1987–88 Golden State Warriors season

The 1987–88 Golden State Warriors season was the 42nd season for the Golden State Warriors in the National Basketball Association, and their 25th season in the San Francisco Bay Area.^[1] The Warriors had the 14th overall pick in the 1987 NBA draft, and selected power forward Tellis Frank out of Western Kentucky University.^[2][3][4] During the off-season, former Milwaukee Bucks coach Don Nelson became the team's new General Manager.

The Warriors made two separate trades with the Houston Rockets; before the regular season began in early November, the team traded Purvis Short to the Rockets in exchange for Dave Feitl,^[5][6] then in December, traded All-Star center Joe Barry Carroll, and All-Star guard Sleepy Floyd in exchange for All-Star center Ralph Sampson, and Steve Harris.^[7][8][9] In November, the team signed free agent and rookie point guard Winston Garland,^[10] then in December, traded second-year center Chris Washburn to the Atlanta Hawks,^[11][12] acquired second-year guard Otis Smith from the Denver Nuggets,^[13] and signed Dave Hoppen in January.

The Warriors struggled losing 18 of their first 21 games of the regular season, which included a seven-game losing streak in November, and later on held a 10–32 record at the All-Star break.^[14] The team posted an eight-game losing streak between February and March; after holding a 16–48 record as of March 20, 1988, George Karl resigned as head coach and was replaced with assistant coach Ed Gregory as an interim coach. The Warriors posted another seven-game losing streak between March and April, and finished in fifth place in the Pacific Division with a 20–62 record.^[15]

Chris Mullin averaged 20.2 points, 4.8 assists and 1.9 steals per game, while Rod Higgins averaged 15.5 points per game, and Sampson provided the team with 15.4 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game in 29 games after the trade. In addition, Smith provided with 13.1 points and 1.5 steals per game in 57 games, while Terry Teagle contributed 12.6 points per game, but only played just 47 games due to injury, Garland averaged 12.4 points, 6.4 assists and 1.7 steals per game, and Harris contributed 10.3 points per game in 44 games. Meanwhile, Frank averaged 8.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, Ben McDonald averaged 7.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, Feitl provided with 6.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game, Larry Smith contributed 6.4 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, but only appeared in just 20 games due to injury, Hoppen averaged 5.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, and Jerome Whitehead provided with 5.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.^[16] Garland also finished tied in second place in Rookie of the Year voting, behind Mark Jackson of the New York Knicks.^[17][18]

The Warriors finished 19th in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 440,294 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena during the regular season, which was the fifth-lowest in the league.^[16][19] Following the season, Feitl was traded to the Washington Bullets,^[20][21] while Hoppen was left unprotected in the 1988 NBA expansion draft, where he was selected by the Charlotte Hornets expansion team,^[22][23][24] and Harris was released to free agency.