James Wiseman is thankful to be healthy and able to work on his game this offseason, Mike Curtis of the Detroit News writes.
The career of the former Warriors lottery pick has been marred by knee ailments. Wiseman is participating in the Pistons’ summer league.
“I’m just grateful to be healthy again,” he said. “Just to be out there playing and to be 100% and not worried about my knee or anything. Just out there playing and hooping and that’s what I like to do.”
Wiseman has gone through three-a-day workouts as he tries to build upon his improved play since joining the Pistons. He averaged 12.7 points and 8.1 rebounds in 25.1 minutes per games through 24 games with Detroit after being traded by Golden State.
“I’ve just been hooping,” Wiseman said. “Since I haven’t been able to play in a while, (the gym) is where I live at. I just work on all aspects of my game.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- After waiving Marko Simonovic, the Bulls still have some work to do, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago notes. They still must resolve Ayo Dosunmu‘s status after extending him a $5.2MM qualifying offer, making him a restricted free agent. The Bulls are perhaps trying to pursue a longer-term deal at a lower price, saving him as a potential sign-and-trade asset, or waiting to see if a suitor comes along with an offer sheet, Johnson writes.
- Bulls forward Justin Lewis has been full participant in summer league camp, Johnson tweets. He’s on track to play in the Las Vegas Summer League after overcoming an ACL tear, which he suffered last August. The former Marquette star, who went undrafted last year, rehabbed the knee at Chicago’s facilities after getting waived, then re-signed with the Bulls on a two-year, two-way deal in March.
- The Pacers made it clear they wouldn’t sign a restricted free agent to an offer sheet this offseason after giving Deandre Ayton a four-year, $133MM offer sheet a year ago, ESPN’s Zach Lowe said on his latest Lowe Post podcast. “Remember, they were the ‘Herb Simon doesn’t let us do offer sheets’ team,” Lowe said, referring to the Pacers’ team owner. “And he made an exception for Ayton and it got matched and it was a little bit of a mess. They sent around the league, like, ‘We’re not doing offer sheets.'”
Dosunmu takes good shots(needs to work on 3pt shot) has excellent size, and only 23. Someone should extend him a offer sheet
Wiseman still has plenty of upside. The best is yet to come ……
You have to feel a bit sorry for Wiseman. No college, Covid, knee injury, and a World Championship all conspired to not allow him to get the minutes to develop. But, he obviously has a great attitude. He will go on to have a great career.
He might put up great numbers. But hes got a long way to go to be a winning basketball player. His ceiling could be Joel embiid but his floor is kwame brown. He plays small. If he learns to stay big at all times and not ball his body up on dribble drives and learns to anchor himself to the floor so he doesn’t get pushed around he’ll have a chance but imo he’s the 3rd best young center on the pistons. Duran and Stewart are better basketball players
Stewart is really a 6’8 PF. He is not a center at all. He should be playing center in spot minutes. No way someone’s center should be 6’8 or shorter. Only 6’9 if your Lorenzo Williams. Wiseman is better than Duren. All Duren can do is rebound. He’s young and has good potential. He shouldn’t be starting at 18 and 19. Wiseman needs minutes. Kerr did his damage to him. Duren should be playing PF at maybe 6’10. Give him the green light to shoot.
Bam Adebayo is judging you silently for the Lorenzo Williams crack. As is Kevon Looney. And Robert Williams, who is 6’8″.
Stewart should be a PF, you’re right, but he needs to lose some weight and work on his shooting. He tends to get torched on the perimeter right now; he’s really not agile enough to play PF full time. Kind of a tweener at the moment. When he plays Center his defense is better because he can play more in drop coverage to mask his lack of lateral quickness, but as a PF he tends to get dragged out to the perimeter and gets exposed. Even his midrange and rim defense dropped off last season because of it.
And sure, play Duren at PF when he doesn’t have a 3pt shot at all, doesn’t even have a long midrange game, and does his best on defense at the rim. He’s a Center. Undersized? Maybe, but I don’t think he really is. The guy is 250 lbs. He can just outmuscle most guys at the rim, but he’s also quick enough to be effective in the pick-and-roll and he’s already an average post player at 19. Maybe give him an actual chance before declaring he’s not fit to play Center.
Bam can judge. I was going to say his name with Robert Williams. Funny you said it. Bam was watching derrick white rebound and win the game. He doesn’t block shots and is 6’8. He can be a all star PF. Heat need a defensive C. Sign back up Hassan Whiteside. Tell UD to back out of retirement and come back one more year. You can teach Duren to shoot. You mostly agree with me it looks like. We need to get the game back to were it has been. I believe the league is at a low point in talent really. Defense, coaches, dribbling, pride in Olympics, plays and much more. Passion to get paid. Silver got to go
Duran and Stewart probably stay indeed, but either Wiseman or Bagley should get traded.
A month ago the article below mentioned six destinations: Wizards, Nets, Kings, Lakers, Pelicans or Mavericks.
Situation has changed now off course.
At 12 million Wiseman seems too expensive for Lakers and Mavericks after their recent moves.
Wizards makes the most sense to me. He could get a lot of playing time there, although he is on an expiring contract and only a trade for Shamet could make sense, as Pistons wouldnt be interested in another center in Gafford and Shamet is also a pseudo-expiring contract. I think Wizards should propose that trade plus some minor assets or maybe outgoing cash.
At 2 years of 12.5 million each, Bagley’s contract seems even worse than Wiseman for a contender or someone close to luxury tax. Dont see him getting moved soon, unless they attach some assets or take on an unwanted contract.
Maybe a multi-team trade could occur where they take on a 25 million contract and send out both Wiseman and Bagley? For the right assets, why not?
link to pistonpowered.com
I wasn’t expecting my it to get worse…
Kerr did some damage to Wiseman. I am rooting for you. I like Lewis too. Should lose 15 pounds and play SF. I hope both these guys heel all the way fast
Ayoooo
So what exactly happened to the Pacers with Ayton? All he did was sign somewhere else no? I don’t get the big deal
No the pacers signed him to an offer sheet that was matched by the Suns. So they did all the work to negotiate a contract to just have the restricted FA’s contract matched by the suns.
So essentially they don’t want to do that dance again.
I’m guessing Lowe might also have been referring to:
– The Pacers had to waive-and-stretch three small salaries to make room for Ayton’s offer sheet, resulting in $1.8MM per year dead money across three seasons.
– There may have been some smoothing over necessary with Myles Turner after trying a guy who likely would’ve ended up being his replacement.
Can they not do the offer sheet first and then only make room if it’s signed and not matched?
That does seem like a flaw in the process, since with normal free agents teams can get a written commitment before clearing cap space.
@reflect Because the offer sheet is a formal transaction (like a free agent deal being officially signed would be), the space needs to be available.
There IS a rule saying that if a team renounces its free agent (Bird, etc.) rights to a player in order to sign an offer sheet and it gets matched, the team is allowed to get those free agent rights back. But the team wouldn’t be allowed a do-over on players it waived.
Phoenix made it clear that they intended to match any offer sheet for Ayton. The Pacers called their bluff, and lost when they matched it. Pacers knew the rules of the game, and the risk involved. Any negative impact is on them. The gamble failed.
@Very Barry Of course, I don’t disagree. Just explaining why the Pacers may not be enthusiastic to go through the offer sheet process again.
Pacers dodged a bullet. Thanks Phoenix.
That they did.
It amazes me with all the smart basketball people in NBA front offices, that these absurd contracts still get signed that are clearly doomed from the start. Ayton, Westbrook, Ben Simmons, Jordan Poole, etc…
Boston is about 2 weeks away from making the same mistake with Jaylen Brown.
Celtics aren’t in the Central Division.