SAN FRANCISCO – James Wiseman didn’t have a lot to say Monday night after news broke that he would be sent to the Warriors’ G League affiliate for an extended period of time.
The 21-year-old former No. 2 pick tried to maintain a positive outlook, but he couldn’t totally hide the disappointment of not being able to join his teammates on their trip to Phoenix for Wednesday’s game and beyond.
“It’s always good to get experience, just go down and get experience and just hoop, play basketball,” Wiseman said repeatedly in various ways.
It seemed inevitable that this day was coming.
After being cleared this summer to return to the court after losing his entire sophomore NBA season to a persistent knee injury, Wiseman was eager to take on a larger role in the rotation this season.
But the results haven’t been there a month into the regular season. He has struggled mightily, fouling too much, making defensive mistakes and turning the ball over. His growing frustration from mounting errors became more and more noticeable. Coach Steve Kerr benched him in three of the last four games and didn’t have Wiseman enter Monday’s blowout win until the fourth quarter when the Warriors held a hefty lead.
So now the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 draft is being sent to Santa Cruz. His mindset and approach to his time down in the G League will determine the value he gets from the experience.
Jordan Poole, whose career turnaround has its roots in an 11-game stint at Santa Cruz in 2021, encouraged Wiseman to lock in and take full advantage of the opportunity.
“James is going to have to be laser-focused, and I think he will be,” Poole said. “I’m going to tell him to shoot 50 shots, be aggressive … do it all so he can understand where he wants to be at the highest level. This is just a step in that direction.”
But it’s the outside noise, Poole acknowledged, that will make the next couple of weeks tough.
“Everybody has something to say,” Poole said. “Honestly nobody cares what they think.”
Whether Wiseman wants to publicly acknowledge it or not, he’s aware of the sky-high expectations that come with being the franchise’s highest draft pick since 1995.
Perhaps no one on the Warriors knows better about the pressure Wiseman is dealing with being a top draft pick than Andrew Wiggins.
Their situations were different. Wiseman is a future foundational piece on a contending team. Wiggins, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 draft, was supposed to be the franchise savior in Minnesota.
“It’s not easy at all,” Wiggins said of dealing with growing pains while being under a microscope. “There’s gonna be a lot of hard times. He’s so young. He’s so young, he’s so talented. And he can be so good.”
Wiseman needs to rediscover his feel for the game. He can’t do that at the NBA level, where the stakes are too high for the title-hungry franchise and he’s buried on the depth chart of a team that is off to a slow start and missing a veteran presence in its second unit.
In Santa Cruz, Wiseman will be playing under a softer spotlight and have more opportunity to get the playing time he so desperately needs. After a college career that spanned only three games and a pro career that has been limited to 56, Wiseman hasn’t played consistently since high school almost four years ago.
Wiseman should focus on the details of the Sea Dubs’ system, which reflects their NBA counterparts, so he can begin playing freely alongside his teammates. Analysts say he needs to work on the fundamentals: setting solid picks and defensive discipline. But there’s another key component he has been lacking.
“It’s basketball,” Wiseman said Monday night. “Just go down there and have fun.”
That last word is something Wiseman seems to be missing of late.
Basketball once brought him great joy. But over the last year and a half, it has brought him physical, emotional and mental strain.
Wiseman said his long and lonely 15-month rehabilitation process reignited a fire within him. Once cleared to finally return to the court this summer, he was beaming with happiness.
But that has faded away. In a game at Orlando, Wiseman threw the basketball at the stanchion and earned a technical foul. It was an out-of-character display of irritation for the usually cool, calm and collected player.
Stakes have never been higher for Wiseman, who’s slated to earn $12.1 million next season after the Warriors picked up his fourth-year option last month.
“It’s hard right now obviously because you’re one of the top picks, so you want to go out there, you want to prove to everyone why you’re a top pick,” Wiggins said. “I feel like you shouldn’t have to prove anything to nobody but himself.”
Wiggins eventually learned to let that pressure go and ignore the critics. His advice for the struggling center? Focus on the present and set attainable goals.
“He’s a special player. He’s a good kid, too, and I feel like he does put a lot of pressure on himself. I feel like that pressure will make him even better,” Wiggins said. “I got faith in him. He’s just going to get better and better and better. And when he reaches his prime, he’s going to be a monster.”
