Georges Niang Gives First Impressions on Joining the Warriors

It’s always a privilege for a team to bring in someone who’s seen it all.

The Warriors have accomplished this before with players like Otto Porter Jr., Nemanja Bjelica, even Shaun Livingtson and Andre Iguodala. Veteran experience from someone who’s been a long-term, key component of teams from the lottery to the championship level will always add value to the locker room. With Golden State’s winning culture, they have that in droves already, but fresh perspectives always help.

Georges Niang is the latest of those perspectives. The 9-year NBA veteran out of Iowa State (where he not only played all 4 years, but reached the NCAA Tournament all 4 years) rejoins the Warriors organization a long ways away from his Exhibit 10 deal and subsequent Santa Cruz season in 2018, with stops in Utah, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and briefly Atlanta along the way.

Niang recently hopped on the Not Even D2 podcast and shared his first public comments since joining Golden State. “That all started when I signed a training camp deal with the Warriors 10 years ago” he said on the pod regarding the building of NBA-level habits, and about what the start of his career looked like. “I got to see how Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green worked every day. Same time, same hoop, same drill, and I was like ‘dang, they just won a championship’ - Who am I to not have a routine if these guys are still acting like they’re trying to make the team?”

The 6’7 , 230-pound forward aptly nicknamed “The Minivan” due to his reliability, utility, and consistency, brings some scoring and shooting (career 7.5 points per game, 54% from two, 39% from three in a short 17.5 minutes) and a mixed bag defensively; With good defensive instincts, Niang can struggle against some of the NBA’s stronger athletes off the bounce while still contributing to team cohesiveness and against stronger opponents he may switch onto.

Niang’s familiar with the playoffs on top of the experienced skills he brings. Of his 9 seasons in the league, 6 of them were ones he made it to the postseason, with 4 years going longer than the first round. While he hasn’t been the focal point of these teams, he’s played and been around enough to understand what separates the best teams from the ones lagging behind.

“I think it’s the way that they play” Niang responded when asked about what excites him regarding joining the Warriors. “…Being on the other team, I don’t think people understand how much you worry about a guy like [Steph Curry]. There’s been so many times where we’ve been up 15 or 16 against the Warriors in the 4th quarter with 2 minutes to go, and we’re still like ‘Alright, the game’s not over’.”

Players like Niang aren’t always easy to find in the NBA. The mix of competitiveness and good basketball IQ is something that teams often forego in favor of raw, jump-out-the-gym athleticism or potential… And they do so to a fault.

Not enough can be said about how Draymond Green plays bigger than he is, even at a point in his career where he’s going up against players with long careers ahead of them. Despite those challenges, he meets them every time, and his defensive prowess year-to-year reflects that. While Georges Niang hasn’t proven quite the caliber of defender that Dray has been, you can see a similar core in that they have the want and the know-how to win.

“Draymond is unbelievable. The way he sees the game, the way he can speak the game, it’s really exciting to have a teammate like that. And it’s also exciting to have guys like Jimmy Butler… The grouping of those three together, and you have young guys like Podz, Moses Moody, and Yaxel Lendeborg, it’s gonna be really exciting” Niang continued on the topic of those similar traits.

The praise for the younger players certainly sticks out in the journeyman’s comments, especially as someone who’s spent time with groups of players just getting their initial playoff-level tests. From Donovan Mitchell to Tyrese Maxey to Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, Niang has seen good groups and knows what the importance of the process is like; His comments hold weight when it comes to the next generation of Warriors.

While Niang, now 33, may not be a 25-a-night mainstay in the rotation, his experience has an off-court value that goes beyond the stat sheet. Players like that matter when it comes to taking the next step, and while Steph Curry and Draymond Green are some of the best mentors young guns can have, another experienced voice who’s seen how hard those guys worked at their peaks will never hurt to have in the locker room.