The rollers moving into the NBA this season worked hard with the conditions surrounding the shorter training camp time and the limited number of preseason games. While each rookie had its own challenges to overcome, Golden State Warriors rookie James Wiseman has continued to transition even harder than most.
In fact, Wiseman missed the start of camp after performing a positive test for the coronavirus. He had to be sidelined until evicted to get back to work and missed a valuable opportunity to learn a new system and a group of colleagues. Wiseman was allowed to watch practice inside the gym, but it’s not the same as taking part.
Wiseman did not play in any of the Warriors ’three preseason games as he continued to ramp up his work on the court. On Monday, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said Wiseman was a full partner in practice and will be available to play in Tuesday ‘s regular-season opener against the Brooklyn Nets.
The setbacks Wiseman took over the preseason were bigger than most players were getting but the 19-year-old apparently took it all in and waited. up through the whole process to this point.
“I think he has maintained a positive outlook,” said Stephen Curry. “To get out of there, it’s hard to be sad as a rookie coming in. As the second version of choice, you are expected to have just a smooth sailing to camp and get into your first game and you threw a puppy coming into training camp and missing that.
It’s well gripped, I don’t know how it feels physically in terms of being so close to 100% in normalization or rhythm. I think he’s been asking so many questions, he’s been very involved in practice and in our scrimmages. Hopefully, tomorrow he will enjoy the moment of playing in his first NBA game.
Wiseman said last week after his first full scrimmage with the team that he felt good and his cooling rate was good as well. Since then he has been involved in full scrimmage and practice, which were the last two hurdles he had to clear in order to be ready to play Tuesday.
The Warriors are likely to put him into action to start the season so Wiseman may not see too much playing time. But to be ready to play after such a rocky start in the NBA talking books about his preparation and the ability to deal with any obstacle that threw his way.