JULY 5: The Pacers have officially signed Wiseman, according to the NBA’s transaction log.
The fact that the deal is official during the July moratorium is confirmation that it’s a minimum-salary contract. It’s partially guaranteed in year one, with a second-year team option, tweets Tony East of SI.com.
JULY 2: Former No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman is headed to Indiana, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that the Pacers and the free agent center have reached an agreement on a two-year deal.
Wiseman, 23, was selected by the Warriors one pick after Anthony Edwards and one pick before LaMelo Ball in the 2020 draft. However, he struggled to find his fit on Golden State’s veteran roster, then missed his entire 2021/22 second season due to a knee injury, which slowed his development.
The big man was traded to Detroit midway through his third season in 2023 and has spent the last season-and-a-half with the Pistons. In 2023/24, he appeared in 63 games (six starts), averaging 7.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks in 17.3 minutes per night.
When Wiseman failed to meet the “starter criteria” entering his free agency, the value of his qualifying offer dropped from $15.8MM to about $7.7MM, but the Pistons still opted against tendering him a QO. That gave him the ability to sign with any team as an unrestricted free agent.
Wiseman will join a Pacers team coming off a trip to the Eastern Conference finals. He figures to slot in behind starting center Myles Turner and backup Isaiah Jackson on the depth chart this fall, vying with Jackson for rotation minutes and giving Indiana some additional depth at the five following the departure of Jalen Smith to Chicago.
While Wojnarowski’s report doesn’t provide any details on Wiseman’s salary, a minimum deal seems likely, given the Pacers’ proximity to the luxury tax. Indiana technically has the mid-level and bi-annual exception available, but using the full BAE or a chunk of the MLE would push team salary over the tax line and could create a hard cap at the first apron.
Great just great …. I still believe in Wiseman.
Thibs what happened ??????
Pacers have lots of young talent.
he cost too much
Minimum ….
Yeah I like Wiseman too just too, young and raw when the Warriors tried him out. To be honest, Wiseman did not get tons of opportunities back then plus he got hurt…
He is not ready
that is why Knicks did not want him
We gotta stop with the “this guy is young and didn’t get his opportunity! He still has potential!” nonsense that gets said about every player under 25. He didn’t get opportunities because he couldn’t earn them. He barely squeezed 17 minutes out of the worst roster in the sport. Please use your brains.
How is it nonsense? Do you really know more than NBA coaches? He logged over a 1,000 minutes. I think that is a bit more than 17.
17 a game bud. You knew that and feigned ignorance because you don’t have an actual point.
Do you know how many minutes are in an NBA game? 17 a night is pretty good for someone 3rd on the depth chart.
17 minutes a night on the team that set the all time record for consecutive losses…
Brilliant.
You gotta pick 29 minutes and extrapolate it out bro.
Worst roster ????
He never played on Wizards ????
Get that bone out your ear lol.
He played 60 gms in 3yrs for Warriors. Wasn’t coached at all. They needed a miracle so they drafted a guy who never played a gm in college ok (3 gms).
I’d say the Warriors are idiots …. Clearly yrs away 3-5. With coaching.
Yet he somehow managed
11.5 pts, 6 reb, 1 blk, 55% (2pt)
His first yr in 21.4 mins. A guy who never played college ball.
Then his second yr after being hurt. He’s expected to win a chip for them.
He still managed …. 20 gms.
12.5 mins, 630% FG, 7 pts, 4 reb.
Then they give him away. And Monty can’t coach him. Can’t coach anyone.
Inn Detroit he puts up ……. 24 gms
25.2 mins, 13 pts, 8 rebs, 540% FG
Then following yr gets jerked around by Monty. He plays ……… 63 gms
17.5 mins, 7.1 pts, 5.3 rebs, 613% FG
All this while being miss used and abused. His numbers are better than Mitch and IHart while not used right or coached. At 23 yrs old. He’s got plenty time to develop. Only if some team would actually help him. Go look at all centers and see what they did by 23 yrs old. And who coached them up.
Like I said. I wish Thibs would have took him under his wing. I see a player with positional size. Who can be better than Mitch ……..
IHart career stats — 26 yrs old
322 gms, 18 mins, 6 pts, 5.6 reb, .596% FG
Wiseman career stats — 23 yrs old
147 gms. 19 mins, 9.1 pts, 5.6 reb, ,560% FG
Well look at that. See what REAL coaching can do …….
Can you extrapolate those 17 minutes into 36 per game stats? Thanks in advance.
Just double the stats and it’s a little over that…lol
This is one the Knicks should’ve seriously considered since they are strapped. I’m guessing they’re held up from doing anything due to the Bridges deal as they are still working that out.
I am a big fan of Wiseman and still think Warriors mismanaged him. I also don’t think Pistons did much better with the clown show that went down there the last few years.
I won’t write off a 23 year old big man, as they’re usually the slowest players to develop. I’m not saying he’ll be Embiid or Joker but he will be a solid big man in time under the right team. I did like him for NY though I think they missed a good choice here but they need a walk on starter, not many options left now though.
Although I like Jackson Wiseman is gonna be the backup center IMO.
Why? Dude has no idea how to play the 5. He plays like he believes he is KD, which he is most assuredly not.
That would be stupid because Isaiah has the potential to be better than Turner
I actually like the fit for him. Not many better potential situations for him around him there, so if he gets opportunities in certain matchups, and it doesn’t work, he’s going to be playing in Lebanon like Hassan Whiteside
I disagree, playing on a contender when he is trying to find his way adds too much outside noise to a sensitive era of his career. He was a nice fit on the Pistons. I also liked him on the Spurs, due to coach Pop probably knowing how to use him better than anyone else. Pacers are in win-now mode, his role will be important.
He had EVERY opportunity to show ANYTHING with the Pistons, and had he even been remotely average he’d have gotten the QO. Fact is that Wiseman was AWFUL with the Pistons, much like with the Warriors, and is closer to Bust than he is “journeymen big man”
One night, Wiseman had 20 points and 17 rebounds. That is hardly awful.
If a 1 game sample size is the best evidence of a player not being terrible, then they’re probably terrible, lol. He had 11 games where he scored double-digit points and 8 where he had double-digit rebounds. Only in about a third of his games was he not a net negative for the team. More than that, every time he got into a game, he looked so lost. Unless plays are run specifically for him, he seems to have no instincts on either end.
If Wiseman is so terrible, then why did Indiana sign him? There are plenty of other big men out that they could have signed to fill the very same role. The Pacers went to the ECF; they must know what they are doing.
Must they? No, not really. It’s a bet on upside, which Wiseman does have, but *right now* he is not an NBA caliber player. Maybe he can become that behind Turner instead of being asked to adapt to an atypical system in GS and playing on one of the worst teams in history in Detroit. It’s also a minimum deal and likely not guaranteed.
I didn’t say he is a finished product. Indiana could have drafted, or signed, well over a dozen different 7 footers to fill the same role Wiseman will be asked do. They obviously feel pretty good about what he could bring to the Pacers.
He was so bad that even you only wanted to bring him back on a two way contract, lol. Bottom line is that he has fallen so much in value for #2 pick. Minimum is terrible. And he will always have that available as long as he stays healthy and has good attitude.
Wiseman needs more time to play. A 2-way contract allows him to play in the GLeague. As he develops, the contract can be converted to a full contract. Through the draft, or free agency, Indiana could have gone after a dozen more players that would suit their needs. And Wiseman can’t rely on a good attitude to keep him in the NBA.
Lmao Harrison Barnes had a 40 point game last season. Best trade chip in the league!
Barnes is not a Center has been in NBA a decade. How is that relevant?
Its about as relevant as your one cherry picked game stats for Wiseman. Kind of the whole point. Nothing goes over your head!
Do you have a 29 minute sample size on Barnes?
Malachi Flynn scored 50+ one night. In other words that means nothing.
His coach in Detroit was disinterested and the trickle down effect was evident. Can’t recall when the last time the warriors developed a legitimate big man so I can’t speak to that,perhaps my good friend Ion can enlighten us. Indiana seems like a nice fit for a still young Wiseman.
Duren is pretty good center!
People don’t realize how little opportunity Wiseman has had to play. He had no college ball, COVID, and knee injury limited what he could do. That’s 150 games over 5 years. Jokic had 3 years of professional/international hoops before he suited for the Nuggets. By year two of this contract, he could very well be a force in the NBA.
It all depends if he has a hungry heart. He’s just another athletic 2nd rounder at this poimt.
Do you really believe that the High School hoops game is the same as the NBA? High Schoolers have the same skill level as NBA players with 10 years of experience.
he’s had plenty opportunity with DET, the worst team in the NBA and he couldn’t demonstrate that he deserved more than garbage time in con-competitive games. Myers whiffed on Wiseman big time.
Huh? It has always been the case that, even with college experience, it takes big men 3 years to develop. Wiseman has only played 2.
bottom line is Warriors should never have drafted him with 2nd pick. In fact, nobody should have drafted him in the first round. It’s so painful when Warriors could have drafted Edwards, Ball, Halliburton, Maxey, and so many more. SO PAINFUL!
Jesus Christ dude you really can’t come to terms with the Warriors drafting a g leaguer at 2. The levels of copium spewing out of you in this comment section is wild.
Where he was drafted is irrelevant. People who know more than you and I say it takes 3 years to develop Centers. The Nuggets didn’t bring Jokic over until he played his 3rd season in Serbia. Wiseman has barely played 2. Plenty of time for him to improve.
I will at least concede that some people know more than you. Final offer.
Lol right
Such an odd player. Has there been a 23 year old top 10 Draft pick with less actual college+pro games played than Wiseman at this point? He played 3 games in college. He came to the NBA more raw than anyone. Why did GSW draft a project during Curry’s prime I will never know.
If he actually can stay on the court he might get good, but his trajectory for that puts him becoming a decent player at around age 29 at this point.
The answer is quite obvious. Basketball is a team game. One player can’t carry a whole team. They need teammates. When Klay tore his Achilles, the writing on the wall was pretty clear. They needed to get younger and start a rebuild. Big men take longer to develop. So, drafting him made perfect sense. By the time Curry is ready to retire, Wiseman would be a star.
Rick Barry says hold my beer. Iverson almost gave you a beer
I still don’t understand why they didn’t trade that pick, but GS winning in 2022 renders my query moot.
The championship in 2022 doesn’t make your question moot. They drafted a player who not only was very raw but who did not fit with their style of play. It was a bad evaluation of him and maybe their team as well. Keep in mind that Anthony Edwards has said the Warriors didn’t like his workout for them and they told him afterwards that they would not draft him. So they had at least two guys (Wisemen and I assume Ball) rated above Ant.
It doesn’t really matter if the didn’t like Ant or not since they didn’t have the opportunity to draft him. I really didn’t see them trading up for N0.1 regardless of who they liked. Ball seemed like the safer bet, but was a guard. I think they drafted for need rather than best player. No one had Haliburton or Maxey going that high and again, they weren’t bigs. He was who everyone thought was the best big available at that point, but clearly he wasn’t
Minnesota was willing to trade as Warriors had draft assets. Additionally, Myers has said that they rated Haliburton highly. Bottom line is Warriors just screwed up not only the draft but their 2 time line strategy. It really messed them up as they were overthinking with everything.
Yeah, that was the point of my comment about Ant. They were not going to trade up the 1 spot to pick him. And despite rumors at the time that they would trade down to the Bulls spot to take Halliburton, they obviously were too sold on Wiseman to do that.
Don’t think he’ll ever be the star he was tabbed to be but considering they took Jalen Smith from a serious liability to quality role player the could definitely turn Wiseman’s career around
Jalen Smith was a good player coming out of his draft…he just wasn’t used right/at all in Phoenix. This is a different skillset
Nice pick up for indy.
Another weapon for a bench already established as the best in the nba
Myles is entering last yr of his deal, wonder what pacers will do
As a Pistons fan I don’t know what other Pistons fans had against him. He is a young hungry player. There’s a reason he was drafted second overall. Before anyone mentions the whole Darko thing.. big difference between that draft class and his. I have no idea what Joe Dumars was thinking. Everyone was expecting Melo.. here’s the thing with guy’s the Pistons cut ties with. They come back to haunt them. To name a couple Kris Middleton and Spencer Dinwiddie. Go do your thing James Wiseman!
He will be very good someday, but probably not this year. I was excited when the pistons picked him up. But I also support not bringing him back. I’m hoping the pistons bring in a vet center to help instill a defensive structure. Their bigs looked lost all season.
Dunleavy should have brought him back at that price
I look at Wiseman. I see a more athletic Mitch. Has more offense than Mitch. Is longer than Mitch. So why couldn’t you get him to play D and rebound like Mitch. I think a guy like Thibs could really help him. 23 yrs old. And has been discarded by two teams now.
link to basketball-reference.com
Look at his career numbers. For a guy who hasn’t played. Hasn’t learned. He puts up 10 n 6 in a terrible 17 mins a game. Imagine if you really coached him. He’s easily a double double machine. But you have to coach his D. Play him a yr in G-league and coach him. So he can help your team. Has to accept role as rim protector. His offense will always be there.
I feel like he’s more of an Andre Drummond. Can grab all the rebounds in the world and has the athleticism to do most physical parts of the job well, but his game sense is lacking and he’ll make dumb plays. Drummond was an All-Star at his peak, though, so it could happen for Wiseman as well.
That’s coaching. No reason in the world why he can’t be better than Mitch.
Stats like those can be deceiving. I avoided watching Piston games last year but I suspect a lot of his numbers were in garbage time against undersized backups and 2-way guys.
The Warriors didn’t want to trade Wiseman. The Warriors had to do something. Their 2nd unit in ’23 was atrocious. It was costing them a lot of games. They were trying to defend their Finals victory. That is why they brought in GPII to stabilize the unit. Wiseman was the odd man out. If they hadn’t of won in ’22, he in all likelihood would still be with the team.
This will be a make good in training camp contract. The potential is there with the athleticism so they insisted on him signing for two years but he’ll probably get cut before the season starts.
It’s between the ears with this guy not his body or athleticism. He’s strong enough quick enough fast enough and hustles enough but he just doesn’t understand the game and where to be and when to be there.
There’s plenty of opportunities as a professional basketball player elsewhere but the NBA is a tough gig. If you don’t have it you don’t have it.
Tell me how many 19 yr olds are ready to affect winning. Then tell me how many who don’t get coached are ready. It may be his head. Then why aren’t they fixing it. Pistons aren’t a team to base his desire or progress on. Considering the failure of their coach. What like 140 mill to go away.
Clearly sending a message to Turner…
Please don’t get hurt, Myles.
Wiseman is probably going down as the worst Warriors pick along with Chris Washburn. Wiseman pick set a panic in the whole organization and his pick was the end of the dynasty. We just didnt know back then but the front office and Lacob just havent been the same since. JB Carroll was another infamous pick in Warriors history.
In 7 seasons as a Warrior JBC averaged 20 pts and 8 rebounds.
How about Robert Parish and Kevin McHale?
Some just don’t know when to shut up. Amazing really.
“Wiseman pick set a panic in the whole organization and his pick was the end of the dynasty.”
The won a championship AFTER they drafted him. You are making no sense.
The HEAT were able to coax a career out of a slow, lazy arse Whiteside ….. Wiseman can also be saved with the proper team.
Unfortunately, he picked the wrong team ….. Carlisle isn’t one to develop young players.
While maybe true in Dallas he’s actually done better at it since returning to Indy.
Wiseman is a good gamble for the Pacers. Pacers are risking almost nothing. Team option for Wiseman’s second season.