Wiseman combines mix of size and speed
One afternoon in October, Steve Kerr stood in a gym in Miami with Warriors GM Bob Myers and owner Joe Lacob. It was the offseason, but Kerr was in mid-season form as he instructed James Wiseman to perform a battery of drills: Dribble the ball up the floor, hand it off, pitch ahead, go into a drag screen, pick, pop, shoot. These are the typical drills a guard might do in a workout ahead of the NBA draft. But Wiseman’s not a guard. He’s a 7-foot tall center.
“When you see him in person, he’s huge,” said Andrew Moran, the Miami-based skills trainer who added Wiseman to a clientele that includes NBA guards Tim Hardaway Jr. and Tyler Herro. “But when you see the way he can move… I think his mobility really, really impressed them. He’s as mobile as a guard.”
For the Warriors, that workout changed everything. Prior to seeing Wiseman in Miami, Myers, Lacob and Kerr were unsure about what to make of him. In a month, the Warriors would be drafting a player with the No. 2 pick. But Wiseman had played in only three college games at Memphis before leaving the program last November because of a dispute over his eligibility.
Few have seen Wiseman play since then and, when he makes his NBA debut Tuesday against
the Brooklyn Nets, it will be his first game in 13 months. How Wiseman developed without the structure of college basketball was a mystery. The Warriors’ traveling party went to Miami to find out.
In February, Wiseman started training with Moran and working out at DBC Fitness, an elite gym where the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Donovan Mitchell and many other all-pro athletes work out in the offseason. Wiseman’s days consisted of detailed body work with David Alexander, founder of DBC, in the morning, and skills training with Moran in the afternoon.
When he first arrived at DBC, Wiseman underwent a full body evaluation by Alexander’s staff. It was decided he needed to improve his running mechanics in order to prevent the lowerbody injuries typically associated with big men. They focused on his hip mobility, footwork and change of direction.
After two months, Wiseman had gained seven pounds while trimming his overall body fat to 5%. “The right way,” Alexander shared on Instagram. “Without compromising his mechanics or causing extreme muscle imbalances.”
To improve the reaction time and stiffness that Wiseman had shown at Memphis — he struggled to defend ball-handlers on the perimeter — Alexander put him through agility drills he typically reserves for NFL cornerbacks. He incorporated cognitive training using flash reaction lights.
Standing in front of a half-dozen lights, Wiseman was tasked with tapping each one as it lit up while minimizing the amount of steps it took to get there. As his steps became more efficient, the faster the lights would blink. Eventually, Alexander instructed Wiseman to spin as he moved toward the outer-most lights to simulate what it would be like to get around screens set in the NBA and “so he can get to parts of the floor faster than his opponent,” he wrote on Instagram.
Wiseman tested this work in pick- up games against NBA guards John Wall, D’Angelo Russell and, one time, James Harden during Harden’s trip to South Beach.
“We did a lot of switching,” Wiseman said after the Warriors drafted him in November. “I felt comfortable guarding the guards.”
For six months, five days a week, Wiseman worked. When the draft was pushed back from October to November, Wiseman, Moran and Alexander worked a seventh month. Wiseman, 19, adjusted his diet and sleep patterns to reflect what took elder statesmen James and Wade years to learn.
When Wiseman first arrived at Moran’s gym, he was asked who he wanted to emulate. Wiseman didn’t hesitate before rattling off two transcendent 7-footers: Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant. So Moran developed a curriculum heavy on ball-handling and shooting drills, and would track his movements with cameras and keep notes.
At first, Moran said, Wiseman was a little awkward dribbling the ball in transition. But, by October, Wiseman was crossing over, jab-stepping and getting the better of Moran’s assistant Jorge Milo.
“He’s a special talent,” Moran said. “He was already special before he came to us, but I’ll tell you what, the kid works his butt off. The improvements that he made over those months with his shot, with his ball-handling, with his post game, it was fun for us to watch.”
All of this growth happened in the heat of Miami, behind closed doors. As the draft neared and Wiseman progressed, Moran and his staff swapped the rigid drills for freestyle workouts. Moran recalled watching Wiseman in October dribble the ball down the length of the floor, pitch the ball ahead, drag into a screen and drain a pick-andpop 3-pointer.
“We would kind of stand there and be like, ‘Wow this guy’s gotten so much better,’” Moran said. “You could see his improvement, and it was drastic.”
A few days later, Kerr, Myers and Lacob flew in for the much-anticipated workout. Because of the coronavirus, the workout was limited to one ball, one player and one trainer. It didn’t matter. As Kerr asked for one drill after another, Wiseman performed each with strength, athleticism and grace.
“Honestly, I think that’s what sold them,” Moran said. “I think they were a little unsure (before that workout).” Weeks later on Nov. 18, the Warriors selected Wiseman with the No. 2 pick.
“His size, athleticism, the skill. He’s the complete package,” Kerr said. “You just rarely see all that.”