Breaking: Warriors trade James Wiseman to Pistons

The Golden State Warriors made their biggest NBA trade deadline deal in years on Thursday, agreeing to trade third-year center to the Detroit Pistons. It’s a three team deal, with Detroit forward Saddiq Bey heading to the Atlanta Hawks, who will send five future second-round picks to the Warriors.

The deal was first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, after Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer had reported that the teams were in discussions.

Update: Kevin Knox II is also heading to the Warriors, though possibly moved to another team.

It’s a straight salary dump for the Warriors who will save roughly $131 million between now and next season by shedding Wiseman’s contract, and who are taking back no salaries in the deal. In all likelihood, they’ll use some of those savings to shore up the roster, whether by signing a buyout candidate, converting Anthony Lamb and/or Ty Jerome’s two-way deals, or re-signing Donte DiVincenzo after next season.

So it marks the end of a long, bizarre journey for Wiseman. The Dubs took him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, despite Wiseman playing just three games in college. He was given the starting role that season despite missing all of training camp, but was eventually moved to the bench after struggling. A knee injury ended his rookie season in April of 2021, and between injury and poor play, he’s appeared in just 21 games since then.

It became clear that Wiseman did not factor into the Warriors short-term plans, and probably not their long-term plans, either. Safe to say, when they drafted Wiseman in between Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball, they didn’t envision it would end in salary dumping him for some second-round picks after just 60 games.

Best of luck in Detroit, James!