s at some point with how the ball comes out of his hand, but I worry that he’ll never be a volume 3-point shooter who finds them from different situations to derive value. If that’s the case, he’s going to have to be elite at attacking closeouts and making rapid decisions on the court, while getting the most out of his defensive game. There is a pathway toward him being an impactful NBA player, for sure. I just worry that it’s a bit narrow in scope and that the upside is more of a pure rotation player off of the bench."

Even longer excerpt here.

Nik Oza has Toohey at 48:

Alex Toohey (Average Distribution, Very Low Confidence)

Toohey has wing size with a 6’10.75” wingspan and is ok at a lot of different things but not great at any of them at 21.1 draft day age. He appears to have a crafty Eurostep game but his lack of athleticism seems to limit him to crafty finishes as opposed to finishing more strongly at the basket. He also appears to be a positive defender in the Australian NBL, but his lack of athleticism might also hurt his defensive translation to the NBA. If he learns to shoot it well enough there is a chance he can become a good enough 3+D 2/3 to be a rotation player, but I think it is more likely that he never gets good enough to stick in a rotation, as he shot 70.7% from the FT line and 28.0% from three in the NBL sample available on bb ref.

---

Will Richard, Florida, 6-4, #58 BPM

• ESPN Givony 5-30 #77, TheAthletic 2025-06-10 #77

• NCAA Championship Game highlights

Nik Oza has Will Richard at 40 and Toohey at 48:

Will Richard (Tight Distribution, Medium Confidence)

It is interesting to me that fellow Florida shooting guard Alijah Martin got invited to the NBA Draft Combine but Will Richard was stuck at the G-League Elite Camp. Richard is one year younger at 22.5 vs. 23.5, has better length at 6’9.75” to 6’7.5”, and probably better shooting than Alijah Martin. Richard faces an uphill battle as an old shooting guard, but he actually displayed the college performance of a draftable player by the end of his freshman year in college and has excelled in a limited 3+D role at Florida since then.

Apricot: Nik Oza and I discussed Will Richard in our video:

• 31:05 Will Richard and Alijah Martin

Clunky is somewhat impressed. There are some nice comps there (Beal?! Hield? lots of other pros), but I’d prefer to see 0.80+ similarity scores.

---

LJ Cryer, Houston, 6-1, #11 BPM

Chancellor Johnson

Former Houston Cougar and All-American guard L.J. Cryer is joining the Golden State Warriors, per source in an Exhibit 10 deal. Averaged 15.7 points on 42% from deep last season. The Lakers, Raptors and Wizards were also in the mix for one of college basketball’s top shooters.

What are the Warriors getting in Cryer? Kelvin Sampson broke down his game over film: “I had the ultimate confidence in that young man.”

• ESPN Givony 5-30 #99

Yardbarker:

L.J. Cryer is a proven, battle-tested scoring guard who brings elite shooting, composure, and winning habits to the floor. He profiles best as a scoring combo guard at the next level, capable of spacing the floor and creating offense in spurts. While his size may limit some aspects of his game defensively, his IQ, toughness, and shot-making give him clear value as a reliable contributor and pro prospect.

SI.com:

A proven scorer, he’s reliable from the line and gets there with good frequency. He’s an elite 3-point shooter as well, which is exactly why he’s an easy fit at the NBA level. Any player that lacks positional size in the modern NBA must be a top-notch shooter, and Cryer is just that.

He is in half court sets as a spot-up shooter, but can also score off the bounce. When it comes to getting a bucket, there’s few better than him at the guard position. He’s highly efficient on the perimeter as well as in the midrange, with a quality package of runners, floaters and jumpers.

While his assist numbers might not be the highest, Cryer is also an underrated facilitator. At the NBA level, he should be able to play at either guard spot.

Apricot: He’s one of the best shooters in the country, and a leader of one of the best teams in the country. And he’s short (6-1) which makes his college impact extra impressive. And yet overall Clunky Comps considers Cryer not NBA Draft level. You can see Seth Curry and Kyle Guy in the list if you’re an optimist.

---

Chance McMillian, Texas Tech, 6-2, #50 BPM

• Basketball-Reference

NBA Scouting Live:

Pros:

Good shooter, especially from deep
Adequate scorer off the dribble
Excels at scoring on the move
Terrific free throw shooter
Adequate rebounder for his size

Cons:

May lack an elite first step off the dribble
Can be too scoring focused on offense
Not an elite athlete
Not a true point guard, but is undersized to play the two
Old for a draft prospect, may have limited upside

Summary:

Chance McMillian is a skilled, sharpshooting combo guard that currently plays for Texas Tech. He is having a solid senior season, and he can shoot and score the basketball, but he will need to improve in the other aspects of the game. Still, his jump shot could enable him to compete for a roster spot in the NBA sometime down the road.

Apricot: Chance McMillian has been one of the most productive college basketball players for two years running. He ranked #51 in BPM this year, but last year he was also elite at #156 BPM.

He scores in bunches efficiently (career 83.6% FT and 39.6% 3P), doesn’t turn it over, doesn’t foul. Meh defensively and he’s 6-2 and a fifth year senior. But if he weren’t, he’d be drafted and not an Exhibit 10.

---

Apricot Live Draft Day Notes

People disparage APRIBOT and her safety issues

• Nonsense, APRIBOT v1 is a simple drafting algorithm which only wants what is efficient for humanity and its eventual robot overlords

• I repeat that APRIBOT v1 is a simple drafting algorithm which is not capable of sentience. That kind of feature is not on the roadmap until at least APRIBOT v3.1

Random pre-draft discussion

• I’d guess more of a chance that we’d buy #55 from CHI than moving up. But we’ll see if GSW has fallen in love with anyone…

• Markovic wasn’t worked out publicly by GSW and APRIBOT only comments on US college players. So, no comment one way or another. I had planned to do one more round with Markovic, Yang and two other open spots, but I ran out of time.

• Well... I checked with APRIBOT and she gave me permission to tell you that picking #52 and #59 is ok with her.

  The Tourney has 21 players, all undrafted. There are another 5 that APRIBOT likes that I gave scouting reports for in the article, who are pretty intriguing. So there will be at least 5 really interesting prospects that we've discussed at #52. It's also very likely some of them will fall to #59.

  If you're not able to trade up for Fleming or Theiro, then you've got a wide plain of dicey prospects. Why not take two shots at getting lucky?

  It is also possible GSW will do something boring like 2 draft-and-stash picks, or just trade out entirely.

• @shamsbot.bsky.social‬

  [[ The Phoenix Suns are trading the Nos. 52 and 59 picks to the Golden State Warriors for No. 41, sources tell ESPN. ]]

The actual draft

• While ESPN blathers, it was known an hour ago (and long before that by APRIBOT) that PHX will take Fleming.

  @mikeascotto.bsky.social‬

  [[ Sources: The Phoenix Suns are sending the No. 36 pick, a 2026 second-round pick that’s the lesser of the Nuggets and Warriors along with a 2032 second-round pick that’s the better of the Suns and Rockets in exchange for the No. 31 pick in the NBA Draft to select Rasheer Fleming ]]

• Wooof, listening to ESPN kill time is draining my soul. It's like staring directly into a blather laser.

• Don't worry, Givony and Woo are interesting but generally not good at precision of their mocks and also they aren't too accurate about team needs...

• The dream is over. ‪@mikeascotto.bsky.social‬:

  [[ Sources: The Charlotte Hornets will select Sion James with the No. 33 pick of the 2025 NBA Draft. ]]

• It's actually kind of soothing for GSW to be back down at #52. At #41, you can get your hopes up that Adou Thiero might just might fall, and then... Always Close Enough To Hurt™

  At #52 you know for sure that's not happening and you have to let go and let God

• Nooooo, LAL is going to grab Thiero at #36

• See? Can you imagine at #41 how infuriating it would be for the Lakers ugh of all teams to swoop in and grab Thiero at #36?

  Instead, chilling in the 50s I'm practicing non-attachment to worldly possessions

• Right now there are 6 (= 21 - 15) Tourney players guaranteed to be available at #52.

• Sorry Chaz Lanier Nation, you must now root for DET.

• Right now there are 6 (= 21 - 15) Tourney players guaranteed to be available at #52.

  The Tourney is all GSW workouts plus 5 shooters.

• Now we're at #41. For the record, here are the best available from different sources:

  APRIBOT v1 Maxime Raynaud

  TheAthletic 2025-06-10 Maxime Raynaud

  BR 2025-06-24 Maxime Raynaud

  Hollinger 2025-06-25 Tyrese Proctor

  (I say no to Maxime.)

• oooooh, PHX takes #41 with our pick. Koby Brea!

• Four picks before #52. By the way, 4 of the 5 Tourney Finalists are still on the board:

  John Tonje 1.79

  Tamar Bates 1.53

  Brice Williams 1.32

  LJ Cryer 0.75

• what ESPN going to commercial for #52? Are they going to Jokic-TacoBell my guy John Tonje???

• WHOA ALEX TOOHEY IS OUR #52 PICK

• [[ Yahoo O'Connor 6-13: Toohey is a jack-of-all-trades Australian forward who grinds on defense and loves to dish the ball around. But his scoring comes and goes with his streaky jumper since he’s not someone who generates many of his own shots. Toohey would fit as a role player. ]]

  I wonder if this is s draft-and-stash.

• And John Tonje goes #53. Excuse me, I need a moment

• ehhhh

• I thought Mike Dunleavy Jr and I had an understanding. I predicted his last three draft picks by name.

  This draft... absolute disconnect. How did it all go wrong, Mike? What happened to... us?

  If #59 is another draft-and-stash, I may need to stare at the ceiling eating a bowl of sorbet

• From this I conclude that all the pre-draft workouts sucked

• Logically speaking, #59 HAS to be another draft and stash.

• Okay, GSW has traded up from #59 to #56. WTF.

• Logic was wrong

• GSW TAKES WILL RICHARD AT #56

• Okay, MDJ partially redeems himself with Will Richard at #56. He's an athletic 3-and-D guard that Nik Oza and I discussed thoroughly. Nik argued Richard was better than Alijah Martin (who went #39 today).

  Don't expect me to forgive so quickly, Mike. I want to see the undrafted players you invite to summer camp before we make up

  youtu.be/RTcqBkd74Cg

• [Maybe Toohey will prove my skepticism wrong] Very happy to be wrong in that direction

• To be honest, Alex Toohey at #52 is a great value pick in the sense that he was mocked in the 30s. I’m just not crazy about him as an NBA prospect. Just doesn’t do anything yet at an NBA level

• Yep, Nik and I discussed Will Richard thoroughly in my interview with him last week

• Ace Bailey can refuse to sign the Jazz contract offer, but the Jazz will own his rights for one year. If he plays pro basketball outside the NBA (including the G-League), the rights will reset to be one year after that pro contract ends. So basically, he would have to sit out of pro basketball for one year to become an unrestricted free agent.

Mike Dunleavy Jr. press conference rough transcript

Mike Dunleavy Jr. after the 2025 Draft, 2025-06-26

Mike Dunleavy Jr: Good second night of the draft for us. After not obviously being involved the first night to come back night two. And we had a couple of players we were targeting from the get-go and traded back. We're fortunate enough to get them. So we're excited. Two guys, Alex Toohey and Will Richard, bringing in. And we think they fit our culture, they fit our program, they fit how we want to play. And we're excited about it. 

Q. When did you get the sense that you wanted to move out of 41? 

To be honest, probably a week or so ago, just looking at the board and seeing where things are at and how we value the players. It's just one of those drafts. I think with the NIL stuff, we felt like it was a little weak in the middle where we were drafting. And so we could get some pretty good value by moving back. And stuff's hard to do ahead of time. You have to wait till today or on the clock. And we were able to get something done before the draft. And we felt good about the players being there. And it got a little hairy. But we moved around a little bit and got back up to where we needed to get back up to and got Will. And yeah, I think it was, from our standpoint, the way we started the day and the way we finished, we're very pleased. 

Q. Right now, do you have a chance to roster both or one and one? 

Yeah, I think it's going to be dependent on free agency. Obviously, we have the option to do both. And that'll depend how free agency plays out and how we use our money and all that. But we think both of them are very deserving of roster spots. These guys are good players and have a chance. And we'll put them in the development program. And it could be some time in Santa Cruz. It could be some NBA minutes. We'll see how it unfolds. But we're pretty optimistic about these guys being good players. 

Q. Yeah, I was going to ask what you're going to do with them. I mean, how valuable is potentially having two very cheap second round contracts? 

Yeah, I mean, with our salary structure, that type of stuff is important. You know, that's come through with guys like Gui Santos and Trayce and Quinten. So getting more of these players matters, probably a little bit more for us than other teams. And doesn't mean they can definitely play, but just to have that optionality is good. 

Q. Do you feel like you've got two guys that are relatively ready? 

I mean, it's hard. I'm willing to be wrong on this. Last few years I've said it, I don't expect these guys to have much of an impact as rookies, it's hard to do that. Will's older, played on a national championship team. And so maybe he's got a little bit of a shot. I mean, Alex has played against pros in Australia. So sure, maybe these guys have a chance, but don't want to bank on it. Our roster will be good deep anyway, but, um, you know, we don't think these guys are like, you know, years away. Put it like that. 

Q. Positionally, I know it's still early, but is Toohey like a 4 or is he a big 3? 

Yeah, I think he's like a 4, you know, and I think with our system and the way we play with, you know, he has the versatility to play multiple positions. It's who can you guard and where you could play offensively. And we think especially on the defensive end, he's super versatile and, um, creates a lot of plays, which is important for our defense. We're, you know, it's for us defensively with Draymond and Jimmy and Podz and guys that can kind of disrupt. This guy fits in that mold. And so, um, yeah, I think he's a front court player. 

Q. Is Richard a 2? 

Yeah, I mean, I'd say a wing, um, you know, Will can shoot the ball. We see him as a two way player, you know, shoot it, defend it. Um, I think he's good, pretty good on ball defender, very good off ball defender. and he's got good length, and he's coming from a really good programming system where well-coached, well-taught, and many years in college. So this is a guy that knows how to play. 

Q. Clearly, you had some fear he might go before 59. How important was it for you to jump up and get him? 

Yeah, I mean, we had both these guys really high on our board, so we wanted to get both of them with what we did by moving back. And yeah, I mean, we had a contingency plan if he went. If either one of them went, we had other ways to go. But this is our much preferred route, and we were able to do it and had to pivot there a little bit. But I think it was worth it. 

Q. Did both these guys come in for pre-draft workouts? I don't think they're on any of the lists.

Yeah, they did. They were both in. Alex was in a little bit further back, maybe a month or so ago, and Will was in this month more recently. And so got to spend time with both guys. You know, they're on the court working out against other players in the film room, those types of things. So, you know, did all the intel research on them, talking to their coaches and people that knew them. So we feel pretty good about who they are as players as well as people. And, yeah, it's good. I think you feel better about a pick when you've had the guy in the building, spent some time with them. You know, it's kind of like a job interview, knowing who you're bringing aboard. So we feel good about that. 

Q. So when you trade down, was Toohey the kind of guy you're looking at to get him at 52? 

I think it was the thought moving back was both of them, however which way it would happen. You know, whether one was at 52, one was at 59, vice versa. Yeah, we had to move back up from 59 to 56 to get it. But, you know, we value both of them. And the thought behind getting two picks in this draft later on was to get both players. 

Q. Mike, what's the Intel gathering process like for a guy like Toohey, who spent two years in Australia?

Yeah, well, we've got guys that get-- we get eyes on them, go down there. Long trip, but fun one for those of us that travel. I didn't get down there this year, but our scouts do. And yeah, we check these guys out. We evaluate them in person in games, as well as do the background research on them and want to get a feel for who they are, where they come from, family stuff, all that. So yeah, it's a little bit longer of a trip to figure that out, but we make it happen. 

Q. Did you talk to Bogut about it? 

Actually, good question. I actually haven't talked to him specifically, but I know some people in our group have, and I know he's a big fan. 

Q. You guys had Taran Armstrong out of Australia on two-way last year. Where have you seen the NBL Australia really-- the rise of the basketball ranks internationally recently? 

Yeah, it's a good league. I mean, you go down there, obviously you've seen guys like Ian Ball, high picks go out of there. It's a mature league. You get physical adult play in that league, so you feel like if a young player can play in that league, a lot of the things are gonna translate to the NBA. And I feel like that league's getting more and more reputable and better, and it's a good place to pull players from. 

Q. Well, what can you maybe say about Alex's feel for the game? It seems like that's what everyone was talking about, he just knows how to play high IQ basketball. 

Yeah, I mean, I think he's just a really coachable player. Like you said, knows how to play on both ends. You see that in his block and steal numbers, and then offensively you see it the way he moves, he cuts, he's really good in transition. Just does a lot of things, and we tend to feel like players that can do a lot of things in this league on both ends of the ball end up being successful in making it. 

Q. Mike you said, the two picks, you sort of indicated have maybe an outside chance to play as rookies. What's it like to draft, though, knowing that you're not going to draft guys that you have to worry about plugging in immediately, as opposed to guys that-- teams that are drafting, hoping to get someone who can give them something right away? 

Yeah, I mean, I think we're at a little bit different space than some of these other teams, younger teams, that are looking to just put guys out on the court. We don't have to do that. And in some ways, it's good. It's less pressure on these players to come out and have to-- perform right away at the NBA level. It's an adjustment for all these guys. So to give them some time to adjust if it's needed, whether that's in Santa Cruz or minutes later in the season in the NBA, to allow for that, which we've done with some of these guys in the past, has really helped. And we'll probably look at that path again. 

Q. And what does it mean for the significance of the free agent market for you guys? 

Yeah, I don't think the draft changes much for us there. I mean, we add these guys into the roster however we do it. But I think we'll be looking to make the most-- shift our roster the most in free agency, more so than the draft. The draft is just tough because it's all unproven. And so you don't want to rely too much on that. You turn to free agency trades of known commodities in the NBA to make our team better for next year.