D'Angelo Russell's stint in Golden State may have only lasted for 33 games, and it may not have come at a particularly memorable time in franchise history — in fact, the Dubs went 8-25 in games when Russell played for them — but it's not as if Warriors fans will forget that DLo was on their team any time soon.
After all, he came over to the West Coast in the blockbuster trade featuring Kevin Durant after he was an All-Star in Brooklyn. That was a pretty memorable swap, no? And in his 33 games on the court with the Warriors, he averaged 23.6 to go along with 6.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds, none of which are numbers to shrug off. And then he was gone, exchanged for Andrew Wiggins and a draft pick that could yield massive dividends depending on how the 2021 NBA Draft lottery goes down.
So, no, even though Russell wasn't in the Bay Area for long, his stay in town and all of the factors and terms surrounding that stint make for a quite memorable era. The same can't be said for the five names who you'll see on the list below. These aren't just any random players — we're not going to feature names such as Chris Taft, the second-round center who played 17 games off the bench for the 2006 Warriors. Instead, they're notable NBA stars whose brightest days came elsewhere, and whose stints in Golden State were so limited, either in time or in production, that they very well may have faded from memory. And if that's the case, the goal of this fun little article is to bring them back into your memory banks... let's see how we do.
All statistics and info retrieved from Basketball Reference.
Paul Pressey (1992-93)
Paul Pressey was a lockdown defender for the Bucks.(Otto Greule Jr/Allsport/Getty Images)Pressey was never an All-Star, but he definitely could have been. After all, the three-time All-Defensive guard/forward wreaked havoc on opponents throughout his time in Milwaukee. He could certainly contribute on the offensive side of the ball, finishing in the top 20 in assists per game five times and averaging around 12 points per game in his eight seasons as a Buck. But where he created chaos was on D, with a defensive box plus/minus that currently ranks in the top 50 of any player that ever stepped foot on the NBA hardwood.
Pressey retired after the 1991-92 campaign and became an assistant with the Warriors, though he actually unretired and played with the team after injuries decimated the roster, and he was one of 20 people to log minutes that year. Unfortunately, he didn't contribute much in 18 games before he, too, was injured: just 4.4 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists per outing.
Kevin Willis (1995-96)
Kevin Willis's best days were behind him when he landed in Golden State.(Brian Bahr /Allsport via Getty Images)A sturdy force for the Hawks, Willis spent almost the entire first decade of his career in Atlanta, averaging 14.7 points and 10.1 rebounds per game in his first ten seasons (though he missed one with a knee injury). For his dominant production in 1991-92, Willis was named an All-Star and a third-team All-NBA selection, with 18.3 points and a whopping 15.5 boards per contest.
After such consistent surroundings for the first half of his career, the latter half was starkly different. It was from the Hawks to the Heat, then the Heat to the Warriors, where he played fewer games than all but one franchise in the NBA. The deal that sent him over wasn't exactly small — he and Bimbo Coles went to Golden State in return for Chris Gatling and, most importantly, Tim Hardaway. In those 28 games with the Dubs, Willis averaged 11.3 points and 7.8 rebounds, both lower than his career averages and the typical production we had seen prior to this point in his career.
He was released following the 1995-96 season and went on to play for Houston, Toronto, Denver, Houston (again), San Antonio, Atlanta (again) and Dallas throughout the rest of his career. It's safe to say that his legacy is remembered in Atlanta far more than anywhere else.
Nick Van Exel (2003-04)
The talented Van Exel was better as an opponent of the Warriors earlier in his career.(Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)A frequent adversary of the Warriors earlier in his career, Van Exel was a terrific scorer and facilitator for the Lakers and Nuggets throughout the mid-to-late-1990s. A member of the all-time top-50 assists and three-pointers lists, Van Exel averaged 15.5 points and 7.2 assists while draining the three-ball at a near-36 percent clip in the first ten seasons of his career.
It was after that decade that he got traded from the Mavericks to the Warriors in a nine-player deal, the star of which was Antawn Jamison. And while Jamison won Sixth Man of the Year in his new surroundings, Van Exel wasn't as memorable with his new team. He played 39 games for those Warriors and though he had a big role (32.2 minutes per game), he struggled with efficiency (just 30.7 percent from deep) and saw his overall numbers take a dip. He was traded prior to the next season.
Jermaine O'Neal (2013-14)
Jermaine O'Neal spent his final season in Golden State.(Scott Halleran/Getty Images)O'Neal is best known, hands down, for his days with the Indiana Pacers. He was there from the 2000-01 season to the 2007-08 season, earning All-Star recognition in six of those eight campaigns and averaging 18.6 points and 9.6 rebounds throughout the stint.
Six years after his Pacers days, after we saw him play in increasingly limited roles for teams such as the Raptors, Heat and Celtics, O'Neal landed in Golden State for what would be the final season of his illustrious career. He was there for 44 regular season games and seven playoff games, averaging 7.9 points and 5.5 rebounds and a predominantly bench role, though he filled in as a starter every so often. And while rumors of a potential comeback floated around, it never came to be.
Chris Boucher (2017-18)
Chris Boucher only logged one minute for the Warriors.(Ethan Miller/Getty Images)Boucher was an underrated machine in 2020-21, finishing sixth in the league in blocks while turning the Raptors into somewhat of an offensive juggernaut while he was on the court. His offensive rating of 127.4 was eighth in the entire league, and he was in the top 15 for win shares per 48 minutes played, meaning he very well could see an uptick in playing time from the 24.2 minutes per night that he saw in his breakout year.
His role with the Warriors? He played in one game, for one minute, and pulled down one rebound. That's it. The undrafted big man signed a two-way deal with them and then was waived, though not before he was technically a part of the 2018 Warriors championship team. One minute turned into one ring, and that's probably fine with him.
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