James Wiseman’s development will make or break the Golden State Warriors
It has been a talking point since he was ruled out for the remainder of his rookie season but James Wiseman will need to show us his worth as a sophomore. He was a deer in headlights being thrown into a highly critical role from day one with minimum experience due to his brief days in college and a restricted offseason due to COVID.
Unfortunately, Wiseman wasn’t even granted an opportunity to compete in the Las Vegas Summer League as a result of his knee injury. Yes, it’s hard to find a top-three NBA Draft talent who has had this little exposure to basketball heading into his second season.
And yet, Wiseman is entering his sophomore season with high expectations. We’ve been comparing him to Deandre Ayton all summer and while no one is predicting Wiseman will check all of the boxes next year — we are hoping to see some notable development.
This will be difficult for Wiseman as again, he hasn’t exactly had much of a chance to improve over the summer. However, I’d argue most of his problems last year came from decision-making and not raw talent. If he’s been paying attention and soaking up as much information as possible while being around the team for a full year then we should see him hit the ground running.
Whenever Wiseman makes his return, we can assume some additional growing pains will follow. Soon, though, Wiseman should be in a position to hit his stride and become the rim-runner Golden State always believed he could be.
The other outcome? Well, it would be difficult to see the Warriors hit their ceiling next season if Wiseman isn’t able to play more of a role than he did last year. It’s not that he’ll be holding them back — but his potential to elevate the team is something that can’t be overlooked. It would be a major disappointment if Wiseman doesn’t take a step forward this season.