Sometimes, you just can’t win with injuries. That appears to be the case for James Wiseman this season, as The Athletic’s Anthony Slater reported this morning that he’s had some additional swelling in the knee he had surgery on last April. This appears to be the second major post-surgery setback Wiseman has had, the first being his arthroscopy in December.

This is not great news for a Warriors team that was counting on Wiseman to fill a positional gap at center with his return. The Dubs may have to look into the free agent market for a minimum-contract center just to get a body out there in support of Kevon Looney. Despite his current status as the Warriors ironman, Loon playing a full 82-game season and then having to body up against some of the West’s best bigs in the playoffs is not an ideal situation.

The problem is there aren’t many, if any, centers in the free agent market currently that could play meaningful minutes for Golden State. There also isn’t much word on how bad the swelling actually is or how long it’s going to keep him out for, but it looked like Wiseman was approaching a comeback to the main team after a productive stint in Santa Cruz. He was set to play tomorrow, but this new development has him shut down.

Big Jim averaged 16.5 points, 7.5 boards, and 1.5 blocks in just 20 minutes a game. Between his shot-blocking and rebounding, he would be a valuable bench asset to just have on the court even without that production in the playoffs. It’s a small sample size, but the former 2nd overall pick looks noticeably more polished than he did last season. He’s still pretty raw, however, even if the improvement is there.

With 12 games left in the regular season, the Warriors shouldn’t count on Wiseman’s return being well-timed enough for him to get good ramp-up going into the postseason, and may actually have to look into scanning a thin free agent market at the very least. Even someone like Marc Gasol, if he were keen to come back to the NBA, would be a solid addition. The former Defensive Player of the Year played a key role most recently with the Toronto Raptors in the 2019 playoffs, helping them win a championship. He’s an excellent defender and a solid shooter with high game IQ, which would make him an ideal player for Golden State even if he’s lost a bit of a step.

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