Kurtenbach
riors on the court since last season: Without
Steph Curry, they’re arguably the worst team in the NBA. And that includes every minute of rest he receives in games.
Golden State is in noman’s land — sub-.500, hanging onto the final play-in spot in the Western Conference. So when the Warriors make their choice following Tuesday night’s game against Milwaukee, which leads them into their last two-day break until the final week of the season, there are serious consequences. There could be a ripple effect that lasts years.
But there’s no wrong choice to make — so long as they make a firm decision.
If the organization decides it wants to go all-in on Wiseman, that’s fine. But that means Steve Kerr needs to stop playing veteran role players like Kent Bazemore, and start playing Wiseman more than the 18 minutes he played against Atlanta on Sunday.
Against the Hawks, you could see the team’s priorities change in real time. One minute they were all about development, then they were about winning the game, then development again. Of course the kid’s head is spinning — everyone’s head is spinning.
The offensive system likely needs to be simplified a bit, too. More of that pick-and-roll action we saw against the Bulls, less of the Princeton offense that is proving to be well above the heads of everyone but Curry and Draymond Green.
Spending the remainder of the season working with Wiseman, giving him the run he needs, might result in the Warriors missing the playoffs, but it could go a long way for Golden State next season. An end- of-season run, paired with Summer League and a full training
camp might get Wiseman to the point where he’s no longer a liability to Golden State’s efforts to win. The same logic can be applied to the Warriors’ other young guns, Nico Mannion and Jordan Poole.
The consistent, steady run could also ignite Wiseman’s motor, which has been lacking in recent games.
Plus, a soft tank would likely result in another lottery pick for the Dubs. Perhaps the ping-pong balls bless them twice — once with their own pick, once with Minnesota’s (which they receive if it’s not top-three) on lottery night.
And if the Warriors decide that they have more to offer than ping-pong balls and G League-style player development — if they want to see how far Curry and Green can take them in a Western Conference that is still wide open — that’s fine, too.
But that means putting Wiseman on the bench to start the game and keeping him there for all but a few minutes of the contest.
Since Wiseman has moved back into the Warriors’ starting lineup on March 22, he has posted an offensive rating of 99.7 and a defensive rating of 119.3. You can do the math — that’s an egregiously bad net rating.
And in the three games that Curry has started over that stretch, Wiseman is the only Warriors rotation player who has produced a negative net rating while on the court
with No. 30.
Defensively, the pairing of Curry and Wiseman is fine. Not as good as the Curry-Kevon Looney pairing, but good nevertheless with a 99.2 defensive rating in 55 minutes going into Tuesday’s game.
But Wiseman’s presence on the court grinds the Warriors’ offense to a halt. Yes, someone found a way to stop Steph.
With the young big on the floor with the Baby Faced Assassin, the Warriors score 0.95 points per possession. For comparison, playing Looney with Curry instead of Wiseman nets the Warriors 1.43 points per possession.
Of course, it makes sense that it’s not working. Wiseman is a square peg in the round hole that is the Warriors’ motion offense. He can do so many things well, but the thing that the Warriors demand from their center in their offensive system — passing — is beyond him at the moment. But because the Warriors are spoon-feeding touches to him, the collective — including Curry — must suffer.
If the Dubs want to be anything more than a play-in tournament loser, they have to do what
Kerr did in Atlanta — play Wiseman less when the game is winnable.
So what’s it going to be?
A gain, there’s no single right answer. But to keep doing what they have been doing would be the wrong one.