Warriors play it safe this time.

Byline: Tim Kawakami

OAKLAND _ I know what the Warriors were doing during Wednesday's draft, and under almost any other circumstance, I would agree with it.

Not now, though. At a moment when they needed (for once!) to display guts and semi-genius, when they had to shock us all back awake with something at least moderately mind-blowing, in a draft that begged for wild-hare imagination, the Warriors played it safe and sane with their three selections.

And safe-and-sane logic isn't going to get this wrecked train back rolling again. Nothing short of taking a flamethrower to most of the roster, I'm afraid, is going to mean much. The Warriors, sitting with the fifth, 14th and 30th picks, could have tried to light the flame.

Instead, they basically kept the status quo: Larry Hughes to …