Golden State Warriors: James Wiseman needs to sink or swim

Watching James Wiseman in his rookie season for the Golden State Warriors is like trying to stream a movie on the subway.  You want to watch it in its entirety.   Then you lose your signal and have to wait until the next time you are above ground.  Wiseman gets on the court and teases something special, and then sits for what seems like endless minutes.  It’s becoming commonplace to see Wiseman go 8-for-11 with only 14 minutes played.

The Golden State Warriors need to stop being cautious with James Wiseman. It’s time to throw him into the water and find out if he sinks or swims.

Let’s be frank.  This is not a championship year for the Warriors.  The only thing to be gained by simply making the playoffs is playoff experience.  Playoff experience is valuable but we have a core that’s been to the finals 5 times.  If I am prioritizing what I think is important, in game reps for possibly the future of the franchise is at the top of the list.

With fellow rookies Lamelo Ball and Anthony Edwards averaging close to 30 minutes, James Wiseman is averaging 10 minutes less per contest but not that far behind statistically.  Right now in this very moment, it is conceivable that we enter the draft with zero first-round draft picks.  How you might ask?  Well if we are the 8th seed and The Wolves get the ping pong balls to go their way then we get nothing but either a wasted year of Steph’s prime or a wasted year of Wiseman’s development depending on your perspective.

I for one would like to see an opportunity for Wiseman’s development to be accelerated with more playing time this season.  If he fouls out he fouls out.  If he makes some rookie mistakes that cost us games, so be it.  This is all ok for one simple reason.  Our core has championship experience and we are not a title contender.

Worst-case scenario

The worst-case scenario would be sitting Wiseman to win games in a meaningless season, and limp into the playoffs as the 8th seed.  Then get bounced in the first round.  Only to later see Minnesota end up with a top-three pick.  That means this year is a wasted season on two separate levels.  It’s a double edged sword, not developing Wiseman in a suspect year and wasting a year of Curry’s prime which everyone seems so concerned about.

Steph is younger than Lebron.  Lebron strong-armed Anthony Davis to L.A.  You know why?   Lebron is smart enough to know that bringing in a young cat to do the heavy lifting during the regular season frees himself to go off in the playoffs.  Curry and Draymond know thiis.   That’s why they are on Wiseman and Mannion so hard.

Best-case Scenario

Wiseman starts getting 30 minutes a game.  He gets yelled at by Steph and Draymond, but most likely just Dray for 20 of those minutes.  We end up 5 games under .500 and keep our pick.  Then Minnesota, which will still finish last in the league gets unlucky and ends up with the 4th pick.  At this point whether the Dubs end up with another pick or not they can swing for the fences and reach for a guy 2 years away from stardom like say Kuminga.   And then wait for Klay.

What’s important is keeping our pick.  At this point, we could easily end up with no picks in the upcoming draft.  Yep, you heard that right.  No picks. Zero, zilch, nada.  This would be incredibly damaging to any effort to retool.

Making the playoffs is a complete lose-lose situation.

I’ve always tried to understand why mediocre teams   Trade picks to “fight for a playoff birth” that, in my opinion, is not forward-thinking.  If you are mediocre you’re not going to win a chip.  If we keep our pick it guarantees we can add cheap young talent.  If lose our pick we have to depend on the ping pong balls to go our way with the Minny pick.

It would be more logical for them to knock the rust off of Wiseman and not have a pick.  Especially in a draft this deep.  I understand how competitive Dray, Steph and Kerr are, but Wiggins (when he’s in the mood), and Wiseman are the only truly explosive athletes that we have on the team.  We need more athleticism, which this year’s draft class has plenty of.

If we play Wiseman more minutes and in fact make the playoffs, then it’s worth it to not select in this year’s draft, because we have accelerated his development.  Every day Anthony Edwards looks more and more like he might break out.  We could easily be picking in the teens if we don’t get the Minnesota pick this year.  Especially if they get the top pick or a team above them passes on Cade  Cunningham.

Making the playoffs this season could easily end our opportunity to sustain excellence in the post-Steph era.  Remember in 2003 when Cleveland traded their first round pick to get rid of Ricky Davis?  They instantly became a lottery team with no lottery pick.  That move which could have potentially become Dwight Howard set them back years.

The move here should be to play Wiseman for extended minutes and live with the outcome.  If we fail to do so the basketball Gods will seek vengeance.