Jonathan Kuminga (29 points) and Moses Moody (21 points) combined for a 50-burger in Tuesday night’s Summer League contest against the Boston Celtics.
At this point, the Warriors know what they have in JK and Moody, and are grooming the second-year wings to take on more minutes for 2022-23. 2019 No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman still remains a question mark as he continues his lengthy return from April 2021 knee surgery after tearing his right meniscus.
NBA insider Anthony Slater joined 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs” Wednesday to give his impression of the Warriors big man through his first two Summer League games.
“He just looks to me like the same player we saw in April 2021 when he tore his meniscus,” Slater told hosts Mark Willard and Dan Dibley. “He’s a player with extreme flashes, you can see the upside. There’s individual plays, where if I just isolated a single play and showed it to you and you’ve never seen it before, you’d say, ‘OK, is this guy a superstar right now?’ It’s a great spin move and a dunk, or an alley oop where he looks like the biggest guy in the gym or a weakside block.
“There are those flashes, but over the course of a game, a lot of errors. You can still see the rawness that he has. Maybe the lack of timing, the lack of feel on rebounds or screens, maybe not the most powerful screen.”
Wiseman logged about 21 minutes Tuesday night in his first time sharing the floor with Kuminga and Moody, scoring six points on 3-of-9 shooting with seven rebounds and three blocks. As Slater noted, Wiseman only has 39 regular season NBA games under his belt, along with three G League contests in March and the two Summer League games this week. He’s still a raw talent at 21 years old.
“You’re starting to really feel the missed time,” Slater said. “This guy’s missed 15 months and you can see it. He should be entering his third season having played in 140 NBA games and looking a lot more polished, but the reality is, he has 39 NBA games which is less than half of a season and he kinda just looks like he’s in the middle of his rookie year still.”
The Warriors don’t need Wiseman to be a starting center this season after bringing back veteran ironman Kevon Looney on a three-year deal. Perhaps Wiseman will be able to take over the starting role by 2023-24 if he can continue to develop.
“They’re clearing the way for him to be the backup center, and a backup center that gets 20, 25 minutes a night,” Slater said. “There’s gonna be rest nights for the veterans.”
Another aspect of the situation is Wiseman’s escalating salary, which comes along with being the No. 2 overall pick. The 7-footer is nearing eight-figure territory with his salary this season.
“He’s making $9.6 million this season and $12.1 million next season,” Slater said. “Think about the tax bill – that is a huge investment from a previous No. 2 overall pick that they don’t have much data on.”
At this point, it’s all about reps for the talented big man, after his first two seasons have been marred by surgery recovery, a sprained left wrist and COVID protocols.
“I think it’s smart to clear the way not only to see what he looks like early on in the season, but that there’s an improvement path,” Slater said. “I can remember from his rookie season, it was very choppy, but if he was able to string together eight, nine, 10 games he would start to look like he was taking a little bit of a leap. … That’s always been the story of James Wiseman is that it’s been a bit stunted. If he can string together 30 straight healthy games in a simplified game, I think you might see some growth. I think they need that to possibly happen before they make any bigger decisions on him.”
