By all accounts, the Golden State Warriors are a dynasty. Across the past eight NBA seasons, they’ve appeared in six NBA Finals, and have won four of them. Led by Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and at times Kevin Durant, the Ws were the team of the late 2010s and now early 2020s.
As they’ve aged, the Warriors have tried to validate their “light years ahead” mentality by mixing their veteran core with younger prospects, with the hopes of having a two-timeline approach to team construction. Their highest selection, James Wiseman, was just traded to the Detroit Pistons in a four-team deal, even though the team was in on other centers.
He was the 2nd overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, despite NCAA bylaws getting in the way of him playing more than three games in his freshman season. He was a monster in high school, ranking as the top recruit in RSCI in the whole 2019 class. With those massive expectations coming out of high school and college, the narrative around Wiseman
Why the Warriors were right to give up on Wiseman:
When the Warriors drafted James Wiseman, they had just suffered a nightmare season right after Kevin Durant’s departure from the Nets. Stephen Curry broke his hand and missed the majority of the season, while D’Angelo Russell, meant as a recoup free agent, didn’t fit well enough with Golden State and found himself shipped off to Minnesota for Andrew Wiggins.
As a rookie, Wiseman was somewhat productive but didn’t totally fit into the Warriors’ scheme. As a big designed to play in the drop on defense and as a pick’n’roll rim runner on offense, Wiseman didn’t fit into the switchy scheme on D and the ball movement scheme on O.
Wiseman had some bright moments, including a few standout scoring performances where his length, mobility, and touch were on full display:
Unfortunately, Wiseman wasn’t able to consistently contribute on the glass or on defense, leading to a streak of DNPs before an unfortunate meniscus injury ended his season prematurely. After missing the entire championship 2021-2022 season, Wiseman suffered some nagging injuries and similar development setbacks as his rookie year.
With the Warriors wanting to maximize their championship window and duck under the tax, they had to make a trade at the deadline. All of Jonathan Kuminga, Patrick Baldwin Jr., and Moses Moody showed enough flashes to keep them from being traded.
Instead, Wiseman was the odd prospect out, given he had the largest rookie…
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