SAN FRANCISCO — Twenty-six hours after Cooper Flagg was selected as the first pick of the 2025 NBA draft, the Golden State Warriors finally participated in the process.

On the eve of the second round, Golden State traded the No. 41 pick to Phoenix for No. 52 and 59 picks, later moving up from 59 to No. 56.

With the No. 52 pick, the Warriors selected forward Alex Toohey out of Australia.

Toohey is a 21-year-old forward who averaged 10.5 points and 3.9 rebounds per game for the Sydney Kings in the National Basketball League. He is 6-foot-8 and 223 pounds, and made 26 of 86 3-point field goals.

“A tough, smart and energetic forward,” ESPN’s Jonathan Givony said on the network’s broadcast. “A great feel for the game and gets in the passing lanes, and gives you a little bit of everything on both ends of the floor.”

With the No. 56 pick, the Warriors picked up Will Richard, a 6-4 guard who played for the University of Florida. The 22-year-old combo guard averaged 13 points per game and shot 36% from 3-point distance for the national champions. He scored 18 points and made all four of his 3-pointers in Florida’s come-from-behind victory over Houston in the final.

“He’s a versatile shooter, a catch-and-shoot guy, but also a really good straight-line driver and an excellent finisher around the rim who shot about 70% at the rim,” analyst Jay Bilas said on the ESPN broadcast.

The Warriors are hoping to find second-round gold for the third consecutive season.

Last year, they picked big man Quinten Post with the 52nd pick, and saw him develop into a rotation big who shot 40.8% from 3-point range and averaged 8.1 points per game.

In 2023, the Warriors nabbed Trayce Jackson-Davis, who has started games for the Bay Area franchise during his first two seasons.

Now Toohey will join a team that went 48-34 and rocketed up the Western Conference standings once Jimmy Butler joined a team featuring future Hall of Famers Steph Curry and Draymond Green.

Golden State took out the Rockets in seven games, and then lost to Minnesota in five after Curry suffered a hamstring injury in Game 1.

Toohey adds a cheap contract to a team that has $139.6 million devoted to just their top three players.

With the salary cap set at $154 million and Jonathan Kuminga’s contract situation still up in the air, the team will need to make shrewd moves to stay out of the luxury tax and the dreaded financial aprons.

Stanford’s Raynaud goes to Kings

The wait for Maxime Raynaud came to an end a dozen selections into the second night of the NBA draft.

The Sacramento Kings took the 7-foot-1 center from Stanford with the 42nd overall pick of the draft, making Raynaud the first Cardinal men’s basketball player to hear his name called since Ziaire Williams went 10th overall to the New Orleans Pelicans in 2021.

Raynaud, 22, averaged 20.2 points and 10.6 rebounds per game as a senior for the Cardinal while earning first-team all-ACC honors.

He was ranked as the 26th-best player in the class by ESPN, which considered him the best player still available when the second round began. According to many experts, Raynaud was expected to go off the board Wednesday, during the draft’s first round.

Born in Paris, Raynaud moved to the United States after high school to pursue basketball and didn’t begin to blossom until the second half of his four years at Stanford. After the school hired Kevin Smith to lead the program following his sophomore year, Raynaud considered transferring, but he stuck around and became a permanent fixture for the Cardinal, starting 33 of a possible 37 games over his final two seasons while being named the Pac-12’s most improved player as a junior.

Only Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 overall pick from Duke, earned more votes for the all-conference team than Raynaud this past season.

Before arriving at Stanford, Raynaud played for Espoirs Nanterre, where he was a teammate of Victor Wembanyama, the first overall pick in 2023, and has also twice won international medals with the French national team. He was considered a strong possibility for the Celtics, who held the second pick of the second round (No. 32 overall), but they instead opted for another Frechman, 6-foot-7 forward Noah Penda, whom they subsequently flipped to Orlando.

In Sacramento, Raynaud joins a frontcourt headlined by Domantas Sabonis and will have to compete for playing time with Keegan Murray, Jonas Valanciunas and Trey Lyles. He will become the fourth Cardinal player to play for the Kings, joining Rich Kelley (1985-86), Mike Bratz (1985-86) and KZ Okpala (2022-23).