MIAMI — The Warriors picked up contract options Monday for three players in the hours before the NBA’s deadline for options on rookie contracts.
Golden State locked in James Wiseman, Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga for another season, keeping the trio under contract through 2023-24, sources confirmed Monday.
This is Wiseman’s fourth-year option, meaning he’ll be eligible for an extension next summer and could be a restricted free agent entering the 2024 offseason. Meanwhile, Kuminga and Moody, both first-round picks of the 2021 draft, have one more team option available after next season.
All three join Jordan Poole, who signed a four-year extension before this season, in being part of the Warriors’ grand plan to extend their championship window as their dynastic core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green ages out of its prime.
Wiseman, the No. 2 overall pick of the 2020 draft, has the physical traits to be a star in this league, standing at 7 feet with a 7-foot-6-inches wingspan. But he’s had a bumpy start to his career, playing in just over 50 games over the last four seasons between Memphis, the NBA and G League. He missed all of last season because of setbacks with a knee injury that cut his rookie season short.
Wiseman returned to the court in Summer League and showed flashes of potential, but it was clear then and remains the case now that he’s still figuring out timing and trying to get into rhythm on both ends of the floor. Wiseman picked up three quick fouls in about five minutes in the first quarter of Saturday’s overtime loss to the Charlotte Hornets, resulting in him being benched for the rest of the game.
Wiseman posted 8.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per game this season. His 118.3 defensive rating is among the team’s worst.
Kuminga is another player who has the talent, athleticism and upside to develop into something great in this league. It’ll take time to get there, but the margin of error for youngsters is slim on a championship-contending team.
Kuminga, the No. 7 pick of last year’s draft, found himself as the odd man out of the rotation Thursday night when the Warriors hosted the Heat and wants to play more. He was able to play through more mistakes in Sunday’s loss to the Pistons when he logged a season-high 19 minutes.
Meanwhile, Moody has made steady progress from last season into this one. He’s averaging 6.4 points and 2.4 rebounds in 17 minutes per game this season and might be considered the more reliable of the three as of now. Moody has been praised for his high basketball IQ and poise. In fact, his coaches and teammates have joked that Moody is so mature that they often forget he’s only 20 years old and this is his second year in the league.
This season and next will be huge in terms of the young players’ development, especially after the Warriors experienced a lot of turnover on their bench following the championship run.
Gary Payton II, Otto Porter Jr. and Damion Lee left in free agency. And Nemanja Bjelica decided to take his talents to Fenerbahçe S.K. of Turkey.
Donte DiVincenzo, who’s currently out with a hamstring injury, and JaMychal Green joined the Warriors in their place, but the Warriors are also banking on their young pool of talent to make the necessary leaps this season to fill the rest of the voids left by the free agent departures.
The Warriors have one of the youngest bench mobs in the league, and early returns haven’t been great, especially on the defensive end.
“We’re definitely young… and usually when you play youth there’s no continuity. And so I think the continuity is missing. The reality is it’s missing on both ends,” Draymond Green said Sunday night after the Warriors fell to the Pistons.
Still, Green doesn’t put the sole blame for the team’s early season struggles on the youth movement.
“When you are playing younger guys, that definitely makes it tougher to execute on both ends of the floor but by no means is it the young guys’ fault,” he continued. “They have a part in it just like we all have a part in it. We have to figure those things out.”
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