At long last, Warriors second-year center James Wiseman appears to have been cleared for full contact practice.
During his bi-weekly appearance on 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” Tuesday, Warriors president of basketball operations/general manager Bob Myers revealed that Wiseman was scheduled to scrimmage later in the day. You can listen to the full interview below:
“I think he's going to scrimmage 5-on-5 today,” Myers told hosts Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky. “That'll be good.”
This is big news for Wiseman, who hasn’t played full 5-on-5 in more than 10 months. The Athletic's Anthony Slater provided more info about the scheduled scrimmage.
Myers snuck in the nugget as he was wrapping up his 20-minute interview that also touched on the possibility of a team adding a big man via the buyout market. The Warriors are patiently awaiting the return of Wiseman, who has been out of game action since tearing the meniscus in his right knee last April. Wiseman is overcoming two surgeries, including an arthroscopic operation that slowed his recovery in December.
Golden State is also optimistic that Draymond Green (calf/back) will be able to return near the end of the month after missing the past 20 games.
"If we thought Draymond was not gonna be back, or Wiseman, and we thought some player would really help us, we would do that,” Myers said of the buyout market. “At this state, as far as clamoring for a big guy, there isn’t an obvious, 'Go get that guy,' and he fits with what we do and can run our offense. It’s not just taking any big and saying, ‘This guy’s going to be able to rebound, block shots and run your offense.’ Our offense is intricate. Our offense is complicated."
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Wiseman played 3-on-3 contact last week and this is the latest sign that he is “ramping up” his conditioning, as the Warriors have been saying for months. Conceivably, this is the last step in Wiseman’s rehab before he can rejoin the team, meaning he could be just weeks away from making his sophomore season debut.
The Warriors have 24 games left, including Wednesday’s against the Denver Nuggets before an eight-day layoff over the All-Star break. The regular season concludes on April 10, the one-year anniversary of Wiseman’s knee injury.
Adding a big man like Wiseman would be huge for the Warriors, who were torched inside by the Los Angeles Clippers Monday night and have been struggling with interior defense since Green’s injury on Jan. 9.
