James Wiseman has yet to make his mark with the Golden State Warriors.
Instead of battling stalwart big man Kevon Looney for the starting spot at center this season, the former No. 2 overall pick of the draft has spent more time playing for G League Warriors than he has for the defending champions. Almost just as discouraging? Wiseman had finally been taking small, subtle strides toward meaningful improvement upon being recalled from Santa Cruz and getting minutes for the short-handed Warriors, progress marred by a foot sprain that will keep him out at least another week.
Despite mounting evidence that Wiseman lacks both superstar and even quality starter potential, though, Joe Lacob—to the surprise of no one in Dub Nation—still believes in the third-year center.
“There's always a timetable in sports, whether we like it or not. But Wiseman is 21 years old,” he said on The TK Show. “You have to put this in perspective. He's an immense talent, he's an incredibly hard worker, he really cares. These things matter. He's had a lot of really bad breaks, as we know…I do think he's very, very talented. He's also in an organization and on a team which is trying to win championships. It's different than if you're playing somewhere they're just throwing everybody out there, the young guys are putting up numbers and getting a lot of experience. It's hard for our young guys to do that here. And our coaching staff, our coach likes to play veterans. I don't blame him. He's trying to win; that's his job.”
Wiseman began 2022-23 as part of the Warriors' rotation, quickly being relegated to the bench amid their ugly start, driven by debilitating play from the bench on both sides of the ball. Golden State assigned Wiseman to the G League in mid-November, stressing that his best means of development was getting in-game experience, something highly unlikely to come with the healthy Warriors.
He averaged 7.4 points and 3.6 rebounds on 64.7% shooting over his next seven games after being called up from the G League on December 15th, but has missed the Dubs' last three matchups after spraining his left foot foot in practice. Golden State announced on Wednesday that Wiseman would be re-evaluated next week.
Lacob reiterated multiple times that the entire organization maintains belief in Wiseman's trajectory. He even addressed the elephant in the room that Wiseman is a personal favorite of ownership, staunchly pushing back on that broadly held assumption.
“I want to correct something for you and our fans: Our entire front office and head coach wanted to draft James Wiseman. We were universal in that regard,” Lacob told Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. “I know people like to make up stuff. We all loved him, and I think we still are all very high on him. The question will be what do we have to do with roster? How important is winning today versus two years from now? We have to balance all that, and we have to balance financials. I think there's a lot of ways this thing could go. But as of right now, I'm still very, very positive of the young man, and in fact all of our young players.”
Moving Wiseman at the trade deadline would go a long way toward easing the Warriors' pending-record payroll for next season, potentially bringing back a helpful role player in the process. Is such a dramatic move under serious consideration by Golden State? As much as he and the Warriors still like Wiseman, it's notable that Lacob left open that possibility.
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