Fan favorite Eric Paschall joins buddy Donovan Mitchell, frees up a roster spot
Fan favorite Eric Paschall joins buddy Donovan Mitchell, frees up a roster spot
Appreciation post + updated depth chart!
Eric Paschall was traded the other day to the Utah Jazz, allowing him to join his buddy Donovan Mitchell who, oddly, first appeared on one of our videos back in 2017 in the tunnel postgame after Game 1 of the Finals (as discovered by a YouTube commenter years after the video was uploaded; it has 500k+ views!):
In any case, I got back from the California Classic in Sacramento very late Wednesday night aka Thursday super-early morning because I stuck around for the postgame, then we enjoyed Draymond Green and Team USA’s victory a few hours later on our Discord server’s “game commentary” channel (while I was still sitting alone in the media room of Golden1 Center), so this Paschall appreciation post is officially now a #latepost. It’s so late, Andre Iguodala has already been leaked as returning to DubNation — btw we don’t call it “official” until GSW PR sends us the official press release.
I had bumped into Warriors radio play-by-play announcer Tim Roye in the media room before the Warriors faced the Miami Heat on Day Two (Day One recap here) and he said he’d just seen Paschall at the hotel on his way out and said goodbye to him. I’m going to have to remember that next time, that if a guy gets traded, rush over to the hotel to wish him well.
First of all, the move frees up a roster spot. There was just no more room, as you can see now, even with yesterday night’s leaks that Kelly Oubre was headed to the Charlotte Hornets (more on that, in a future post):
Updated depth chart:
1. Steph
2. Klay
3. Wiggs
4. Dray
5. Wise
6. JP
7. Juan
8. Looney
9. Bjelica
10. Andre
11. Kuminga
12. OPJ
13. Moody
14. Damion or MLE (Steph's backup?)
15. Veteran’s minimum (center?)
Two-ways:
16. Jessup?
17. Nico?
We’ll also discuss the depth chart more later as things unravel, and for now we can’t see Mychal Mulder or Gary Payton, Jr. returning, but back to “EP”. The former 41st pick of the 2019 NBA Draft was traded for the proverbial “peanuts”, a top-42-protected second round pick that Utah had from the Memphis Grizzlies. The fact that the Jazz had to put that restriction on the asset the Warriors were getting back in return only shows that Bob Myers went out of his way to find a soft — er, enthusiastic? — landing spot for Paschall.
As we suspected, knowing two rookie contracts were coming in (the first thought was the two picks might be turned into one, due to the lodes depth chart, but a viable trade for this deep Draft never materialized), Paschall was expendable the moment the season ended when we threw up a potential 2021-22 depth chart on our Discord server.
That just shows the class Myers has with reuniting Paschall with his childhood friend and AAU teammate. NBA players and agents will take notice.
Some time between now and Vegas Summer League, I’ll throw up my last compilation video on the YouTube channel of all the Paschall Instagram stuff we came across, but here are some IG reactions the Warriors had on EP’s departure:
Stephen Curry: “Everything for a reason, my guy. Go do your thing.”
Damion Lee: “Gonna miss my dawg out there…jokes on jokes on jokes.”
Draymond Green: “Do exactly what you set out to do, killa.”
I asked the members of our Discord server (currently just $1/mo, will go up to $5 by the start of the season; join here) to post their favorite memories of EP, too:
Hugojimcam: Kelenna Azubuike saying, “Oh my, is he explosive!!” on the air after a layup.
Iksue: It has to be the first Chase Center win. If I recall correctly, he scored over 30 and it was also his birthday.
Hotsauce: EP made a very rough 2019-20 more fun to watch. Sure, we weren’t going to win those games without Steph or Klay Thompson, but watching EP on a nightly basis made it slightly more bearable.
Catherine (fan from Japan): When the Warriors changed their official Twitter account name to “Eric Paschall Fan Account” on Rising Star Day on Friday of 2019 All-Star Weekend.
Jonah: “Paschanimal” will be forever my favorite Dubs nickname.
Humbled1: 🦍 (anytime there was a Paschall post on IG, his teammates would comment that emoji).
As for me covering the team so closely, yeah, 🦍 on IG for sure! One thing I found was EP always kinda gave the same answer in interviews, like something to effect of, “Yeah, we gotta get better each and every day on (insert subject matter here)”, although he was always very approachable and candid with the questions, more than happy to go in-depth.
But probably my favorite memories were just seeing him walk down the street near Chase Center his rookie year after a practice or morning shootaround, as well as his effervescent personality in the locker room that year before the pandemic shut everybody out. He would be one of the louder (deep) voices and always joking about something with somebody, always with the exaggerated outraged expression. He’s going to be great with Mitchell in the same locker room, I have absolutely no doubt.
With COVID-19 protocols (Paschall experienced a false-positive which ruined his early momentum) and a particularly debilitating hip injury which kept him out way longer than expected, EP had a rough 2020-21 campaign which saw his stock plummet after a rookie year that saw his stock skyrocket. So it’s like he went back to being “just” a 41st pick all over again, although we in DubNation know what he can do. A few folks on our Discord rehashed what this past season was like from a fan’s perspective of EP:
Jatin: What's funny is that up until Jordan Poole went to G League last year, it looked like Paschall has solidified a role as small-ball 5. And now Poole has become a solid rotation player. How quickly things change in NBA.
Jonah: Paschall seemed to have hurt his hip, lost a little explosion and couldn't hit the jump shot. Idk, but I think the decline in free throw shooting and lack of threes made him seem less valuable. Poole clearly needed playing time. Time will tell what EP needed. Azubuike was saying that EP had lost elevation before the hip injury. Lots of dunks that bounce off the front of the rim, shots coming up short, etc.
If you do a Google search on “youtube letsgowarriors paschall hip”, there’s a ton of stuff and, magically, there’s even timestamps!
But we’re not here to end this on a somber note. Thanks EP, we hardly knew ya, and good luck in that title chase, i.e. see you in the WCF and can’t wait to chop it up in the bowels of Vivint Smart Home Arena!
/end
Sorry to see Paschall go. I don't think we've seen his ceiling, contrary to what some are saying. But I agree that he was not a great fit for how this team plays, and he seemed to squander the off-season after a great rookie year, which probably cost him his spot with the Ws. That's a shame.
I wish him well in Utah. Love to see him find his place, and with a good friend alongside. I appreciate that the Ws managed to get him to a place he wanted to go. Classy.
Circle of life in the NBA. Get shiny new draft picks and vets, no playing time for others. Paschall had to go or he would be sitting on the bench all year. Hope Paschall gets a chance to develop in Utah. Hard to make it in the NBA.