Second-round draft pick Alex Toohey is confident he’s an ideal match for the Golden State Warriors – even though he has yet to officially sign with the team. The 6’8″ forward from Australia was taken with the No. 52 pick in this year’s NBA Draft.
Toohey pointed to some historical ties between the Warriors and Australian basketball. Former No. 1 pick Andrew Bogut spent part of his NBA career with Golden State, while Luc Longley played for the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s when current Warriors coach Steve Kerr was also on that roster.
Both Bogut and Longley are now part-owners of the Sydney Kings, the team Toohey has played for in Australia’s NBL over the past two seasons.
“The list of teams that were interested in me, I think I got the best of the lot,” Toohey told Olgun Uluc of ESPN. “Obviously [there’s] the Australian connection there, and the way they play, it’s something I think I’ve learned a lot before even knowing I’m going to be a Warrior: learning how they play, studying their schemes, their offenses and defenses.”
The rookie believes he can make an impact right away, but first the Warriors need to decide how to add him – whether to the standard 15-man roster or a two-way contract.
He’s one of the few second-rounders from this draft still unsigned, a delay tied to Golden State’s unresolved situation with restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga. The team has been reluctant to commit roster spots or trigger salary cap restrictions until it knows the outcome of the Kuminga negotiations.
Toohey got his first taste of NBA competition in last month’s Summer League, where he played in six games, averaging 6.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in 21.6 minutes per game, though he shot just 26.2% from the field.
“It was tough,” Toohey admitted. “The athleticism is obviously another level, and the pace of the game. Especially the Warriors; we had one of the highest-paced offenses. And it felt like that. We’d be pretty gassed after a few minutes of getting up and down. We felt that wore teams down, and that put us in some games we maybe shouldn’t have been in. That’s definitely one part of it.
“Then, figuring out that: I got drafted for a reason. They obviously see things in me, and believe in me, so it’s just finding that internal confidence and being able to make a play in transition, or make a three when it comes your way.”
Rookie Alex Toohey Believes He's Perfectly Suited For Warriors https://t.co/Fvvwdde3lB pic.twitter.com/4dJDE3dxOW
— Hoops Rumors (@HoopsRumors) August 13, 2025
