Warriors' James Wiseman Seen as Top Breakout Candidate in NBA by Anonymous GM

At least one NBA executive believes Golden State Warriors center James Wiseman could be primed for a big 2022-23 season.

HoopsHype's Michael Scotto reported on the HoopsHype Podcast an anonymous NBA general manager named Wiseman as their top breakout candidate, saying, "We just saw the best of him in Japan. They'll feature him in ways that'll make his life easy."

Although he missed the entire 2021-22 season with a knee injury, Wiseman has looked great during the preseason, as he and the Warriors gear up for their regular-season opener against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday.

As referenced by the anonymous GM, Wiseman seemingly signaled he was fully back from injury during Golden State's trip to Japan for two exhibition games against the Washington Wizards.

In the first contest, Wiseman finished with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting to go along with nine rebounds, and he was arguably the Warriors' best player on the floor.

Golden State originally selected the 7-footer with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft despite the fact that he only played three collegiate games at Memphis.

While injuries limited Wiseman to just 39 games as a rookie, he was fairly effective when healthy, averaging 11.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per contest, while shooting 51.9 percent from the field.

The Warriors have typically been a guard-centric team during their run of four championships in eight seasons, which is why they were able to win it all last season with the likes of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins leading the way.

Golden State has leaned heavily on Draymond Green and Kevon Looney as its primary bigs in recent years, although Green is much smaller than an NBA center or power forward usually would be.

If Wiseman can stay healthy and contribute significant minutes this season, it could make the Warriors a far more versatile team and finally force opposing teams to worry about them scoring inside rather than always crashing the three-point line to defend Curry, Thompson and Co.

Wiseman is still just 21 years of age, and coupling that with the fact that he has only appeared in 39 regular-season games means he may still have a great deal of developing to do.

The raw talent he possesses is undeniable, though, and the sheer amount of talent around him could play a huge role in him thriving as a supporting cast member for a team that should be in the championship hunt again this season.