Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr confirmed on Thursday that the team won’t be able to count on rookie James Wiseman for at least one more week.
According to Kerr, Wiseman is making a good recovery from a sprained left wrist but still isn’t cleared for basketball activity.
“Unfortunately, he still has pain, so as long as there’s a pain in the wrist, we have to keep him back,” Kerr told reporters ahead of the Orlando Magic game. “So we have to just watch him over the next week and see how he does, and hopefully the pain will subside.”
Wiseman got hurt in a 118-91 win against the Detroit Pistons on January 30th, and the Warriors initially projected a swift return for last year’s No. 2 pick. But the injury turned out to be significantly harder to overcome and caused the 19-year-old rookie to miss six games so far.
Reportedly, Golden State will re-evaluate Wiseman again in seven to 10 days, which puts him on track to sit out three more games at least.
Without James Wiseman in their lineup, the Warriors have been forced to turn to a small-ball approach. This strategy was partially effective so far, as the team went 3-3 in the last six contests.
Wiseman played 20 games in his rookie season so far and averaged 12.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game.
