In a season that has already included momentous comeback games for Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, the Warriors have one more on the docket: the return of James Wiseman.
After watching Draymond reintegrate and reinvigorate Golden State in Monday night’s 126-112 win over the Washington Wizards, Warriors president of basketball operations/general manager Bob Myers joined 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” for his bi-weekly appearance Tuesday to give the latest on Wiseman and more. You can listen to the full interview below, with the Wiseman talk starting at the 13:40 mark.
Myers told hosts Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky that Wiseman will play with the Santa Cruz Warriors in Southern California Tuesday night before rejoining Golden State, which has a game Wednesday. Myers said Wiseman won’t play against the Boston Celtics for the Warriors on Wednesday, but didn’t rule out a return on Sunday against the San Antonio Spurs.
"It’s kind of up in the air,” Myers said. “We’re gonna have a few days off here and practice together. We’ll see how that goes. We'll decide whether he needs another G League game or if he's ready to go and Steve will put him in the rotation. But I think we are getting to some level where – maybe it’s not Wednesday, maybe it’s not Sunday – but putting him in some NBA games and getting him some NBA minutes. If we don’t, it’s not fair to him or his teammates to just throw him in a playoff game. I don’t think that would be a good idea."
The 20-year-old Wiseman is yet to appear in an NBA game this season as he recovers from a right meniscus tear from April 2021, but Tuesday night’s contest will mark his third in the G League. He followed up an 18-point, six-rebound debut with an impressive 19-point, 14-board effort on Sunday at Chase Center in front of Golden State’s head honchos and his teammates.
“It’s coming,” Myers said of Wiseman’s sophomore NBA season debut. “Hopefully that will leave us 10 games to utilize him and put him in spots where we might be able to use him. At this point, the truth is we haven’t scripted that out yet. We want to keep watching these games.”
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Myers gave his evaluation of Wiseman after watching his pair of G League contests.
“The biggest improvement I think I saw was in the rebounding,” Myers said. “I saw a big leap there as far as to last year – getting in position to rebound, securing the rebound. His finishing is elite. When you get him around the rim, his finishing is elite. Catching it in traffic is something he’s gotta work on. Made his free throws in the first game, missed his free throws in his second game. I’m not worried about him being a bad free-throw shooter. He just needs reps.
“He explored his game a little bit more on Sunday, which is good in the G League. We’re going to have to figure out in the NBA that freedom of what he’s allowed to do [offensively]. He’s probably going to be more limited with our NBA team.”
Myers said the Warriors could use a vertical threat like Wiseman who can help splinter defenses with his ability to dive in the lane and throw down lobs or dunks.
“Because of how big he is, somebody has to go with him if he dives,” Myers said. “We don’t have that dive threat. Last time we had that was JaVale McGee. We will need that.”
