Warriors’ James Wiseman leads Rookie Wire’s early-season power rankings
While Steph Curry’s career-high 62 point performance against the Portland Trail Blazers will be the lead headline for the start of the Golden State Warriors’ season, the arrival of James Wiseman shouldn’t be far behind.
In six games in the Bay Area, the 2020 No. 2 overall pick is averaging 11.4 points on 46.3% shooting from the field with 6.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in 21.7 minutes per contest. Wiseman has been in the starting lineup in every game of his young career.
During his first run with the Warriors, Wiseman has shown off a wide variety of impressive traits. The 19-year-old has knocked down jumpers from beyond the arc, ran the floor with the ball in his hands, finished coast-to-coast fast breaks and protected the rim on defense.
Following Wiseman’s promising start to his debut season in San Francisco, Rookie Wire is taking notice. The Memphis product landed at the top of Rookie Wire’s rookie power rankings.
Via Cody Taylor of Rookie Wire:
Aided by a quick start to the season, Wiseman has emerged as perhaps the best rookie to this point. The second overall pick recorded the first double-double of the season by a rookie when he tallied 12 points and 11 rebounds on Sunday. He ranks first in rebounding and blocks among all rookies, and his 12 total blocks are tied for sixth among all players. What makes his start even more impressive is he missed the start of training camp and the entire preseason.
Check out the full Rookie Wire list here.
As the Warriors go through a tough patch on the schedule that features tilts with a handful of potential playoff squads, Wiseman will be tested with matchups against Nikola Jokic, DeAndre Ayton and Domantas Sabonis.
With a tight grip on Golden State’s starting center position, Wiseman should have the opportunity to defend his top spot on Rookie Wire’s power rankings in the future.
