Wiseman’s development should be slow, steady
It’s halfway through this NBA season, and there seems to be more questions than answers in regards to James Wiseman. The Warriors’ prized center’s rookie season has largely been defined by flashes of potential, frustrating growing pains and, Thursday night, a disciplinary benching. Despite these ups and downs, the Warriors understand that it is rare that a rookie contributes to winning, and they have publicly preached patience.
Yet there is a cohort of Warriors fans who tune into League Pass and see what LaMelo Ball — the probable Rookie of the Year — is doing as a point guard in Charlotte and apply those same expectations to Wiseman, who Golden State drafted with the pick before Ball went No. 2 to the Hornets in November. For many reasons, those expectations are unfair. Primarily, Ball plays for a team without lofty goals and at a position where he can control more of what goes on around him. Wiseman isn’t afforded the same opportunity to play through mistakes. And though this is something that will slow his development, it shouldn’t stop Wiseman from reaching his potential.
The Warriors themselves may have succumbed to expecting too much, too soon from the 19-year-old who, since his senior year of high school in 2019, has played in 30 organized basketball games. Last week, head coach Steve Kerr seemed adamant to rush Wiseman into more minutes.
“Where we are right now, he needs to play more,” Kerr said. “There’s no doubt we’ve got to develop him. And I would say over the last couple of weeks, he has not played as much as he will.”
But since returning from the All-Star break, Kerr seemed to make an about-face in his approach. Now, the coaching staff will focus on “comprehensive development” through more “live action” in practices as opposed to prioritizing raw playing time. Because he missed a practice after failing to complete a coronavirus test over the All-Star break, Wiseman was punished by being benched for the first three quarters in Thursday’s loss to the Clippers. That decision by Kerr signaled the importance of these practices.
“Whatever we can do to help advance him so that he can catch up to his talent as quickly as possible, we’re going to do,” Kerr said. “But we’re also well aware that you can’t just wave a magic wand. There’s a lot of work involved, and we’re going to work with him and help him grow.”
A steady approach is the right approach when it comes to Wiseman’s development. The Warriors have failed to nurture much young talent over the years, but doing right by Wiseman could extend the team’s success over the next decade.
The steepest part of Wiseman’s learning curve is on defense, where he is adapting to recognize opposing offenses, communicate with teammates and the physicality of opposing NBA players. Perhaps because of his size, at 7-foot-1 with a 7-foot-6 wingspan, he still has a slightly positive impact on that side of the court. However, he and the Warriors acknowledge there is much room for improvement. Every other day, Wiseman and Kerr get together to talk about his development.
“I ask him questions about, ‘How can I get better each day, and how can I improve?’” Wiseman said. “And he gives me a lot of details on how I can improve on both ends of the floor, especially on defense.”
Offensively is where Wiseman has had the hardest time adjusting. In high school and in his three games at Memphis, it was the Wiseman show. Every possession seemingly ended with finding Wiseman in the paint. However, that’s not how it works in Golden State, where the offense revolves around Stephen Curry and Draymond Green and Wiseman has the ball in his hands less. Playing alongside the starters does not suit Wiseman’s strengths. He struggles to find opportunities in Kerr’s read-and-react offense that does not implement a heavy dose of pick-and-roll. His boxscore stats are admirable: 11.9 points on 52% shooting (39.3% from 3-point range) and 6.0 rebounds per game. But, according to Cleaning the Glass, Wiseman’s offensive rating of 102.4 points per 100 possessions would rank last among NBA teams by a wide margin.
To make things easier, the Warriors will have Wiseman anchor a reserve unit to start the second and fourth quarters. His running mates will be Nico Mannion and Jordan Poole, young guards who will facilitate the pickand-roll and benefit from having the large, athletic Wiseman as an outlet diving to the rim or spacing the floor from beyond the arc.
“This is something a lot of the guards, especially now in the NBA, that’s 50% of what the NBA runs just high pick-and-roll,” Mannion said. “So, me getting better at that, getting better with James now in a second unit with him is really big.”
Over the next couple of weeks the Warriors will see if Mannion and Poole can handle this responsibility or if they need to acquire a more experienced point guard before the March 25 deadline.
This is where Wiseman should play the rest of the season. The Warriors do not want to fall into a habit of toggling between him starting and coming off the bench and varying degrees of expectations. Instead, they should let him settle into a role. Yes, the Warriors need Wiseman to develop chemistry with their cornerstone starters, but there’s something to be said for simply allowing Wiseman to learn the NBA game first, so as to ease the jelling process with his high-profile teammates later.
Warriors fans shouldn’t dwell on the fact that the Warriors passed on Ball or any other rookie. It’s not as if Wiseman is lagging far behind his draft class. Among rookies in per-game stats, Wiseman is fifth in points (11.9), tied for first in rebounds (6.0) and third in blocked shots (1.0) while being 15th in minutes (20.5).
Look at drafts in the past, and big men tend to take longer to blossom. For example in 2017, Lonzo Ball, De’Aaron Fox and Donovan Mitchell all made an immediate impact for their respective teams while Bam Adebayo played minimal minutes off the bench in Miami. Four years later, it can be argued that he’s as good as anyone in his class outside of Jayson Tatum.
For the Warriors, the No. 2 pick in November was always supposed to be a luxury — a reward for a freak accident of a season that saw Curry and Klay Thompson injured and the team stumble to 15 wins. It’s time to remember that, and stop acting like Wiseman’s immediate contributions are necessary. If the Warriors rely on him for that, they are much further away from returning to title contention than anyone thought.