Okay maybe the Warriors should have drafted Lamelo Ball in 2020

Ball’s recent balling has some in Dub Nation wanting to rewrite history.

Alright I think I might be able to finally admit that the Golden State Warriors may have had a misstep when they drafted James Wiseman over Lamelo Ball in the 2020 draft. At the time, the Dubs had the #2 overall pick, and Wiseman’s 7-foot frame and striking athleticism could potentially give Golden State the generational talent at center they had missed since Wilt Chamberlain.

Ball was the younger brother of Lonzo and Liangelo Balls, the heirs to the Lavar Ball dynasty. He was a stylish player but played a position that was already filled by the Splash Bros and the young Jordan Poole. Four years later, the younger Splash Bro Klay Thompson and Poole are both gone, while Ball is going CRAZY for the Hornets.

The Warriors’ decision to draft Wiseman over Ball in the 2020 NBA Draft is increasingly looking like a fascinatingly pivotal misstep as the trajectories of their careers continue to diverge.

In hindsight, the reasons for the Warriors’ choice seemed logical. Wiseman, a giant athletic marvel, fit the immediate need for a big man to anchor the team’s defense and provide vertical spacing for Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. However, as the dust settles, LaMelo’s emergence as a franchise-altering talent has cast shadows on what could have been. LaMelo’s rise is now reaching a fever pitch, despite being sidelined with an injury.

The 2021 NBA Rookie of the Year is already a bona fide star, dazzling fans with his unique blend of vision, flair, and poise. At the tender age of 23, he’s proving he can not only handle the pressures of being a primary decision maker, but also thrive in that role.

His ability to control the pace, create opportunities for teammates, and score from anywhere on the floor would have injected a fresh dynamic into the Warriors’ offense. Imagine pairing LaMelo’s fast-break artistry with Curry’s off-ball brilliance. Instead of asking Wiseman to adjust to the Warriors’ intricate motion offense, Ball could have possibly have thrived in it.

Wiseman, on the other hand, has struggled to find his footing. His rare combination of size and athleticism hasn’t translated into consistent impact on the floor. Whether it was injuries, a lack of confidence, or the Warriors’ timeline to contend, his fit never quite meshed. And that’s crazy because Wiseman seemed like a relatively good idea to myself and to Stephen A. Smith at the time:

By the 2023 season, Wiseman was traded to the Detroit Pistons in a clear admission that the experiment hadn’t worked. The Warriors’ decision was understandable within the context of their championship aspirations, but the long-term view paints a different picture.

Here’s a quote from Warriors owner Joe Lacob during the final days of the year-3 Wiseman experiment, per CBS:

And now that the Wiseman experiment is on the brink of going bust, at least with the Warriors, Lacob — for anyone out there trying to saddle him with the responsibility for falling in love with Wiseman and, shall we say, putting his heavy-handed stamp on the pick — wants to be very clear: Drafting Wiseman was not his decision alone.

“... I want to correct something for you and our fans: Our entire front office and head coach wanted to draft James Wiseman. We were universal in that regard,” Lacob said during a recent appearance on the aforementioned Tim Kawakami’s podcast. “I know people like to make up stuff. We all loved him, and I think we are all still very high on him. The question will be what do we have to do with roster. How important is winning today vs. two years from now? We have to balance all that, and we have to balance financial. So I think there’s a lot of ways this thing could go. But as of right now, I’m still very, very positive about the young man.”

A Curry-LaMelo pairing would have set the Warriors up not only for the present but for a smooth transition into the post-Curry era. Instead, the franchise is left wondering what might have been while LaMelo continues to shine in ways that Wiseman, for all his potential, has yet to show. In a league driven by transcendent guard play, the Warriors might regret prioritizing size over star power.

Then again, they won a title with Wiseman in 2022 hmmmmm.