Warriors general manager Bob Myers addressed the media after the dust had settled from the NBA trade deadline to discuss how hard it was for the Dubs to move on from James Wiseman.
Trading James Wiseman was anything but easy for the Warriors.
Golden State parted ways with the former No. 2 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft in a four-team trade that sent Wiseman to the Detroit Pistons, which allowed the Warriors to acquire guard Gary Payton II from the Portland Trail Blazers.
Warriors general manager Bob Myers held a press conference on Monday at Chase Center, where he discussed Golden State's deadline moves and the fallout from the complicated situation involving Payton's injury that held up the four-team trade. Myers began his press conference by addressing the Wiseman trade.
"Tough move to make as far as trading him," Myers said. "One of the reasons we drafted him is because of who he is. He is a great kid and did everything we asked him to do. On time, worked hard, great attitude whether he was playing or not. G League and back and forth. So it was a tough thing to move someone we liked that much as a person. I know it's a business, but it goes beyond that in terms of on-the-court, off-the-court stuff. That was a challenge, but I hope he does well. I hope he has an opportunity to play and I think he will, more than he was getting with us. Moving him was something we did based on trying to help this team win."
While there were many questions surrounding the outcome of the four-team trade involving Wiseman and Payton II, one thing was certain: The Warriors were ready to move on from Wiseman.
"We think that, for many reasons, James ... we didn't see a path upon return," Myers explained. "(He) wasn't playing at the time and additionally our situation is a little different because of the amount each player cost. So if we had seen a path for James upon return that might have changed, we might have considered that. Even going forward into next season, we've seen what Gary [Payton II] could do. It's not an indictment of James, it's a hard rotation to crack on this team. And so Gary, seeing the defense, seeing the need and the fit and things like that. We certainly had many discussions but we made the choice we made."
The decision to part ways with Wiseman was not an easy one. Myers and the Warriors knew he still could be a good player but understood that the runway he needed in order to develop was not available to him. The hardest part for Myers was less about moving on from Wiseman, the player, and more about moving on from Wiseman, the person.
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"I think we debated it pretty heavily, mostly because I believe he can be a good player," Myers added. "It may just be his path required more minutes than we were able to give him. It may be that his time is longer than we can wait. But it's not an indictment of him, there's plenty of players that take a certain amount of minutes or a certain amount of time ... We had to evaluate if he's going to get those here and it didn't seem like that. And with the cost and where the team was at.
"The hardest part for me, was who he is. And I know that's maybe not important to a lot of fans and I understand that. It's a result business. The person that he is, I would bet on the person. He's a high-quality individual and those people usually succeed in life and I think he will. So that was a tough one."
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The Wiseman era officially ended on Sunday when the four-team trade was made official.
Although the former No. 2 pick never came close to living up to his potential and combined to play in just 60 games across three seasons with the Warriors, Myers and the organization knew what had to be done, despite how difficult the decision was to make.