Golden State Warriors: Can James Wiseman become DeAndre Ayton?

DeAndre Ayton’s alley-oop dunk may have stolen the show in Phoenix’s Game 2 win over the Clippers, but in reality, it was just part of a magnificent four-quarter performance from the former first overall pick. One in which James Wiseman of the Golden State Warriors should be studying.

Ayton finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds on a very efficient 12-for-15 shooting.

Now imagine adding that to a line-up of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green.

The Warriors aren’t going to acquire Ayton anytime soon, however, they may have their own version of Ayton with perhaps even greater upside.

The Golden State Warriors should be looking for James Wiseman to emulate the success DeAndre Ayton has had in Phoenix.

Although James Wiseman‘s rookie season was plagued with inconsistency, he did show signs of extraordinary talent that may one day make him the cornerstone piece of a playoff team.

At different times Wiseman showed an ability to push and handle the ball in transition, as well as shoot the ball from three-point range. Neither are skills currently part of Ayton’s repertoire nor does he have the height, wingspan or arguably the athleticism of Wiseman.

But with an MVP caliber player in Curry, and former All-Stars in Green and Thompson, the Warriors don’t need Wiseman to be the main man. Although it’s an added bonus, he doesn’t need to handle the ball, shoot a heap of threes, or attack in one-on-one, iso situations.

What they need is exactly what Ayton is providing for the Suns in these playoffs, a big man who does the basic things at an elite level. A guy who runs the floor, is a pick ‘n’ roll threat, can punish mismatches down low and perhaps most importantly, will rebound and defend on the interior to a high level.

Wiseman has all the physical traits to be able to do this from next season. For him, it’s all about the mental side of the game. He still needs to develop the basketball IQ that allows him to know where to position himself to box out and rebound, to contest shots at a high level without fouling. He needs to find better shot selection, to understand that next to Curry, Thompson and Wiggins, he may go half a dozen possessions without getting a shot up.

His traditional splits per 36 minutes from his rookie season are very similar to Ayton’s this season. The glaring points however are field goal percentage (52% compared to Ayton’s 63%), personal fouls (5.2 compared to 3.3) and turnovers (2.6 compared to 1.8). These things matter and ultimately resulted in Wiseman’s +- being -7.9 compared to Ayton’s +4.7.

Wiseman can be the man on a very good team one day, but the Warriors will hope that’s in 4-5+ years when the older core are in or very close to retirement. For now, he should look no further than Ayton to see how he can contribute to a team with stars in the backcourt. If he can get anywhere near Ayton’s level, there’s a high chance the Warriors do get back to championship contention.