Myers: Wiseman's return ‘coming,' but plan not entirely scripted

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The Warriors took another step toward full health Monday when Draymond Green took the floor for the first time in two months, helping Golden State beat the Washington Wizards 126-112 at Chase Center.

With Green back, the Warriors' rehab focus shifts to James Wiseman. It has been 11 months since the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft has taken the court for the Warriors. But Wiseman's meniscus rehab has reached its final stage. Last week, he played two games for the G League Santa Cruz Warriors and will play for the Sea Dubs again Tuesday (7 p.t. on NBC Sports Bay Area).

After Tuesday's game, Wiseman could get the OK to make his NBA return. On Tuesday, Warriors president of basketball operations Bob Myers told 95.7 The Game that while there is no firm plan, Wiseman could be as early as Sunday against the San Antonio Spurs.

"It’s kind of up in the air,” Myers told "The Morning Roast.". “We’re gonna have a few days off here and practice together. We’ll see how that goes. We'll decide whether he needs another G League game or if he's ready to go, and Steve will put him in the rotation. But I think we are getting to some level where – maybe it’s not Wednesday, maybe it’s not Sunday – but putting him in some NBA games and getting him some NBA minutes. If we don’t, it’s not fair to him or his teammates to just throw him in a playoff game. I don’t think that would be a good idea.

“We're probably getting closer,” Myers continued. “I don't know if it's five days away or seven days away or whatever it might be from an NBA game. But it's coming. Hopefully, that will leave us 10 games to utilize him and put him in spots where we might be able to use him. At this point, the truth is we haven’t scripted that out yet. We want to keep watching these games. We want to watch him tonight."

Wiseman scored 18 points in his G League debut and then followed that up with a 19-point performance Sunday. While you can only glean so much from two G League games, Myers was happy with what he saw from Wiseman.

"If I were to evaluate it, the first game, I thought, really good," Myers said. "Under control. Some of his teammates were taking some of his rebounds, which is fine as long as we get the rebound. The biggest improvement I saw was in the rebounding. I saw a big leap there as far as getting in position to rebound, securing the rebound. His finishing is elite. When he gets it around the rim, he is elite. Catching it in traffic is something he has to work on.

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"Made his free throws in the first game, didn't in his second game. I'm not worried about him being a bad free-throw shooter, I think he just needs reps. He explored his game a little more Sunday. Which is good in the G League, and we're going to have to figure out in the NBA that freedom of what he is allowed to do is probably going to be more limited with our NBA team. ... When he comes with us, I imagine it's going to be a lot of high-screen-and-rolls, and because of how big he is, somebody has to go with him. We don't have that dive threat. The last time we did was JaVale McGee. We will need that."

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The Warriors finally got Green back, and the All-Star forward gave Golden State a much-needed jolt of vitality. Andre Iguodala and Wiseman shouldn't be far behind.

Then, we'll finally get our first look at the fully operational Warriors. With just a few games to spare.

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