Following a three-week G League stint with the Santa Cruz Warriors, third-year center James Wiseman has been recalled to Golden State. The franchise announced the news Tuesday afternoon, meaning he’ll be available for the team’s contest against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
In seven games with the Sea Dubs, Wiseman averaged 15.6 points and 10.1 rebounds per game while shooting 62.2 percent from the floor. But the concerns with Wiseman go beyond the surface number statistics, as his defense and overall awareness in the Warriors’ read-and-react offense were the major concerns that bubbled to the surface in his season-opening stint with Golden State.
Wiseman was sent down to Santa Cruz after a rocky start to the season, when he often looked lost on defense and he put up some ugly plus/minus numbers. The 21-year-old averaged 6.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 13.4 minutes per game with the Warriors, who were 6-8 at the time of his assignment to Santa Cruz. Golden State has gone 7-4 in the 11 games since while hammering out its rotation behind the stellar starting five.
The Warriors could still use some interior size, as was evident in Monday’s 112-104 loss to the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers’ young and athletic frontcourt was hard to stop, especially in transition for the undersized Dubs.
Though Wiseman has been called back up to Golden State, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be featured in coach Steve Kerr’s rotation as heavily as he was to start the season. The Warriors have been relying on players like Anthony Lamb and JaMychal Green to back up Draymond Green and Kevon Looney in the frontcourt, but the 7-footer Wiseman gives the squad a much better pick-and-roll threat on offense.
Critics have been very loud against the 2020 No. 2 overall pick, who has yet to blossom in the Warriors’ system, though the franchise continues to preach patience with the intriguing prospect. After dealing with a right meniscus injury that cut short his rookie season and wiped out his sophomore campaign, Wiseman still has just 50 games of NBA regular-season experience under his belt.
