James Wiseman Continues to Shine in G League Stint
With the news of Warriors superstar Stephen Curry being injured indefinitely, the Warriors recalled center James Wiseman and guard Ryan Rollins on Dec. 15 after sending both players down to the G League mid-November.
In 10 games, Wiseman has been averaging 18.8 points and 10.3 rebounds and playing nearly 28 minutes a game. With immense pressure on the former No. 2 overall pick, Wiseman said he’s been tuning out the noise by reading, meditating, playing 2k and staying off social media.
“In terms of that social media stuff, I don’t feed into that,” Wiseman said. “I just focus on the stuff I need to work on, so I can become a better player each game. I’m confident in my abilities.”
On Dec. 14, Wiseman dropped a G League career high of 31 points on 12/17 shooting versus the South Bay Lakers. Wiseman got going with a couple of early entry post ups as well as a poster early in the first quarter.
Many of Wiseman’s buckets were the result of the pick and roll action and him as the roll man. Wiseman was also consistently aggressive during the game, calling for the ball on a mismatch and angrily throwing down this vicious two-hander.
Wiseman has also made improvements on the defensive end, as in this clip, he stays down on his defender and times a perfect block while staying composed throughout the play.
Even though the Santa Cruz Warriors have a ton of young talent, it doesn’t seem like Wiseman is the centerpiece of their offense. Despite that, Wiseman continues to be aggressive and looks for any opportunities within the flow of the offense.
Wiseman’s development is key to the next phase of the Warriors' two-timeline plan. With Wiseman getting his reps down in the G League with less pressure, hopefully, the Memphis product can take a page out of Warriors guard Jordan Poole’s book and translate that to the big leagues.
Wiseman took the same attitude as Poole had and said he was just ready to go down there and hoop, and didn't look at the assignment as a punishment.
“I don’t look at it as a demotion or nothing,” Wiseman said. “Go down there and just hoop.”
In comparison, Poole averaged 22.4 points in 11 games in his G League stint back in the 2021-22 NBA season.
“I go down there, I’m like, ‘Alright, I know I’m going to end up being back up,’” Poole said. “And eventually, I’m going to be the guy. Let me look at this opportunity as that.”
It’s easy to see how sending a player down to the G League could serve as a punishment or a sign that the player just isn’t ready. In Wiseman’s case, it was the latter — as Wiseman couldn’t find any consistent minutes off the bench and the Warriors decided to give him reps without additional pressure instead of wasting valuable games on the bench.
Hopefully, like Poole, Wiseman can make an impact once he gets back to the floor amidst the injury to Curry and the struggling Warriors.
(Photo credit: Brandon Vallance – Santa Cruz Sentinel)