The Warriors recalled center James Wiseman from the G-League and brought him on their trip to Salt Lake City to play the Jazz.
Wiseman, 21, got sent down to the G-League on Nov. 14 after three straight DNPs and a brief garbage time run against the Spurs.
“He’s going to go to Santa Cruz tomorrow,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said at the time. “We will keep him there for an extended period to get some really good practice time and some games. It’s not going to be one game and bring him back. We want to give him maybe 10 straight days, something like that. Come back, and we all know things happen in this league. He’s going to find his way back to the rotation at some point. The best thing for him is to play a lot of minutes and get a lot of reps.”
Those 10 days turned into 22. In Santa Cruz, Wiseman averaged 15.6 points and 10.1 rebounds in seven games. But impressive stat lines were often punctuated with damning plus-minus numbers.
The Warriors got destroyed whenever they gave Wiseman a chance earlier in the season. His -6.6 plus-minus ranks 466th out of the 481 players who have touched the court this season.
Wiseman has often looked lost on defense and has botched multiple dunks or layups. He committed too many fouls and failed to latch on with the second unit.
But Wiseman’s 15.7 PER grades out as about average. His 119 offensive rating suggests that Golden State is capable of scoring in bunches when he’s on the floor; his defense is really what needs work.
He’ll get another chance to prove himself Wednesday night against the Jazz. Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins are each listed as out with injuries, creating opportunity for Golden State’s youngsters.
At shootaround, Wiseman met with traveling reporters.
“I’m just grateful to be back up here, to be in a big ass hotel again, to be in a great bed again that’s soft,” Wiseman told reporters via the Mercury News’ Madeline Kenney.
