Lost amid James Wiseman's G-League assignment is what the former No. 2 overall pick's stay in Santa Cruz actually means for the Golden State Warriors this season.
Draymond Green and Kevon Looney split all available minutes at center once Golden State returned from its winless five-game road trip, with Steve Kerr even starting Jordan Poole for Looney in the second half of his team's win over the Sacramento Kings on November 7th. That changed in the Warriors' blowout victory over the San Antonio Spurs, a likely reflection of playing on the second leg of a back-to-back more than any indication of additional rotation changes to come.
Or so we thought.
JaMychal Green took full advantage of his opportunity on Monday, entering alongside Moses Moody in the first quarter as Golden State's first players off the bench with Klay Thompson resting. The veteran big finished with nine points, five rebounds, two assists and two blocks, playing all 16 of his minutes at center after beginning the season as the Warriors' backup power forward.
Like Wiseman and Moody, he too had fallen out of the rotation in wake of Golden State's 0-5 trip back east. Not anymore.
Before announcing Wiseman would spend “an extended period” with the Santa Cruz Warriors, Kerr revealed that Green would be back in the nightly lineup going forward—even admitting that benching him was a mistake.
“I think JaMychal…I need to play him. I didn't do him any favors at all, obviously the last three or four games not playing him at all,” he said. “I don't feel I've put JaMychal in a position to succeed in the early going. Tonight he was much more comfortable playing the five instead of the four. I thought he was excellent. He's a vet, he's a pro, he knows what he's doing. He's gotta be part of the rotation for sure.”
Green signed a minimum deal with Golden State on August 1st after being bought out by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Eyebrows raised on opening night when his first minutes with the Warriors came in a shooting-challenged lineup with Wiseman and Jonathan Kuminga. Green, after all, shot an uncharacteristic 26.6% from deep with the Denver Nuggets last season, and most of his on-court value with Golden State figured to come in the form of skill and athletic advantages he held over opposing centers.
It's not like the Warriors had much playing time available for a traditional backup five coming into 2022-23 anyway. The assumption here was always that Green would emerge as Golden State's best option behind Draymond and Looney, switching across multiple positions on one end and providing some semblance of spacing on the other while doing the nuanced two-way grunt work that Wiseman's been all too slow to grasp.
After much trial and error, Golden State has finally gotten there. Don't be surprised if the Warriors' much-maligned bench units immediately improve as a result.
“JaMychal at the four with Loon, with James, there's just not quite enough space. We're trying to sort of fill in the blanks and figure out which combinations make the most sense,” Kerr said. “But I've come to realize that JaMychal needs to be a 5, and put shooting around him.”
The first real test of that theory will come on Wednesday, when Golden State faces off with the Phoenix Suns in the desert.
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