As the NBA trade deadline approaches, Golden State is thought to be among the more aggressive buyers in the league, sitting ninth in the Western Conference and having struggled to put together a consistent stretch of high-level basketball all season.
A new report from Wes Goldberg at The Mercury News indicates that while we should expect Golden State to survey the trade market extensively, the team is not expected to include rookie James Wiseman in any deal unless it yields a “perennial All-Star” in return. The team, Goldberg reports, is “committed to Wiseman.” This also applies for their most valuable bit of draft capital: The Minnesota Timberwolves’ first-round pick that is top-3 protected in 2021 and unprotected in 2022.
Wiseman is scoring nearly 12 points per game on 53 percent shooting from the field and grabbing six rebounds per contest, in addition to the exciting bursts of athleticism and three-point shooting we’ve seen from time to time. Down the line, the Warriors will likely want him to get to the free throw line more and continue to develop within their strict offensive and defensive schemes, but Wiseman has impressed without a doubt.
As Goldberg notes in the piece, there aren’t many players expected to be available this year who fit the “perennial All-Star” mold. There’s Nikola Vucevic, who is a questionable fit in Golden State, and then longshots like Zach LaVine and Bradley Beal.
Of course, with Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Oubre Jr. on the roster, the Warriors have the salary flexibility to pull off a trade for a high-priced star, but it seems fairly unlikely that any of those three All-Stars actually moves at the deadline, whether the Warriors would include Wiseman or not.