Things haven’t been going well for the reigning NBA champions lately. The Golden State Warriors are in the midst of a four-game losing streak, all on the way. The last came against an Orlando Magic team that went 1-7 into Thursday’s matchup; The Warriors squandered a 16-point lead en route to the L.
A glaring part of the ignominious loss was the center’s performance as a sophomore, James Wiseman. In less than 10 minutes of play, Wiseman ended up on more fouls (3) than points (2) and was a -9 overall for the dubs. The silver lining — though perhaps more akin to the sheen of tinfoil — was that he ended up having as many rebounds as fouls.
Wiseman wasn’t the reason they lost, although the dubs blew the lead along him on the floor, but he was far from useful in helping the team stave off defeat. He wasn’t the only issue highlighted in the post-game comments, either. But his struggles came. Coach Steve Kerr and veteran striker Draymond Green both mentioned Wiseman, or in Green’s case alluded to Wiseman, but did their best to soften the criticism.
Kerr called that he was still a “believe” in the former No. 2 overall and that he loved Wiseman’s “talent” and “attitude”. Green chose to lump together the struggles of the older players and the younger players like the 21-year-old big man.
Draymond Green: “It’s definitely part of the fault of our young people, but it’s no more their fault than our fault.”
“I don’t blame them. You have to get better.”
— CJ Holmes 🦹🏾♂️ (@CjHolmes22) November 4, 2022
“It’s definitely the fault of some of our young people, but it’s no more their fault than ours,” Green said.
Of course, both Kerr and Green have good reason not to publicly shake a young player’s confidence — the fact that they half-tanked a season to make him the 2020 boss among them at No. 2 overall. But for people without such qualms, it’s hard to overstate how poorly Wiseman has been this season.
For statistical reasons alone, this 3-6 campaign was an absolute nightmare for the center. When he’s on the field, the Warriors get worse defensively and offensively overall. This drop particularly affects Steph Curry: Whenever Wiseman shares the floor with the reigning Finals MVP, Curry’s net rating is loses 32 points, from +12.5 to -19.5. Perhaps even more devastatingly, the dubs are somehow a worse rebounding team with the 7-foot Wiseman on the floor: Before the game on Thursday were the warriors No offensive rebounds at a rate below the league’s worst offensive rebound team with Wiseman on the court.
He also averages 8.8 fouls per 100 possessions, two full fouls more than in his rookie year. Then there’s this from StatMuse:
James Wiseman has played 48 games in his career.
He had a 0 or negative +/- in 36 of those games. pic.twitter.com/JF8cIvcgdI
— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 4, 2022
Wiseman has had negative plus-minus or net zero in 36 of his 48 career games.
It’s not just that Wiseman might be the worst player to get regular minutes on the team, what the Statistics show he isFiveThirtyEight’s RAPTOR metric rated him as the worst player across the league of 250 qualified players.
Beneath all of that came the game that seems to have become a straw for Warriors fans, with 3:22 in the third quarter on Thursday, when the young big man set a pretty soft screen for Curry as Curry brought the ball up the floor . After his half-hearted pick, Wiseman returned to the paint and appeared to shake his head in frustration when he failed to get the pass. The play resulted in a contested step-back three from Curry, rattling off the front of the rim. A cursory look at the box score would tell you that Curry simply missed a shot here, but that ignores the dynamic that unfolded on the court.
“Steph has to hop furiously to demand a late half-assed screen from Wiseman who doesn’t target himself and then rolls his eyes at not getting a ticket and everyone else stands around for Steph to take a step back,” it seems a decent summary of GSW’s vibes at the moment. pic.twitter.com/5DywwIOC3Q
— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) November 4, 2022
One piece hardly defines an entire season, but this particular moment has captured a Zapruder-like allure. While some argue, Wiseman’s frustrated shake of the head came because he was upset that he didn’t get the ball – which would indeed be a terrible look for a struggling young player showing the best player in franchise history – there apparently is reason to believe it was actually frustration with himself for not playing the game properly.
Nevertheless, this is not an isolated case. Other Warriors observers have pointed out other plays where Wiseman’s execution left much to be desired. As a result of these examples, along with his shockingly poor stats, Wiseman became the face of the team’s struggles with their young players (Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody have each produced their own mediocre seasons so far). And that leads to frustration at what appears to be less than stellar decision-making from a front office that chose to keep Wiseman over players like Gary Payton II and Damion Lee, who were more consistent but left in the offseason.
It was nice of Kerr to support his struggling young center who will likely be vilified for his game for months to come unless there is a major turnaround. But the niceties may soon come to an end. That team announced that Curry, Green, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins would miss Friday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Even if that was just the head coach giving his starters a break from a back-to-back, the decision still means the team’s struggling youngsters will be thrown into the fire against Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum and possibly Brandon Ingram as well. Things may have looked bad for Wiseman beforehand, but things could look even worse after Friday’s game.