Warriors center James Wiseman, the No. 2 pick in the 2020 lottery, has underperformed for Golden State this season. He has been sent to develop with the club’s NBAGL affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors.
“I have been through a lot of hard times,” Wiseman told Sean Deveney of Heavy.com. “I have seen the negative side of social media in terms of myself. I don’t entertain that stuff anymore because it is negative and it is all gossip. I just focus on my priorities, getting in the gym and get better, working on stuff so I can be ready for the games.”
Wiseman is currently averaging 6.8 PPG and 3.8 RPG in 13.4 MPG for Golden State.
“He has looked (like he’s) in over his head,” a Western Conference coach said of the big man. “You can’t have him on the floor with Draymond [Green] because [the Warriors] get real easy to guard with them together. And you can’t have him out there with a big role with the second unit because he is not good enough to carry that group.”
Deveney speculates about what the Warriors could look for were they to ultimately opt to shop Wiseman and his $9.6MM contract this season. As far as return pieces are concerned, Deveney floats names like Raptors guard Gary Trent Jr., Jazz swingman Malik Beasley and Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks, to help shore up the club’s bench depth, though it’s unclear whether all of those players would be available.
There’s more out of Golden State:
- The Warriors have had an uneven start to their championship defense so far this season, stumbling to a 7-9 record out of the gate. Tim Kawakami of The Athletic ranks a variety of approaches Golden State could try to improve, ranging from promoting Jordan Poole to the team’s starting shooting guard spot over Klay Thompson to offloading Wiseman for defensive help on the perimeter.
- Prior to a solid Friday night win over the Knicks, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (YouTube video link) stated that the Warriors were not planning to make significant personnel changes this early in their 2022/23 season. “Despite the fact that the Warriors are 12th in the West, they’re only four games out of first place,” Woj said. “I don’t think there’s a real fear that there’s a couple of elite teams that are just going to run away with this conference. That certainly buys the Warriors time, and I think they want to know are the problems they have… fixable internally?… They are not looking at potential dramatic upheaval.”
- The Warriors held a team meeting Friday ahead of their Knicks win in an effort to right the ship, reports Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “Draymond definitely held the floor,” Thompson said. “He’s such a great motivator. We all responded well.” JaMychal Green expounded on what was discussed: “We addressed a lot of things that needed to be addressed, and I think we are starting to get it together. We had that hard conversation that a lot of people don’t want to have, but we had that conversation, and it was much needed.” Green added that the team conversation “addressed the elephants in the room.”
Last night’s win still showed signs of problems. Too many fouling of opponent. Once Looney is off the floor there is no big man to block out the paint for rebounds. Making too many 3 point shots early in the clock. Leaving wide open 3 point shots in the corner.
There are big men, Kerr plays 3 guard lineups on purpose against bigger lineups, because he’s stupid and just hedges his bets Curry will bail him out and make him look better than he is.
He doesn’t have anything else to play. Wiseman was supposed to be the back up big man but he didn’t prove he could do it. He was lost on many rotations and switches. They have a spot that better go to a big man to help in the playoffs. They will not get by bigger teams this year in the playoffs.
Who cares if he was lost, you play him into form, he eventually will get it. Kerr was playing him only in short bursts with the second unit, but he needs to be in the first unit with more high IQ players.
Kuminga also has been given barely any playing time because moron Kerr keeps giving his minutes to Lamb, who plays zero defense. Kerr sucks because he plays Lamb over Kuminga and Moody, there’s no defending it at this point, he’s SUPPOSED to be letting Wiseman play bad.
SMH you have no clue how to coach.
All of those players except Brooks make 15M+ that is the problem for GSW the only salaries they have above minimums that can be aggregated are the youth all together for someone like Miles Turner, or Klay and Dray…
There just simply arent any players that are 1 for 1 cost wise with Wiseman that would make you give up on all his future for.
Far more likely they add a couple of vets at the deadline or buyout market. J Green is a min salary cut if he doesnt improve and they have a roster spot.
Most players they could acquire for Wiseman are like Plumlee who will probably be bought out anyways, and your not giving up Moody/Kuminga/Wise for Malik Beasley.
they should keep a eye on Cousins he could be a useful peice to back up Looney. He is a big guy in the middle to block out players for rebounds.
Trading Wiseman seems a little premature at this point. I think the Warriors would have to be overwhelmed by an offer for him, and that’s not seeming very likely this season
They have the answers right in front of them and of course have never played either of these lineups significantly:
Wiseman-Kuminga-Wiggins-Poole-Curry
Looney-Draymond-Klay-Moody with whoever the better match up is for the last spot (big/small/stretch wing etc). This lineup is defensively amazing and with Klay and Moody providing the offense will go through some growing pains due to Klay injury+Moody development, but that should be goals.
However, I do think we will see these eventually – Wiseman still -does- need development time. We all know he only played 3 college games and barely any NBA games. He just needs to play 35 mins a game for a month to figure out how to flow properly within units. Still so young with no miles on his odometer.
The closing lineups should be
Offense
Dray-Wiggins-Klay-Poole-Steph
Defense
Looney-Dray-Wiggins-Klay-Steph
Kerr has given the 2-way players Lamb+Jerome (combined) the 7th-most minutes on the team. Only the “big 6” play more minutes than the 2-way roster spots, that arent even supposed to be used for any reason on a contender. Insanity. Still makes no sense at all. Never will.
Lol thank you. I don’t know what Kerr be thinking like he’s trying to prove how smart he is or something. Playing the 2-way players over talented young players you draft seems so crazy to me. Even though I like what Lamb and Jerome do at times, but seeing how much time they play is mind boggling. I still believe it will all come together though.
I have no problem with GSW putting the foot down for 3 quarters and entering 4Q with a 20+ point lead, THEN you play Lamb and Jerome all you want unless they give up the game and you have to put the big guns back in.
The really mindblowing thing is how people are lauding how Lamb is playing, when he literally does not play defense at all. He’s a 6/10 offensive player, 1/10 passer and -800/10 defender. Sounds like a “blowouts only” type talent to me. Who cares if he can drain random 3’s, the other team seems to immediately start shooting like 90% when he sets foot on the court.
Lamb is -2.2 pts per 100 possessions he is on the court
Kuminga is -14
Jerome is -18
Wisemen is -23
Developing Kuminga and Wisemen for 35 min per game would mean a long losing streak for GSW
As opposed to the losing streaks they’ve been on? At least the fans get to watch NBA players, not g leaguers. Lamb and Jerome have done absolutely nothing defensively and looked totally lost at all times. They are not NBA players defensively, they are traffic cones.
Also “per” doesnt matter in this instance, its too small samples. Lamb also rides Curry’s coattails into a better looking +/- but when he’s out there without him, check out those numbers. There’s zero reason at all to give Moses Moody’s minutes away to 2way scrubs who refuse to play defense.
Wisemen and Kuminga are on a team with Championship/Playoff expectations so if you can’t contribute then you don’t play. If they were on Houston then they would be getting the minutes you suggest could help.
Ok but Lamb isn’t contributing, the team starting losing all these games the second he hit the rotation, but then yall keep looking at his individual performance and overate his random 3’s and undervalue the fact that he doesnt play defense at all at any point.
Wiseman and Kuminga are supposed to be “earning their lumps” and are 100% superior players to Lamb and Jerome, this is just awful front officing by GSW and Kerr being unable to create winning lineups and flat out lying about their intentions for them in the preseason.
GSW should be undefeated this season and they aren’t because Kerr is bad at his job.
Warriors rebuild too early and too much.
7 rookie contracts is just too much
Draymond leading the meeting:
“Ride Steph’s coattails like me or I’ll sucker punch you in the face”
Knicks just couldn’t make buckets. And it wasn’t the Warrior D. This is where Fournier and Grimes is suppose to help. Their team D is not there either. They are just out of sync. Jalen had a terrible gm. Mitch was going to be a big part of team this yr. But again he’s missing time. Thibs better hold it together.
Solutions:
1. Poole needs to play with his childlike joy again rather than worrying about stats or expectations. I want to see him cheer like crazy on the sidelines, high fiving everybody, and talking to his teammates constantly rather than looking distressed, afraid, and indifferent.
2. Green needs to play with his usual killerlike emotions and energy again rather than worrying about upsetting his teammates, coaches, and fans. He has had to be on his best behavior but it’s time to turn up a knotch. His stats all look solid but it’s not his usual elite defense.
Why would those other teams part with their important players?
Gary Trent for Wiseman.
Raptors would be stoked to have FVV Barnes Siakim and Wiseman.
Trade OG for a SG and they be set for a deep playoff run for a very long time.
Solution:
1. Insert Poole in the starting lineup. Gotta get him in a rhythm.
2. Rest Klay for 10 games if he pouts about commg off the bench. It’s not about Klay vs Poole, but what’s good for the team at the moment. Besides, Klay’s superb defense is much needed off the bench.
Or
3. Have Curry come off the bench. Curry is the mvp regardless and he will still easily score 30 points a game.
Solutions must come from within. No trades until 2nd half down the stretch.
It’s not Curry to the bench, its all of Looney, Dray and Klay to the bench.
Wiseman isn’t going anywhere this yr. Get a grip folks. He has to fail on the court. Not on the injured list or bench. He’s 21 yrs old. No baller fails at 21. Only way he gets moved now. Is for a player that gets Warriors back into a FEW finals. KD maybe ??
For once, I agree with you KnicksAl. The only player GSW is breaking up this “2 timelines” core up early over is KD.
No bench and can’t or wont play defense. Green has destroyed the morale of the dubs. Only a big trade can save the floundering golden state warriors season.
Well tonight showed that Klay Thompson is not the problem. They barely beat the team with the NBA’s worst record and Klay was on fire and practically did not miss. So all you Klay Thompson haters are wrong. It’s an overall team thing they need to get straightened out.