Wiseman has been Warriors’ bright spot
The Warriors could have used two more Wisemans in their Christmas loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Without Klay Thompson for the season and without Draymond Green for the first two games of the new campaign, the Warriors have been looking for a No. 2 option to Stephen Curry.
They might have found it in the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
And while that’s a compliment to the Warriors’ rookie, it’s not a good thing for the Dubs overall.
The Warriors’ start to this season has been concerning, even to folks with gold-tinted glasses. Golden State still fancied themselves contenders, even without Thompson. But against arguably the two best teams in the Eastern Confer
ence, they have lost by 26 and 39 points in the first two games of the season.
Yes, it’s early, but does that strike you as something a contender would do?
I f the Warriors are going to reach that level of relevance this season, they have much longer to go than anyone — even the most ardent Dubs pessimist — initially thought.
Of course, things will change for the better when Green’s defensive genius and offensive playmaking ability enters the fold for the Warriors in the coming days. Why? Because they must.
But will Green unlock Andrew Wiggins, who looks uncomfortable playing on Curry’s wing? (That’s kind of an important role.)
Will he help Kelly Oubre — the Warriors’ only other viable two-way starter — make an open outside shot while also helping him avoid tying to take mid-range shots over three defenders?
The Warriors can hope, and there will be some natural regression to the mean (which is a good thing for Golden State), but that’s still a big ask.
And the longer these struggles go on — the more the Warriors look disjointed at best and feeble at their worst — the greater the impetus will be for Golden State to go with what is working.
And that’s Wiseman. The big man out of Memphis was one of the few bright spots for the Warriors in their seasonopening blowout loss to the Nets on Tuesday. Actually, you could make the argument he was the only bright spot.
The same argument could probably be made for Friday’s game, too.
His performance in his second NBA game wasn’t perfect, but it was impressive: 18 points, eight rebounds, three blocks, and three made 3-pointers on four attempts.
The 19-year- old is playing like he doesn’t know he’s supposed to be struggling against these pros. He’s not polished — no, he’s far from that — but his athletic ability has stood up to any player on the court in his first two games, despite going up against Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Giannis Antetokounmpo. He looks the part and isn’t afraid to fail in the venture to make things happen.
The Warriors also keep calling Wiseman a sponge. They say the kid — born in 2001, in case you wanted to feel old today — wants to be coached. There’s credence to that not being lip service — there were game situations he didn’t recognize in his debut that he was able to spot in game No. 2, including a defensive possession where he made a great block from the weak side.
But the Warriors need to start soaking up more of what he’s providing them.
There’s already been some adaptation from Warriors head coach Steve Kerr — Golden State ran far more pick-and-roll with Wiseman and Curry on Friday than they did in Game 1. And those plays created, far and away, the team’s best offensive looks.
But those kinds of direct plays, where three wings hang around on the outside, are borderline antithetical to the way the Warriors want to play, where four guys are in constant motion around the ball.
It’s just two games, so it’d be ridiculous to abandon the ideal just yet — especially without Green in the mix — but if Wiggins and Oubre, the team’s first two choices to be the secondary offensive option behind Curry, don’t start showing progress in those offensive sets, the Warriors might have to change up those ideals to better fit the one guy who seems like he’s up for the gig:
The kid.