James Wiseman has yet to make his debut with the Golden State Warriors but the second overall pick has impressed his teammates and coaching staff with his size and athleticism alone during practice.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr described Wiseman’s skill set as unique given his size at 7-foot tall and his ability to run the floor. The scary part is Wiseman still has so much left of his game to unlock after a limited body of work to this point.
On Thursday, teammate Kelly Oubre Jr. backed up the prior reviews of Wiseman, stating how impressed he was with his size and energy on the court.
“I think you all have seen the headlines: He is a massive individual,” Oubre said. “It’ll be fun for us to run, have a lot of energy, just be super athletic, super versatile out there on the court together. I look forward to just throwing it up to him and letting him go do this thing.”
While Wiseman has been praised for his high level of energy on the court, he still has to learn how to harness it. Draymond Green described his play as all over the place while Kerr echoed that statement. Wiseman admitted to being a bit giddy and is working on getting a better handle on it.
The 19-year-old will not play on Thursday in the Warriors’ preseason finale after reportedly testing positive for the coronavirus. He is progressing toward debuting and will take part in his second scrimmage with the team on Saturday, which could be the final hurdle to clear in order to play in the regular-season opener on Tuesday.
The package that Wiseman gives the Warriors on a nightly basis figures to be a big boost on both ends of the floor. He is still adjusting to the NBA game but the foundation is there to have a productive rookie campaign.
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