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On James Wiseman's new timeline

The prospect will head to the G League to get reps while the Warriors try to back toward the top of the standings.

Nov 15

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Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Odysseus and Polyphemus, Arnold Bocklin, 1896

The basic facts of James Wiseman’s NBA career to date are pretty indisputable.

As a raw rookie in 2020-21 with zero college experience due to a NCAA suspension over money, the Warriors performed poorly when Wiseman was on the court. That season, Golden State was -183 in Wiseman’s 836 minutes and +259 in the 2,625 minutes Wiseman didn’t play. The team was 11-16 in games Wiseman started and 28-17 in games he didn’t. Toward the end of the season, Wiseman suffered a torn meniscus. The Warriors went on a 14-5 run to get into the play-in, where they lost.

Wiseman didn’t play at all for the Warriors in 2021-22 while rehabilitating the knee. (He spent a bit of time in the G League to prepare for his NBA return, but the return didn’t end up happening.) The Warriors won the championship.

Wiseman returned this season. He started the season in the rotation behind Kevon Looney. It has not gone well. Nothing about the Warriors’ bench has really gone well. Golden State is -73 in Wiseman’s 147 minutes this season and +75 in the 530 minutes without him. He recently fell out of the rotation, logging three DNP-CDs before getting some garbage time on Monday in the Warriors’ rout of the Spurs. Since Wiseman exited the proper rotation, the Warriors are 3-1 after starting the season 3-7.

Wiseman isn’t the reason the Warriors were merely average in 2020-21, or the reason the Warriors started 3-7. But he’s a reason. What many smart observers (including critical fans) believed to be true back in 2020-21 is now plainly obvious: running two parallel franchises, one focused on maximizing Stephen Curry to contend for championships now and one focused on developing young prospects to have another contender in the wings in a few years, is extremely difficult to the point of potentially being impossible.

That Wiseman is not NBA-ready is a contributing factor, and perhaps the primary factor, to that reality. Plenty of young players are ready to contribute to a good NBA team at age 21. Wiseman, for example, is the same age as Evan Mobley. Swap Mobley for Wiseman and reconsider the Two Timelines approach. It probably works … because Mobley can contribute to a good team right now. (Evidence: the Cavaliers last season and the Cavaliers this season.) Mobley is an outlier, sure.

What about Isaiah Stewart, like Wiseman born in 2001? Replace Wiseman with Stewart and the Two Timelines paradigm looks more plausible, albeit with a lower potential future upside. The central issue here is that the hype on Wiseman is enormous and the production of Wiseman is abysmal. (A secondary issue is just how great Steph is. Where this a franchise centered around a superstar one tier lower, the team’s current upside would be much lower and there would be less pressure to perform well now.)

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Wiseman has been completely unproductive in the NBA. Because of that, every minute allotted to him in service of turning him into a very good 25-year-old player in the 2026 season is a minute not invested in ensuring that the Warriors are in the best position possible to contend in 2023. What’s worse is that there’s absolutely no guarantee Wiseman will pay out in 2026, or ever. Sometimes this happens with high draft picks. They can’t all be Stephs and Klays. Sometimes they are Todd Fullers and Patrick O’Bryants.

The Warriors seem to have come to terms with this, albeit after a tough offseason in which the front office — perhaps at the financial direction of ownership — divested in useful veteran roleplayers, leaving only the prospects (Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody) and minimum-deal pickups for the supporting cast. On Monday, after the game, Steve Kerr announced that Wiseman would be assigned to the G League to get in reps.

The groundwork appeared to have been laid as Wiseman said all the right things about not viewing it as a demotion, and with G League alum Jordan Poole noting how good time in Santa Cruz worked out for him. And frankly, this is what the G League is for. The Warriors probably should have had Wiseman in Santa Cruz in his rookie season when it became clear he wasn’t a Day 1 contributor. But teams don’t really put very high lottery picks in the G League until it’s done by necessity, as is the case here.

Kerr said this is about getting Wiseman court time so he can continue to improve and contribute to the Warriors now. I halfway buy it. I think this is also about rehabilitating whatever value Wiseman has so that the Warriors have options at the trade deadline to get a piece that can help Steph and the crew bounce back to where they were last season. Wiseman’s value has never been lower. It’s clear that NBA minutes will only continue to degrade that value. So you’re left with continuing the investment for future years with minutes and soon enough extension money, or recognizing the loss and seeing what you can get for him. If the latter approach is on the table, it’s time to start gassing up Wiseman. You can’t do that against NBA competition. You hope it happens in the G League. If not, Wiseman might just float off to wherever Alen Smailagic ended up.

For Wiseman, though, this is another shot to save his NBA career. A second contract isn’t guaranteed to anyone, not even a 7-foot No. 2 pick. He has to prove he is worth the investment — whether to the Warriors or another team. And he has to do it by actually producing on a basketball court, something he hasn’t really done since high school. He can still get this right, and I’m pulling for him to figure out what needs to happen to get there.

Keep in mind, too, that simply excising Wiseman from the rotation doesn’t necessarily fix the Warriors’ lack of productive reserves. Moving Wiseman out doesn’t magically bring Otto Porter or Gary Payton II back, or solve Klay Thompson’s two-way unevenness. There’s still a lot of work to do to get the Warriors back to where they believe they belong, even with Curry playing as well as ever. And the issue of Draymond Green’s contract looms. Temporarily removing Wiseman from the table clears up the puzzle a little bit, but it’s still a good mess.

Scores

Raptors 115, Pistons 111 — The curse of Dwane Casey is lifted! Toronto beat Casey’s Detroit team for the first time since he arrived. Toronto-born Dalano Banton puts up 27 in a spot start. And OG Anunoby detonates for what feels like the 15th straight game:

NBA on ESPN @ESPNNBA

OG ANUNOBY 😳

Hornets 112, Magic 105

Thunder 122, Celtics 126 — 37 in the loss for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. OKC is way better than it has business being.

Tatum got called for one of the worst technical fouls I’ve ever seen: for clapping once and cursing himself after getting called for a whistle on Alexsej Pokusevski.

Hoops @HoopMixOnly

Jayson Tatum got a tech for this…

Kevin Durant had a take.

Kevin Durant @KDTrey5

Jayson tatum just received the worst tech I’ve seen in the nba in a while. I’m actually laughing

This might be the funniest Kornet Contest yet. Like, is everyone on the Boston coaching staff OK with this? Is Luke Kornet’s pastor OK with this?

kr @kellesgoated

lu dort buries the 3 over the tough contest by luke kornet

Suns 112, Heat 113 — Highly entertaining finish to this game capped by a tremendous defensive sequence by Jimmy Butler.

Clippers 122, Rockets 106 — Ivica Zubac has one of the most thankless jobs in the NBA, and he’s good at that job. But sometimes he gets cranked on and it can be quite a sight.

Houston Rockets @HoustonRockets

OH MY GOODNESS KJ MARTIN 😮 watch. your. head.

Hawks 121, Bucks 106 — Great win for Atlanta: balanced scoring effort with four Hawks getting at least 14 shots up, 23 team assists to just nine total turnovers, held Milwaukee in check on the other end. I think this team is pretty good, even though the Bucks aren’t playing with a full deck right now.

Spurs 95, Warriors 132 — Finally, a light and airy win for the champs. Jordan Poole, hello.

Schedule

Five-game Tuesday. All times Eastern.

Grizzlies at Pelicans, 7:30, TNT
Clippers at Mavericks, 8:30
Knicks at Jazz, 9
Spurs at Blazers, 10
Nets at Kings, 10, TNT

Links

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