After scant opportunity through his first two-plus NBA seasons, James Wiseman is thirsting to belong, eager to play basketball and aching to prove he was a worthy No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 draft. That said, he was delighted that one game into his Pistons tenure came the All-Star break.
“I was kind of happy because I was going through a lot mentally,” Wiseman said. “I’ve been through a lot my whole NBA career. It felt good to get five days so I could just chill and relax and get back to it.”
It was a fluke that Wiseman wound up in Golden State, the NBA’s reigning dynasty enduring a one-year blip when Klay Thompson missed the entire 2019-20 season and Steph Curry all but five games. Once replenished, the Warriors had no room to break in a 7-footer who fit their scheme like a square peg, no matter how tantalizing his potential. The pressure for him to perform was enormous in the rare windows of opportunity presented Wiseman.
The Pistons were willing to bet Saddiq Bey that the Wiseman who made the pulse of NBA scouts beat a little quicker still exists. If that’s a bet they win, the complexion of Troy Weaver’s rebuilding takes on a different hue.
“He is a big-time lob threat. Unbelievable lob threat,” Casey said. “Long, rim protector. Playing for a champion, they couldn’t allow him to make the mistakes we’re allowing (Jalen) Duren to make right now. He didn’t have a real opportunity in real time as much as he wanted to at Golden State.”
Even if the Pistons are thrilled with how Duren has established himself as a rookie, love everything about Isaiah Stewart and got 21 points and 18 rebounds from Marvin Bagley III on Saturday after missing nearly two months, the chance to add a high-end talent like Wiseman was too good to pass up.
Now the challenge is to figure out how to make the pieces fit and cobble together coherent lineups. Casey would love to get the chance to test drive all different two-man combinations possible among the four young frontcourt pieces over the season’s final 21 games, but injuries have a way of dictating a different reality. Duren will miss at least another game with lingering soreness in both ankles and Stewart might, too, as he’s dealing with a sore hip that sidelined him in Saturday’s second half.
The flip side of that coin is that it gives Wiseman the one thing he most needs: minutes. Before he can get to learning to share space with each of the other three big men, Wiseman just needs to play, find his niche and begin to restore his feel and his confidence.
“Just develop and grow,” Wiseman said of his goals for the final quarter of the season. “When I was at Golden State, it was kind of hard for me because they already had a really core base group. They already had (Kevon) Looney, Klay (Thompson), Steph (Curry) and Draymond (Green), so it was hard for the young players to grow and go out there and play and get the reps. Being here, I can grow into the player I want to become.”
In short order, Wiseman has cleared one big hurdle as far as Casey is concerned. It won’t be for lack of desire or discipline that Wiseman fails.
“He’s a raw sponge,” Casey said. “He’s a willing learner, he’s a gym rat and that’s something that, really, I didn’t know how good a student he was going to be.”
Troy Weaver cited the need for more size and power after executing the Wiseman trade, noting that Eastern Conference heavyweights Boston, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Philadelphia were unbeaten against the Pistons this season. Casey looks at the Pistons defensive rebounding ranking – 27th before Wiseman’s addition, up to 24th after three games with him – and welcomes all attempts to address the vulnerability. Wiseman is averaging 13.2 rebounds per 36 minutes through three games with the Pistons.
“He has all the athletic skills,” Casey says of Wiseman, who stands 7-foot-1 with a 7-foot-6 wingspan. “The length, the size and that’s something that’s helped our defense, having that deterrent at the rim, that 7-footer at the rim to block shots. He’s done a good job of that. Just now learning all the little things, footwork in the post, not letting them push him off his sweet spot in the post. Command your spot. That’s what the coaches now are working on him with that.”
Wiseman might be in a hurry to make up for lost time, but is braced for the likelihood that progress will be more incremental than instantaneous.
“In terms of my overall NBA career, it’s going to take time. I’m a big, so it’s going to take a lot of time, but I’m confident in myself. I know I can become that. I’m going to just keep working. I work hard. I come here late nights, work on my game, so I’m going to get there. It just takes reps.”