[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

I know you kind of have to judge everything wiseman does this year with a grain of salt. He’s a very young player with very limited experience against high level competition who was basically thrown into the fire with little time to prepare. There was always bound to be a steep learning curve and a lot of mistakes.
However, one of the main reasons wiseman was drafted so high was his elite physical tools to be a defensive game changer. However, he can’t utilize those tools until he actually learns the fundamentals of defense, and right now he is extremely far behind in that regard. He is constantly late on rotations, gets caught watching the ball, takes terrible angles when contesting shots and trying to contain ball handlers, overhelps and fouls unnecessarily from frustration and being out of position. It is to the point that he is often a major liability on the floor, even though the warriors are playing him anyway to get him experience.
Again all this is to be expected from a guy with limited experience who up until now could just rely on his physical gifts and didn’t really have to worry about this stuff. But if wiseman is going to be a productive player on a team that will likely have championship aspirations next season, he is going to have to learn fast. And it also raises the question as to how much of this can be taught and how much is just instinct. If wiseman doesn’t have the pure instinct to be an elite rim protector, it likely will significantly decrease his ceiling as an overall player. I’m not saying he doesn’t and don’t want to rush to judgment yet, but the early returns haven’t been promising.

[bt102Participant]

It was the big reason why I didn’t like him in the draft. I didn’t think he was a top 3 guy in fact barely a top 10 guy. He doesn’t help the Warriors win right now and I think its going to carry over. Him and Ayton need help with their defensive IQ.

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