James Wiseman reportedly will not meet with the Minnesota Timberwolves before the 2020 NBA Draft.
There’s a new report from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst that suggests that Memphis big man James Wiseman “doesn’t want anything to do with” the Minnesota Timberwolves.
On the one hand, it’s a bit silly. The Wolves have the No. 1 pick in the draft, and it’s quite a badge of honor to go first overall. On the other hand, it makes sense from Wiseman’s perspective.
But, should Wolves fans care? Why does it matter?
NBA Draft: Why won’t James Wiseman meet with the Minnesota Timberwolves?
First of all, let’s get to the obvious reason why Wiseman doesn’t want to end up with the Minnesota Timberwolves, per his comments on Darren Wolfson’s Scoop Podcast. And for once, it doesn’t have to do with the weather, or even the fact that the team is bad.
It’s simple. The Wolves have Karl-Anthony Towns, and he is the league’s best offensive center and one of the top 25 players in the league.
Both Towns and Wiseman are 7-footers who are best utilized at the center position, and Wiseman doesn’t yet have a floor-stretching jumper that would allow him to effectively play the 4 alongside the Wolves’ incumbent two-time All-Star.
Now, should it matter to the Timberwolves front office and their fans that Wiseman won’t meet with team brass?
It doesn’t matter that James Wiseman won’t meet with Minnesota Timberwolves
In short, no. It doesn’t matter.
The only thing that it does, besides perhaps bruising some egos, is it keeps the Wolves from doing their due diligence in case something crazy happens.
Say the Wolves ultimately trade back with Charlotte to No. 3, and the Charlotte Hornets take LaMelo Ball at No. 1 and the Golden State Warriors take Anthony Edwards at No. 2. Minnesota would be in the catbird’s seat, with the chance to take the other consensus “tier one” player in the draft in Wiseman.
But without doing full background on him, would the Wolves A) be able to retain enough leverage in convincing potential trade partners that they would take him, or B) have enough information to determine if, indeed, they actually want to take him.
While Wiseman is far from an ideal fit with the Wolves if he is clearly the best player on the board and the pick isn’t No. 1, then it may make sense to take him and see if any trade partners materialize, either later on draft night or in the coming weeks and months.
Now, if this scenario plays out, it may not ultimately matter if there was a formal interview or not. The Wolves would probably find a trade partner or simply stand pat and take another player, possibly Dayton’s Obi Toppin or French wing Killian Hayes.
All that said, there’s no illusion by the rest of the league that the Wolves would seriously consider taking Wiseman with the No. 1 overall pick. Therefore, it isn’t a big deal that Wiseman has no interest in sitting down with Gersson Rosas and Ryan Saunders.
But nobody knows exactly how things might change over the final two-plus weeks until the draft. Stay tuned.