Knee injury may shelve Wiseman for rest of season
In the latest setback of what has become a season of disappointments, Warriors center James Wiseman learned Sunday that he has a meniscal injury in his right knee.
According to a league source, the injury is believed to be a torn meniscus. Golden State has yet to determine how much time Wiseman will miss. It’s possible that the injury, which typically requires a recovery of four to six weeks, could be seasonending. There are five weeks left in the regular season.
At 2528, Golden State is one game up on New Orleans for 10th place in the Western Conference standings. The league’s
new postseason format features a playin tournament in which the seventh through 10thplace teams in each conference vie for the seventh and eighth seeds.
Sunday’s news is devastating for Wiseman, regardless of whether he returns for a potential playoff push. After threeplus months defined by injuries, coronavirusrelated absences and changes to his development plan, Wiseman had started to thrive as Golden State’s starting center in recent days, following up Tuesday’s 13point, 10rebound effort against the Bucks with Friday’s 18point, sixrebound gem against the Wizards.
His injury came early in the second quarter of Saturday’s win over the Rockets, when he landed awkwardly after Houston forward Kenyon Martin Jr. blocked his dunk attempt. An MRI exam revealed the injury’s severity.
Without Wiseman, the Warriors’ only true center is Kevon Looney. Forwards Juan ToscanoAnderson and Draymond Green, both 6foot6, can fill in at center when necessary. Forward Eric Paschall, whose best minutes this season have come as a smallball center, will miss at least four more games with a strained hip flexor.
As much as the Warriors would like to make the playoffs, they’re more concerned about Wiseman’s development. A string of setbacks has made it impossible for him to find much of a rhythm this season. After playing only 69 minutes in three games as a freshman at the University of Memphis before leaving school, Wiseman had no summer league and a truncated training camp because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A positive coronavirus test forced him to miss all three of the Warriors’ preseason exhibitions. Though he returned for the regularseason opener and was thrust into the starting lineup, he struggled with the speed of the NBA and the complexity of head coach Steve Kerr’s readandreact system. In late January, a few days after being replaced in the first unit by Looney, Wiseman suffered a wrist injury that sidelined him for nearly a month.
By the time Wiseman — the second overall pick in November’s NBA draft — missed three games early last month because of coronavirus contact tracing, he knew that some Warriors fans were dismissing him as a bust. The player taken one spot after him, Hornets guard LaMelo Ball, became a national sensation before suffering a potentially seasonending wrist injury three weeks ago.
At 7feet, 244 pounds, with a 7foot6 wingspan, huge vertical leap and diligent approach, Wieman boasts the tools to become a perennial AllStar. His occasional fastbreak dunks or rundown blocks reinforce as much.
But he is not close to being a consistently dominant force, which left Kerr with a tricky question: Should he let Wiseman play through mistakes at the risk of hurting the Warriors’ playoff chances, or would the rookie be better off easing into a heavy workload?
Kerr waffled at times before finally anointing Wiseman the permanent starter two weeks ago. If his season is in fact done, it will be remembered for his frustration whenever he missed a defensive rotation or made the wrong offensive read.
Though Wiseman ranks third among rookies in rebounding (5.8 boards per game), fourth in shooting percentage (51.9) and blocks (0.9 per game) and fifth in scoring (11.5 points per game), the Warriors did not play as well when he was on the court. According to NBA.com, Golden State has outscored opponents by 2.6 points per 100 possessions with Wiseman on the bench — a stark contrast to being outscored by 8.8 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor.
In the days leading up to Saturday’s injury, Kerr tinkered with his offense, introducing more pickandrolls to capitalize on Wiseman’s strengths as a rimrunner and lob threat. The change worked. No longer worried about making complex reads, he played with a renewed confidence.
Kerr’s staff would hate to not be able to build off that progress. Few within the organization would argue with the fact that, for the Warriors to have a shot at a title with a healthy Klay Thompson next season, they need Wiseman to be a key factor.
If he is shut down for the season, Golden State can find some solace knowing that at least it wouldn’t have to balance a winnow mentality with the desire to groom its prized 20yearold. It could go allin on chasing a playoff berth while Wiseman tries to get healthy in time to have a normal offseason regimen.
That would hardly be what the Warriors had envisioned for Wiseman’s maiden NBA season. But then again, little has to this point.