Wiseman's present, future with Warriors up in the air
The Warriors have a 7-foot dilemma on their hands.
They want James Wiseman to be a foundational piece for their future, but he's far from where he needs to be for them to count on him. He needs reps, but the Warriors aren't in a position to let him — or their other young players — play through mistakes.
Wiseman, 21, is buried on the depth chart and sitting on the Warriors' bench rather than getting the playing time in Santa Cruz that would allow him to develop. Meanwhile, he's among the Warriors' biggest trade assets, despite the difficult start to his career, as the NBA's Feb. 9 trade deadline approaches.
Wiseman came into training camp beaming with excitement, hungry to finally get back on the court and take the next step of his career after missing all of last season with a lingering knee injury. But this season has provided a rude awakening.
By mid-November, it became clear that Wiseman required more time in the G League. He needed additional experience and individual attention from the coaching staff after injuries and setbacks derailed his last three seasons, going back even to his lone year at Memphis.
He played 10 games with the G League, averaging 18.8 points and 10.6 rebounds in 27.6 minutes. He showed signs of progress when he returned to the NBA, emerging as a bright spot in an otherwise ugly blowout loss in Brooklyn on Dec. 21. Wiseman scored 30 points on 12-of-14 shooting in 28 minutes against the Nets and appeared to have a better sense of court awareness.
But then trouble struck again about a week after that promising showing in New York when he rolled his ankle during a 3-on-3
drill at practice. He then missed a total of 11 games before being cleared last week.
Although cleared, Wiseman has found himself as the odd man out of the rotation in the last three games. The Warriors have repeatedly said he needs live reps — Wiseman has a scant 58 NBA games under his belt — but he's not getting them right now.
Before this road trip, the Warriors shuttled Moses Moody, Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Ryan Rollins down to the G League for a pair of games, but kept Wiseman with the NBA team. Coach Steve Kerr didn't rule out the possibility of sending Wiseman to Santa Cruz in the future.
Part of the problem for Wiseman is that the Warriors have started games smaller, with Jordan Poole replacing Kevon Looney in the opening lineup. Kerr said he made the move to stagger Draymond Green's playing time with Looney's, but a byproduct of the decision to start small has pushed Wiseman down even further on the depth chart.
That leaves Wiseman behind the two Warriors veterans as well as JaMychal
Green, a 32-year-old NBA journeyman who signed as a free agent last summer.
“You just do the math,” Kerr said after the Warriors beat the Grizzlies Jan. 25. “It's hard to get four centers into a game, especially in 2023.”
It's not exactly how anyone thought this season would pan out for Wiseman, who has fallen short of what the Warriors had hoped they would get out of him in Year 3.
Give Wiseman some credit, though. He's a hard worker and self-aware enough to acknowledge he has a lot of room for growth in his game.
“All the stuff I've been through has been out of my control, so it's really just trying to just work hard, do what I got to do to get better every day,” Wiseman recently said. “That's really all I can control — my attitude, putting in the work.”
In the meantime, Wiseman has done his best to block out the noise, and Kerr has tried to keep Wiseman's spirits high. He recently pointed to Jonathan Kuminga as an example of how quickly a player's usage can change. Kuminga was out of the rotation
early in the season but has now earned himself a spot in it.
Wiseman said he planned to focus on the little things the Warriors need from him to get himself on the floor, from solid screen setting to rim protection. But watching games and spending hours studying film will only get him so far.
Only live game experience will help him take that next step in improving his feel for the game.
If the Warriors are not going to afford him an opportunity to play, then they should find him somewhere he can — whether that be in Santa Cruz or with another team before the trade deadline.
The Warriors don't have a tradeable first-round pick before 2026 nor do they have many moveable pieces they're willing to part with. That's why a trade for anyone would most likely need to include Wiseman, though his value has tanked in recent years.
While Golden State's front office has maintained hope for Wiseman's future with the franchise, he'd likely be one of the first pieces to be packaged up if there was a chance to make a roster upgrade.