Name: Warriors: How texts from Durant have helped Wiseman during up-and-down rookie season
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Warriors: How texts from Durant have helped Wiseman during up-and-down rookie season

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By | | Bay Area News GroupNearly every day, James Wiseman’s phone lights up with a text from Kevin Durant.“We talk about the system, how he was able to fit into the system here,” Wiseman said of Durant, who he met in high school when filming a video for a Durant-backed startup. “He just gave me a lot of advice.”If anyone knows what it’s like to be a high-profile player tasked with fitting into the Warriors’ unique read-and-react system, it’s Durant, whose three years in Golden State were defined by championship runs and tension. Wiseman, 20, hopes to replicate the way Durant once fit into the Warriors’ ecosystem while also putting his own stamp on it and winning at a high level.There’s a difference, of course: Durant was a former MVP on a Hall-of-Fame track joining a 73-win team on the heels of a Finals appearance. Wiseman, who the Warriors selected with the second-overall pick in November’s draft, had played all of 69 minutes in college and was being added to a team coming off a 15-win season. But Wiseman, 20, will take whatever guidance comes his way during his up-and-down rookie season.The Warriors remain confident that Wiseman will find his rhythm during the final stretch of the regular season, but head coach Steve Kerr says the team can’t “force the issue.” Kerr explained that Wiseman, who is averaging 11.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game and has seen his role and minutes fluctuate, needs more than just playing time to realize his potential.“I think it’s important not to automatically assume that minutes equal development,” Kerr said after Monday’s practice. “I think development also includes observation from the sidelines, earning time, earning minutes. If there are mistakes made in the previous game, let’s work on those mistakes. And if we correct those then we get more playing time. If we don’t correct them then we get less playing time. So it can’t just be, ‘Throw him out there and let him go for 30 minutes’ because frankly, he’s not ready for that.”While rookies in his draft class such as LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton have thrived, Wiseman after 50 games has yet to find his footing. There were extenuating circumstances: Summer League was canceled because of the pandemic, he missed training camp after registering a positive coronavirus test, missed 11 games with a sprained wrist and then three more because of coronavirus contact tracing.Since starting and scoring 19 points on opening night in Brooklyn, Wiseman has seemingly regressed. He was pulled from the starting lineup after 16 games and, after he was re-inserted for developmental purposes, the Warriors have lost six of seven games. He flashed his unique skillset early in the season with transition dribble moves and dunks, but it’s been months since his last breathtaking moment.“This process from the very beginning has been so convoluted, because of COVID, and because of James’s situation in Memphis last year,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “So what we’ve learned is we can’t rush it, we can’t force-feed him. It’s just going to take some time.”As the Warriors, currently four games below .500, navigate yet another disappointing season, Wiseman’s development has become paramount as they look to next season, when Klay Thompson is expected to return and the team figures to be back in the playoff picture. There are games when Wiseman looks the part, such as in a March 26 loss to the Hawks in which he recorded a career-high four blocks and 18 points in 26 minutes. Then there are games when he barely sees the floor, such as Sunday’s loss in Atlanta where he was limited to single stints at the start of each half.“There are moments when he looks like a future superstar and there are moments he looks like a young rookie who is trying to figure things out,” Kerr said. “And I think that’s perfectly natural.”Wiseman believes he’s better than he was to start the season. He recently pulled up film from his third game of the season, when he scored seven points on 3-of-8 shooting and committed four fouls in Chicago, and was shocked by how much more comfortable he feels now than in that game in December.“I’m still trying to figure stuff out so I’m still behind the eight ball, but I’m most definitely getting better, exponentially each day,” Wiseman said. “So I just feel the growth like every day, so I’m just getting better tremendously and just staying focused and just staying intact with everything. And just asking questions and doing what I can to get better.”Although the stats don’t show much of an improvement, coaches point to Wiseman’s improved timing on setting screens, communication on the defensive end and laud his receptiveness to coaching. After games, Kerr will sit down with Wiseman to parse through film and offer his notes. Over these next 22 games, they’ll work with Wiseman to improve his rebounding, running the floor, staying down on pump fakes and meeting opponents at the rim with timely rotations.Recently, Wiseman and Stephen Curry worked on their pick-and-roll chemistry after practice, but that progress was interrupted by Curry’s tailbone injury that has sidelined him for five games since March 17. This partnership will be key to Golden State’s future, but so far it hasn’t been effective. When Wiseman and Curry play together, the Warriors are being out-scored by seven points per 100 possessions. However, when Curry is the court with any other center, they are outscoring opponents by 8.7 points per 100 possessions.This is the central conflict facing the Warriors: Their present and future do not mesh. Young centers take years to develop into helpful NBA players, while Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green are ready to compete for championships again as soon as next season. Over the next few weeks, the Warriors will look for signs of growth and impending leap in his development.“It’s just all part of the process and no matter how we look at it, James just needs time,” Kerr said. “He’s going to grow, he’s going to get better and better and he’s going to be a great player. But we just can’t force the issue.”James Wiseman says he gets advice from Kyrie Irving and texts Kevin Durant "every day" to talk about how KD fit into Golden State's system.— Wes Goldberg (@wcgoldberg)Get Morning Report and other email newslettersMost PopularClose

By | | Bay Area News GroupNearly every day, James Wiseman’s phone lights up with a text from Kevin Durant.“We talk about the system, how he was able to fit into the system here,” Wiseman said of Durant, who he met in high school when filming a video for a Durant-backed startup. “He just gave me a lot of advice.”If anyone knows what it’s like to be a high-profile player tasked with fitting into the Warriors’ unique read-and-react system, it’s Durant, whose three years in Golden State were defined by championship runs and tension. Wiseman, 20, hopes to replicate the way Durant once fit into...

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Wes Goldberg

The Mercury News (formerly San Jose Mercury News, often locally known as The Merc) is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, the largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiary of Digital First Media. As of March 2013, it was the fifth largest daily newspaper in the United States, with a daily circulation of 611,194.

Warriors: How texts from Durant have helped Wiseman during up-and-down rookie season

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